Boston (spot conlon ff)

*The First Saturday*

New York City was a sight to behold in the summer. The air filled with vendors selling their in-season fruits and vegetables, children ran through the streets, horse-drawn carriages ratted across the cobblestone, on every street corner there was a new sound, smell and sight. Saturday was always the most hectic for Lilian Callaghan but she did not mind in the slightest. Saturday meant it was the weekly picnic for Lilian's apartment building. Children that lived in the building and others would gather on the rooftop of the old brick structure in the late afternoon with blankets and food for all to enjoy.

Every family invited was responsible for bringing one meal to the picnic. The Diginori sisters Angela and Orabella, who lived in one of the apartment buildings down the street, would bring a meat and bread dish their grandmother would prepare. The Ross children Molly, Mathew, and Mac lived directly below the Callaghan's and would bring potato wedges with boiled onions. The rowdy McAlester boys Aiden and Brandon would always manage to sneak some of their father's beer and a few loaves of bread. But there were more mouths to feed. Affectionately nicknamed the Littles, some were tenants of the building, but most were orphans or runaways. Ranging in ages from three to seven, the picnic for many was the only guaranteed meal they would have all week. What started out as just a few has grown to over a dozen as news of the picnic spread through the boroughs over the years, now children from Staten Island to the Bronx travel to Manhattan for the weekly celebration.

The Callaghan family had been the ones to initiate the picnic. The diverse family consisted of biological siblings Daniel, Lilian, Evelyn, and their adoptive siblings Mary Anne, Liam, Finn, Sara, and little Bruno. The army of eight brought dessert, a chocolate cake from the bakery on the corner they saved up for all week. The family hadn't always been so large as Daniel, Lilian, and Evelyn were not born in Manhattan, unlike the other members of their family. They grew up with their parents, William and Alice, in Boston where William's family settled when they arrived on the Mayflower. Alice was a New York native and when William lost his job it made the move an easy answer, though much had changed in the 8 years since.

They first met Mary Anne when she nearly pounded the Callaghan's door down, begging for a nannying job after she had nowhere left to turn, having been orphaned young. Instead of a job, William and Alice took pity on the girl and took her in as their own. Liam had been a Newsie that sold William his paper every day on his commute to work. He too had been orphaned young, forced to sell papers to feed himself. William and Alice quickly opened their home to him as well. Twins Finn and Sara had been orphans all their short lives. They had been living in a small alley when Evelyn noticed them on the way home from school one day. She brought them home and William and Alice could not refuse. Lastly was little Bruno, who had been the first son of Alice's childhood friend. He was only two when his mother contracted a deadly case of pneumonia. As her dying wish was Alice raise her son, he completed the Callaghan's pack.

Everything worked smoothly for many years. William and Alice both worked full-time jobs, William finding a job in a metal factory and Alice working as a seamstress in a textile factory. With Mary Anne, Daniel, and Liam all working as well, there was plenty of income to support the small army. Evelyn went to school and was the smartest in her class which left Lilian at home to watch her younger siblings. It was chaotic, but it worked for the Callaghan's. But the good times would not last forever. William began to stay out for weeks at a time, only to return with the stench of booze and foul words falling from his lips. But the family soon began to adjust their lives around their ever-increasingly absent father, but too soon their good luck ran out. One day, Alice came home from the factory with a strange cough, which only worsened with each passing day. The family scraped together all the money they could to get her treatment, but doctors were baffled at her illness and had no answers. By the end of the month, Alice Callaghan was dead. Only adding fuel to the flame, William quickly took off after the funeral and hadn't been seen by his family in the two years that had passed