How to Stay Afloat

~37: Where She Visits the Place She Came From~

Usually, when people left they never looked back.

Colton nodded. "Yeah, I started coming here at the end of junior year, it started as morbid curiosity but then after meeting the kids for the first time I couldn't help but go back. Now I make it a point to go two to three times each month." He smiled.

I started up at the daunting brick building again and swallowed.

"Doesn't it scare you? Coming back here?" I asked.

He smiled. "Terrifies me. I still get nightmares about this place."

I turned my head to look at him. "Then how do you manage to come back here?"

He leaned his head back against the car seat and shrugged. "I guess I just realized that some people are worth more than our fears."

His words hit something deep within me.

Colton finally tilted his head so that his eyes met mine. "You don't have to go in if you don't want to."

"No, I want to," I told him with a determined smile.

~~**~~

The orphanage seemed different than before. I had left this place over four years ago for good and I hadn't looked back even once. I remembered it being a lot more gloomy and frightening. Maybe it was just my brain that had convinced me otherwise. I didn't recognize most of the staff either.

We walked down the large open hallway, both of our arms were loaded with stacks of pizza boxes. We finally reached what I remembered was the common room where most of the younger children hung out after school.

As soon as we stepped inside there were excited squeals and suddenly we were being swarmed by an army of miniature humans. Two women hurried towards us and took the pizza boxes from us, placing them on the wooden table in the center of the room. The kids ran around us in circles their eyes filled with delight. Most of them called out Colton's name and gave him hugs.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face at how cute they were.

"I've brought my friend here today," Colton said as he held an adorable little girl with big brown eyes and wild curls in his arms. "Her name is Fallon."

"Hi, Fallon!" All of them greeted me in chorus making me laugh.

"I like your clothes." The little girl in the pink polka dot frock with the missing front tooth said as she smiled up at me. I could feel my heart melting.

I was wearing a fire-truck red jumpsuit with a teal-colored suede jacket and a matching teal headband. I took the headband off and placed it over her head.

"Here, now we match," I told her with a grin and I watched her entire face light up. She squealed and hugged my leg before running to show her new accessory to her friends.

I suddenly understood what Colton had meant when he said that some people were worth more than our fears.

I found myself wishing that I'd had the courage to come here sooner.

~~**~~

I learned that the girl with the big eyes and wild curls was named Lucy and the one I'd given my headband to was Violet.

And the adorable boy with the huge wire-rimmed glasses was named Arthur.

And there was Samantha and Jacob and tiny Delia. There were so many of them, all equally precious.

We spent the next couple of hours watching the 1998 'Mulan' with the kids and eating pizza. We played parlor games with them till it was time for them to go to bed. I gave all of them tight hugs and promised that I'd be back soon with chocolate chip cookies.