CH 19

"Hey kid, you still hungry?"

There was a short pause that Charles used to think of his response. The bag of food was being presented by the man to him as he took one stick of it and chewed one fish ball off and ate it.

"Umm, no?" Charles was lying through his teeth, he was still hungry even though he finished all the food he had and even the juice was all in his stomach already. But he knew that there were people who took the other kids, and those kids didn't come back.

He was able to remember the incident that happened a few weeks earlier. Just as he came back to the orphanage and wanted to ask Christine for help with taking care of a sick Tina, his little sister.

"Hey, where's Christine?"

"They said she was taken away! Someone adopted her!"

"Then was Johnny adopted too? I didn't see him earlier."

"They said Johnny didn't get adopted. He went with a stranger yesterday and he never came back."

"Why? Why did he go with the stranger?"

"Ellie said that the stranger promised to adopt them, but Ellie wanted to bring Helen with her so they could be adopted together so she asked the stranger to wait for her. Johnny was there too and he was also asked by the stranger."

"So what happened? Did Ellie and Helen get adopted too?"

"No, when they got back, they weren't there anymore. Johnny and the stranger were gone. Ellie even cried because she thought that it was a lost opportunity and didn't get adopted because she came back for Helen instead."

Charles was even jealous of Johnny when he heard it. It was only a few days later that he realized that Johnny wasn't adopted, no, it was something worse, much worse.

"I heard Ellie got hurt yesterday!"

"How? Did she get caught trying to run away again?"

"Yeah! They found her with a man who was carrying her to a car while she was unconscious. They say Helen with some other kids who also wanted to escape rescued her before she was take away but Gerry beat her when he found out."

"At least, no one got taken away."

"That's the thing, she said that she going to take her away. To where Johnny was."

"Johnny? I thought he was adopted?"

"Turns out it was the same guy who tried to take Ellie that took Johnny away. I heard that Gerry said to them to stay away from the guy because he wasn't going to adopt them but would sell them to people."

"Oh no! Johnny's in danger then?"

"We think so, serves him right for trying to leave. That Ellie was lucky too since she was rescued in time but Johnny has been gone for three days already. Who knows where he is now."

Charles wouldn't take the chance of something happening to him, even if he could get more food. After all, his sister Tina was waiting for him. He won't abandon her like her parents did. He'll be the best big brother in the world and will take her out of the orphanage and get a big house for them to live in.

They'd have food every day and maybe even get a TV to watch 'Power Landers' every day. He liked how they were able to kill the bad guys and save the people every time.

"You sure? I'm full so I can't finish these. I guess I'll just give it to some other kid"

"..." Charles was watching the man's back as he went towards another kid. He saw them talk for a while and the kid nodded his head vigorously. The man then gave the bag of food to him and walked away.

"Oh no!" Charles couldn't help but cry out. He was so close. He had asked him first but he rejected him. If only, if only he accepted the offer.

'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupiiiiid!' His thoughts were now in turmoil. His hesitation made it so that a bag of food that he could have taken back for his sister to enjoy was now gone. He cried out of self pity but knowing that he still had work to do, he wiped it off with conviction.

'I'll work harder! Hard enough that I don't have to cry because of food!' His lonesome back was not at all enough to carry the lives of both him and his sister's, but he didn't care.

If he gave up now, there won't be anyone who would bother taking care of his sister. They say that she's too playful, too stupid to understand their 'training' and they wouldn't bother feeding a freeloader like her. So Charles has been giving her his share of the food when they don't give her some and he takes a part of his meager income to eat here where the food is cheap but filling. Filling for an eight year old's body that it.

He walked over to the junk store where he worked. He was told that carrying a sack of something over to their other store a few hundred meters away and they would pay him one dollar for each so he would receive three dollars after! But if he wouldn't get a dollar if he didn't finish all three deliveries.

"I'm back! Where's the last one?"

"Oh, you came back? The last one was already picked up by another kid. You only got two today right? Get out and come back tomorrow."

"..." Charles knew better than to talk back to the clerk. He had seen other kids who felt cheated and tried to bargain but all they got was no pay and a ban to this shop.

'I did two sacks! Can't you just give me two dollars?'

'You think that the others would like it when I bend the rules just for you? Get lost! I know a few others who would gladly take this job from you'

'No, wait, I understand. Please let me keep my job!'

'Get out! Don't you dare show your face here again!'

'Please! Don't kick me out!' The kid protested even when he was literally kicked out by the clerk. He knew this personally because the clerk pointed at him when he saw Charles pass by.

'Hey you! You want a job?'

'Umm, what do I have to do?'

'You carry three sacks to my other store and I'll pay you three dollars.'

'Ok.'

Charles was now feeling the emotions the kid back then felt. Having no rewards for your efforts suck, especially when there was nothing you can do about it. He felt that this place had nothing for him now so he left quietly and didn't bother looking back. He knew how heartless this clerk was so he didn't even try to beg, he'd only be losing his pride.

He walked back to the orphanage and was just about to open the gates when he heard a weird noise that was all too familiar to him by now.

" Grumble ." A cry for help came from somewhere beneath him. It would have been solved naturally because it was almost dinner time for the orphanage however things are never that simple at least for Charles.

"I asked you a while ago if you we're hungry, but you said no."

"!!!" A familiar voice was heard, the same voice that gave him a chance at temporary reprieve. But he rejected like an idiot, like a Charles.

Charles turned around and saw that the man was now walking with a girl by his side. He didn't notice before but the man was quite handsome. He was someone so tall and fit but had a gentle smile on his face as he seemed to be waiting for his reply. It was then that the beautiful big sister pinched the side of the man and he saw him cringe in pain.

"Don't tease the child, he's obviously hungry!"

"Hehe, sorry tigress. I just can't help it. Well kid, are you hungry now?"

The couple looked happy together, playfully chiding each other and he was also grateful for the girl who asked the man to stop teasing. But the man's question at the end brought back his feelings of regret this afternoon so he blurted out.

"Yes, sir. I am."

The man who still smiling looked towards the direction of the girl and saw that she was also looking at him. his questioning gaze was rewarded with a small nod and it's he turned his attention to Charles again.

"We were going out to get something to eat. Do you want to join us?"

"Yeah, we'll treat you to something nice. Zel said the hot noodles here in Changhai are very good!"

For the second time today, the man was giving him a hard question. Had it been earlier, he would have accepted without any hesitation but right now has sister was waiting. if he wasn't there then that stupid Gerry will never give her a share of the food.

"I'm sorry, sir. But I can't. I have to go back inside you see. My sister is waiting for me. She will not be able to eat and probably stay hungry if I'm not there."

"Hmm, I understand. Are you two orphans?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know how many children are in the orphanage?"

"Umm, I can't really count more than five so I don't know. There is many of us though, there's Erica and Ellie and Helen and Robert and Timmy and then there's my sister Tina. There are more but i don't know their names."

"And what's your name?"

"Charles, sir. Charles McAvoy."

"Ok, you can go back inside for now. We'll see you later!"

"Oh, ok then. Goodbye, sir."

Charles couldn't help but feel regretful. But Tina comes first, she's family after all. The only person who cares about him so he'll take care of her. He watched as the couple left while the girl was holding the arm of the man and they were laughing. He couldn't help but be jealous.

'I'll be like that someday! I'll get a beautiful wife and have many children!' Pumping himself up, he went inside the orphanage to look for his sister.