I must have fallen asleep on the drive because I awake to Meghan poking me in the arm. I look over at her and smile. The sun hitting her vibrant red hair makes me happy .... And a little blind.
"Dude!" she exclaims. "We're here and you fell asleep!!!!!" she punches me then for falling asleep and chuckles to herself.
10 minutes later we pull up out the front and she grabs two duffel bags, a laptop bag and her handbag out of the car. Locking the car she crosses the road with me following behind her. We enter the building and I suddenly realise where she brought me.
She starts calling out for a woman named Martha. I shut the door and before I get any warning about 20 different kids, boys and girls run towards me and start throwing marbles at me. I let out a surprised shriek then they realise they've run out of marbles. They all run towards me and jump onto m front making me look like a sort of children tree. I fall back on the floor. Hearing someone laugh I look up and see an elder looking woman, who I assume is Martha, laughing her head off and I see Meghan trying to keep her cool but failing miserably.
I lay still and hold my breath. The kids must think I've stopped breathing because they all jump off of me. Taking this opportunity to live I jump up and brush myself off. I look over at Meghan and see her giving me a smile. a little boy runs up to her and launches himself at her. She catches him and hugs him tightly. She walks over to the couch and sits the young boy on her lap.
He looked around five and the happiness and love in her eyes as well as his surprised me. But then again if you live in an orphanage you learn to love. But I have a feeling she loves this little boy the most.
+ Meghan's P.O.V +
I look over at Will and see him watching me. I give him a smile and motion towards the bags I brought in from my new car. He nods and picks all four up and sets them next to me on the couch. I whisper in Marcus's ear for him to cover them. When he does I give the loudest wolf whistle ever. Will glares at me while I just sit there and wait for the stampede to come back downstairs. Less than 5 minutes and they are sitting in front of me on the rug in a circle. I open the duffel bags and hand out the presents.
A year ago when I got here Martha told me that she doesn't give us kids chocolate for easter. She gives us little presents. So because I missed celebrating easter with them I bought them all presents and here I am handing them out. I had one bag for girls and one for boys. No names were on them as I knew I would hand them out and they would just swap with one another if they didn't want the one they got. Who cares if we celebrate Easter on May 18 this year. As long as we are all together and with each other and know what Easter is all about we are fine.
Will looks sad when he doesn't get a present but I just wink at him and he smiles. As I'm handing Marcus his present (as I always buy him his own present and label it) I feel my hairband being taken out of my hair and I see the smirk on Will's face when I turn around and he flings it in my face. Ignoring him with a small chuckle I turn back to Marcus and see him smiling at his present. I bought him a men's silver chain necklace as well as the latest dinosaur toy. He looks at me and throws his arms around me. I hug him back and then place the necklace around his neck.
Then all of a sudden he grabs my hand and pulls me to the formal lounge room. We stop outside the closed doors and I see all of the other kids run through the other door into the room. I give Marcus a look and he just shrugs. Then I feel something go over my eyes and realise I'm being blindfolded. I hear Will whisper something like he has no idea why I need a blindfold but I just ignore him, well I do after I slap him.
I feel a tiny hand grab mine and I know that it's Marcus. I hear the sliding doors open and Marcus guides me. He pulls me into the corner of something and I wince, while I hear 26 kids giggling. Marcus apologises and I reach out and ruffle his hair. He stops and so do I, then he tugs on my arm. I bend down and he whispers "You have to get to the chair" puzzled I whisper back an ok and feel a pair of arms around my waist. They pick me up and place me on the chair. I then hear Marcus squeal in delight when the hands undo the blindfold.
Then it all starts at once, the noise and the singing. The Rowd. I'm standing right in the middle of it. Of course, yesterday was my birthday and because I wasn't here we are doing it today. I stand in the middle while I see Will watching on, horrified at all of the noise. When the song finishes I hop off of the chair and stand in the middle of all of the chairs.
I know what comes next, and I'm having too much fun today. So I take off running. The kids are surprised for a moment then realise what's happening. Marcus is in front of them all and he's saying something along the lines of "Catch her for me yah scallywags." Upon hearing him say this I almost fall over in laughter. But I keep running until I get to what is known as Meghan's Room. The signs still hang on the door but I barely have time to notice it before Marcus grabs my leg. I fall and he crawls up to my chest and hugs me ferociously. I laugh. All of the other kid come toppling through the doorway and soon we are all lying on the floor having our group hug.
I hear a click and a blinding flash circulates throughout the room. We all turn our heads and see Will pocketing his phone. Martha is behind him with the camera and she gives me a cheeky grin. Knowing exactly what to do I call out to Will and wiggle my hand out of the pile. He looks at me and grabs my hand. He goes to pull me out of the hug when I tug him down so that he is in the group hug too. The kids part like the red sea not wanting to be squished by him and then the close up again. I'm looking right into Wills eyes and I start to laugh. He looks a little mortified. He kisses my nose and a grin spreads across my face stopping my laugh.
A few more flashes go off and then everybody removes themselves from me. They make their way downstairs and I wait until everybody has left my room before I put the 'GO AWAY' sign up on my door. I reach under my bed and push the slat to the side. Pulling the letter out I place the slat back in its original position. I quickly stuff the letter in my pocket and run downstairs. I get downstairs and see that everybody is munching on a piece of strawberry chocolate cake. I walk over to Martha and whisper in her ear. She nods and I wait in her office while she sets up games for Will and the kids to do.
"It's time" Martha states when she walks into the office. I look at her and give a faint half-hearted smile. I know I'm just scared is all I want to say but I can't get the words out of my mouth. Instead, the words that come out sound more like "I only have a week." She looks at me and rushes over to me. She embraces me and hugs me so tightly that I don't know if I can remember a time other than being here in Martha's comforting arms.
Of course there was a time where I had Aunt Deb and Mum and Dad and Ally. But those times were long gone although they would always remain in my memory. I had Martha now though and I wasn't ever going to let that go. She steps back and gives me an encouraging smile. I give her a nod and we both leave her office to find Marcus riding around on Wills back. Laughing at the sight I suddenly know what I'm going to do for Marcus and I know that what I have to do will help me. I set a reminder in my phone for my birthday next year and smile.
Picking up Marcus I take him into the kitchen and ask him if he wants to go to the park. He eagerly nods and then asks if Will can come too. "Of course Marc" I say and he runs up to his room and gets his shoes. I tell Martha and Marcus comes bundling down the stairs with his shoes on the wrong feet. I chuckle and sit him on a chair changing his shoes over and then standing him up. I grab my sunnies, keys and phone then loop my hand through Wills, pulling him toward the door. I close the door and then run up behind Marcus. Grabbing his waist I lift him over my head and onto my shoulders. He shrieks and then grabs onto my shoulders like he has learnt to do. I slip my hand back through Wills and we walk down to the park.
We get there and I let Marcus down off of my shoulders. We both put our hands on the fence and stare and each other. He gives me the stink eye and I give him the joker smile. I say one, he says two and we both yell three. Then we take off running towards the swings. It takes us ten minutes to get to the proper height and then we start laughing.
"On the count of three !" I hear his cute little voice ring through the air, and we start counting just as we had before. Then I launch out of the swing and into the middle of the play round. Less than five seconds after me Marcus lands on my stomach and we start giggling.
"High five Jack Sparrow!" I whisper in his ear. He high fives me and then wraps his tiny little arms around my neck. I hug him back and if it was even possible my love and compassion grew even more for this little guy. My phone then beeped with an incoming Bluetooth file and I saw that Will was sending me a video. Accepting it I waited for the file to finish downloading before I opened the file and laughed. Marcus looked up at me and I turned the phone so he could see it. Will had videoed me and Marcus doing our little stunt and we both laughed as the video came to an end. Standing up with Marcus we walk over to Will who is giving us a slow clap. Marcus and I both look at each other then we both bow down.
Looking up at Will and then back at Marcus I give Will a look and then push him towards the playground. I turn to Marcus and whisper in his ear. Then he runs after Will, grabs his hand and drags him onto the playground. I sit on a bench and realise that this possibly the best time and place to make the phone call. I take the business card out of the letter, type in the number and hit call.
# Wills P.O.V #
Marcus is such a cute little guy. I can see why Meghan loves him so much. His smile is contagious and so is his personality. He pulls me over to the monkey bars and we climb up on top of them. We sit on the top of the monkey bars and play I Spy. I watch Meghan place her phone to her ear and I know she is taking a phone call. I'm curious but I let it slide. Marcus and I run around for another twenty minutes before a man looking to be in his late 30's walks up to Meghan and sits next to her. They engage in conversation and I send her a text saying I was going to get Marcus some ice cream. She looks over at us and smiles and we walk over to the small ice cream stand across the park.
+ Meghan's P.O.V +
Barry walks over to me and sits on the bench next to me. We greet each other and I get a message from Will saying that he and Marc are getting ice cream. I smile over at them and then turn back to Barry. I haven't seen him since I was 7 and I smile up at him.
I never thought I would see Barry ever again. He looks at me and I'm overwhelmed. A small part of me wishes he was my uncle instead of Uncle Richard but I dismiss the thought. He smiles and hands me the envelope and the key.
"Everything is in there Meghan ... if you need anything else you know you just need to call." he looks genuinely serious and I smile one of the biggest smiles I've ever smiled when it comes to my past. I hug him and he leaves as he has a date. I smile at his departing figure, and I know that he has found a way to move on from his best friends murder.
Will and Marc come back from the other side of the park just as Barry leaves and I run up to them, throwing my arms around Will and laughing. He and Marc have ice cream and sprinkles all around their mouths and they both look so cute. I grab my hanky out of my pocket and wipe both of their faces. They both smile happily at me and I can't help but think of how lucky I am to have these two and Martha and Barry in my life.
Grabbing Wills hand in mine and Marcus's in the other I take of running, dragging the two of them behind me.