( Click! )
Ms. Jones and Michael walked out of the nurse's office as the door closed behind them.
"So, what are you planning to do now? Are you gonna head back outside or are you going to do what you usually do?" asked Ms. Jones.
"Yea I'm probably gonna go to the library since watching others play isn't really that fun." smiled Michael as he answered.
The two would later go their separate ways. Ms. Jones went back outside while Michael went back to the library to read.
Michael, being a naturally curious child enjoyed reading and learning new things, but what he enjoys the most is the way he's able to escape reality when reading. Compared to the heartwarming and fun-storied books he read, his reality was far from it. He enjoyed all types of books, but his favorite are adventure books; books about a hero or protagonist traveling while facing challenges with their allies and overcoming them just to have the comradery straighten.
Unlike his favorite books, he had no way to travel since the cost of traveling was too expensive for the orphanage to cover and Michael didn't want to burden the orphanage since they already have given him so much. Making allies or friends was not hard for Michael since he was a pretty extroverted kid; the hardest was keeping a bond since most kids he became friends with left after being adopted.
In a couple of months would mark his third year being at the orphanage, he had seen those who came before and after him be adopted into families. The hardest pill for him to swallow was that it's only gonna get harder for him to find a family since he's gonna turn 11 in 6 months. He and the workers at the orphanages know the older the child is, the less likely they are to be adopted since there is a stigma of older orphans being more problematic.
The reason why he continued to read was to feed his curiosity and keep the negative thoughts from intruding on his state of mind. He would read whenever he could, this was true for every day of the week. After coming home from school he would immediately head to the library, on the weekends he would wake up earlier than most and head to the library. If he didn't continue to reread some books he would've cleared the library and had to wait for the new books by the middle of his second year there. He unknowingly made the orphanage spend more funds on getting new books.
( Click! — Thump! )
Michael entered the library and searched for his favorite book at that time. The books were not organized alphabetically but by their genres.
"There you are!"
After scanning past the other books he found the book he wanted to read "The Insufferable Greed of Mankind". He had already read the book once and had started to read it again.
To others, the book might've been seen as a story, but Michael being such a big fan researched the author. The author wrote the book to keep the oral story of his people alive. "I want the story of my people to continue to be passed down and I think that if it is not documented once the elderly pass and the young forget since we live in a time with so many distractions who would remember the stories passed down from generations to generations.".
The book was about one of god's sons who descended from the heavens after seeing humans used and killed by demons and spirits. Since gods could not meddle with the human world he found a loophole and put his soul into the reincarnation cycle after convincing one of the overseers of the reincarnation process. He was born as a god through a human, they still kept their godly powers. He helped save humans and even showed them how to defend themselves. He bested demons and spirits to turn them into things humans can use to further protect themselves. The god had nothing but good intentions when going down to the human world; what he did not expect was the evil nature of humans that wasn't seen because when mankind has a common enemy it's easy to see the good in humanity versus when it's just them against themselves; the ugly nature and flaws of humanity shows itself.
After saving and continuing to save humans, he was betrayed and misinterpreted. His teaching on how to use the powers he granted to humans was not just used to protect themselves, but as a way to bring harm to others based on greed and jealousy. He lost his son to the humans he wished to protect and when he chose to help them correct their actions by bringing his son back to life, others also wanted their kids to come back too. He revived his son and sent him off somewhere else in the world. He gave up trying to help further his teaching and scattered his tools. The one who really wants to learn must seek it by going far and wide because he found out that when power is just given to humans they always want more or have it all for themselves. The protagonist shed his human body and went back to the heavens after being sick and tired of the human world's bullsh*t.
Michael enjoyed it most when he was reading books in the library and was left to be undistracted, he felt peace and happiness not when he is with others, but when he was able to read and try to be in the shoes of the protagonist. Being in that library and being lost in the book is the place he called home since he doesn't know another area that makes him feel this way.
While Michael was in the library reading Ms. Jones was watching the kids with Jack.
Jack, concerned about Michael, asked Ms. Jones about him, "So is the kid's hand ok?"
"Yea he should be ok, fortunately, it was just a sprained wrist," answered Ms. Jones
Jack let out a sigh of relief, "That's good to hear."
In the same breath, he asked "So Ms. Jones, when do you want me to pick you up later?"
Ms. Jones gave Jack a disgruntled look and answered, "Just call me Amber. I don't want the man taking me out on a date to call me the name the kids call me. I'm still just 27."
"Haha sorry about that Amber," replied Jack.
"About 8 should be good since my shift is over at 7, also I know Michael might've gotten hurt but I'm glad you came since he and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun today. I also never saw Michael that happy outside of him reading a book."
"Exercising is a lot of fun," replied Jack, smirking.
After a few hours, Jack went back home. Ms. Jones took the kids back inside to eat since after a hard day of playing you are bound to become hungry.
"Damn!"
( Clink! Clat! )
"Why is this so hard!" said out loud by Michael as he was struggling to pick up his food with a fork in his left hand.
Michael, although he struggled, still managed to eat all the food on his plate after a hard day of reading and hitting the mitts.
After finishing their food the kids got ready to head to bed. Everyone was sitting in their bed still conversing before going to sleep.
( Ring! Ring! )
The bedtime bell could be heard outside the door of the bedrooms.
"Time for bed!" a voice shouted out by one of the workers.
( Thump! Thump! Thump! )
The footsteps were slowly fading as the worker was getting further away.
With his eyes closed, Michael immediately fell asleep as he was too exhausted to even think about his day.