Part Two

Sunflower

“I know they cared about me and I know that they still do. Any parent would. That’s why I would like to meet them again, one day.”

Besides Thomas, Hunter shifted. Thomas glanced over at his friend, taking his shifting as a sign of him being uncomfortable.

“There’s a reason why you’re here right now and not with them,” Hunter said. “Maybe they don’t love you as much as you think they do.”

Thomas gaped at his friend, feeling his cheeks heat in anger. His hand tightened around his medallion, remembering the ghostly promise of his mother.

“It’s a snow goose, sweetie. As long as you have it, I will be with you. I love you, Thomas.”

“They do! I promise you, they love me.”

Hunter shrugged. “Fine, maybe they do. Maybe they left you because they’re bad people. Do you really want to find out that the parents you have envisioned in your mind are, in reality, horrible people?”

Thomas looked away from Hunter, looking at the deer drinking in front of them. After a few seconds of silence, he answered Hunter’s question. “Does that really matter, though? Everyone has a saving grace; no one’s truly, completely bad. And besides, I would rather know them as they really are and not the fictitious copies of them I have in my mind.”

“So even if you know that they’re bad, you would still want to meet them?” Hunter asked.

“Yes,” Thomas said, his voice filled with no hesitation. “Without a doubt, I would like to meet them. At least once in my lifetime.”

“Thomas!” a voice shouted. “Thomas, wake up!”

Thomas opened his eyes to find the twins beaming at him. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he sat up. “What is it?” he asked.

“Your birthday, dummy,” Derrick said, sticking his tongue out at Thomas. “What else would it be?”

Thomas froze, the hand rubbing his face suddenly stopping. His sixteenth birthday was today. Today would be the day he left everyone and everything he had ever known. Today was his last day before being forced to fight in the army.

But he couldn’t do anything about it. It would happen, whether he liked it or not. And just as he told Ms. Jesse six days ago, he wasn’t scared. Not one bit.

Yet his hand still shook and he brought it down, hiding its shaking from the twins. For them, birthdays were a cause of excitement and happiness, regardless of the fact that it wasn’t their birthday. It wouldn’t do to taint their excitement with something like the Enlistment Act.

“It’s my birthday?” Thomas asked, feigning surprise. “But I thought it happened last year.”

That elicited a laugh from Erick. “It happens every year!”

“Every year? No, that can’t be right.”

“Will you three please shut up?” a voice grumbled. Thomas looked up to see Levi placing a pillow over his ears. “Some of us are trying to sleep, y’know.”

Thomas frowned, but still motioned for Derrick and Erick to keep quiet. “Come on,” he whispered, getting up out of bed. “Let’s let him be.” He padded out of the room, leading the two younger boys down to the living area on the first floor. Myla was sitting on a windowsill, using the light of dawn to read her book. As she turned the page, she looked up, shutting her book as she saw Thomas approaching.

“Happy birthday, Thomas,” she said, rising from her perch. Her long auburn hair was out from its normal braid, falling like waves around her. Ms. Jesse was always asking to cut it, saying that it looked more like a mane than hair, but Myla always refused, saying that she liked manes because lions--her favorite animal--had them.

“Thanks, Myla,” Thomas said, letting the twins lead him over to one of the couches. He sat down, noticing that Myla had followed them over. He glanced at her, trying to read her face. When he failed to spot any anger in her expression, he exhaled a sigh of relief. It seemed that any frustration she had over their conversation about her book six days ago had disappeared.

“Look what we got you!” Derrick said, dragging Thomas’ attention away from Myla and onto him. Derrick was grabbing a wrapped package off of the end table. The end table in question was filled with different sized parcels, all seemingly for Thomas. Derrick handed it to Thomas, encouraging him to open it.

“Maybe we should wait for the other kids,” Thomas cautioned. “They might want to see it.”

Erick pouted, plopping down on the cushion besides Thomas. “But it’s for you, not them.”

Thomas shook his head. “Still, we should wait.”

“Fine,” Derrick sighed, sitting down on the seat next to Thomas.

Myla sat down on the armchair across from them, opening her book back up and continuing to read. As the sun continued rising, the gray dawn light slowly shifted into more of the yellow light of the sun. They were silent as they watched the sun rise, save for the turning of Myla’s pages. Erick leaned his head against Thomas, starting to nod off. Thomas didn’t blame him; it was quite early for the young boy. He turned to face Derrick, noticing that he was kicking his feet slowly through the air, his legs too short to reach the floor. His eyes, too, were becoming too heavy for him to keep them open and they stubbornly kept closing.

As they sat in silence waiting for the other kids to wake up, Thomas found his thoughts shifting to Hunter. He wondered if his friend would manage to be in Ridgecrest before he had to leave. For what seemed to be the millionth time in the past few days, he thought back on the soldier’s questions, trying to understand the hidden meaning behind them.

“And your parents? Who are they? Are they from Aspaya or Malin? Have you heard the rumor of Matheson Wells having a son?”

Suddenly, the morning bell rang, throwing Thomas out of his thoughts and bringing him back to reality where the soldier’s questions didn’t rattle around his head. Slowly but surely, sleepy kids started coming down the stairs, piling into seats around Thomas. Quiet Charlie sat down on the ground beside Myla’s armchair. Lila squeezed her small body into the space between Erick and the armrest. Erick didn’t complain, only moved closer to Thomas to give her more room. Levi and his two friends, Quinn and Jake, sat on the far edge of the pile, content to be as far away from the other kids as possible. As the rest of the kids filed in, they wished Thomas a happy birthday and he thanked everyone in turn. The last person to come in was Ms. Jesse, shutting the door quickly behind her to keep the cold air of late fall from coming in with her.

“A very happy birthday to you, Thomas,” she said.

“Thanks, Ms. Jesse.”

“Now, then, who’s ready to open the presents?”

A chorus of cheers went up, coupled with demands for Thomas to open up their present first. But he had already been asked by someone before the sun had even fully come up and he gestured for Derrick to hand him his present. Grinning, Derrick happily handed him the present.

Thomas opened the present slowly, folding the wrapping paper nicely beside him. He looked at the present, finding that it was a cheap snow globe. Inside of it were tall mountains, reminiscent of the mountains outside of the orphanage. Thomas shook it, watching as the fake snow swirled inside of it.

“Thanks, guys,” Thomas said, setting it down on the ground below him. Immediately after its placing, one of the younger boys leaned forward, grasping it in his hands. He shook it hard, him and the other kids gasping in delight when they saw the whirling snow inside.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“We thought that it would remind you of home,” Derrick said.

“While you’re gone, we mean,” Erick clarified, joining in the conversation.

While they were talking, Lila had gotten hold of the snowglobe, laughing as she watched the snow swirl around. “I like it,” she decided, looking at Erick sitting next to her.

Thomas smiled then asked, “Which one is yours Lila?”

She frowned thoughtfully at the pile of presents before pointing at a rolled-up piece of paper with red ribbon around it. “That one,” she said confidently.

Thomas reached for it, sliding off the ribbon and placing it in his pocket. He then unfurled the paper, recognizing it as a picture that she had drawn. Lila reached over Erick to point out all of the people in it. “That’s you,” she said, pointing at a stick figure with yellow colored hair. “And that’s Erick beside you and Derrick.” That led to her pointing to two identical stick figures, both considerably shorter than Thomas. “Over there is Myla, with a book in her hand. And Charlie’s…” The little girl continued, pointing out each and every child in the orphanage, including Levi and his friends. Ms. Jesse was even in it, standing off to the side and towering over the twenty-three kids in the picture. All of the kids crowded around Thomas, pushing each other to see themselves. Even Levi, Quinn, and Jake stepped closer, though Levi let out a laugh when he saw his stick figure.

“That’s not me!” he said, laughing loudly. “That’s just a terrible stick figure!”

“Levi!” Ms. Jesse reprimanded. “Apologize to Lila, now!”

But the damage had already been done, as Lila withdrew her hand from the picture. As she held back tears, her chin wobbled and Erick slipped his hand into hers.

“Don’t pay attention to him,” Thomas said, sending a glare to Levi. “I think it’s beautiful.”

Levi snorted, but he held back his words.

“You really think so?” Lila asked, her blue eyes staring earnestly up at Thomas.

Thomas nodded his head emphatically. “I really do. I love it, Lila. Now, where are you?”

Lila sniffled, but she pointed at the last stick figure that had yet to be named. “There.”

“Aw, it looks exactly like you!” Thomas said. Then, he handed it to Erick, who stared intently at each and every one of the stick figures. “Which one next?”

From there preceded a thirty-minute present opening, all the kids clamoring over each other to see all the presents. Thomas inspected each one with just as much attention as the next, giving the kids time to explain why they had picked the gift they had given him. Some had no symbolic meaning--such as little Will’s pinecone, which had been explained as “I like it”--while others meant the world to both the giver and the receiver--such as Myla’s collection of short stories, stories that she had handwritten in her notebook and rewritten in the notebook that she had given Thomas. Charlie’s gift had touched Thomas’ heart like no other, his heart hammering as he took in the wood carving.

“It’s a--”

“Snow goose,” Thomas finished, recognizing the bird as the one on his medallion. “Thank you, Charlie.”

Charlie nodded, as if to say it was no big deal. But, to Thomas, it meant the world. He handed the carving to Erick, letting the little boy hold it in his hands. Lila reached out with her hand, fingering the detailed lines of the bird.

After the last gift had been opened, Ms. Jesse ushered the kids up to their rooms, telling them to get dressed for the day. Thomas stayed behind, gathering up his collection of gifts to take upstairs.

Behind him, someone cleared their throat.

Whirling around quickly, Thomas discovered that Levi had stayed downstairs, despite the fact that both Quinn and Jake had left. He stood awkwardly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “I know we don’t get along,” he started to say, “but I got you something for your birthday.”

He held out a small object that wasn’t wrapped and, blinking in surprise, Thomas took it. He looked down to find a simple red-checkered bandana. Not saying a single word, he stared at it, shocked to discover that a person he had struggled to get along with for years had given him something for his sixteenth birthday.

Finally, after staring at it for several long seconds with Levi staring awkwardly at him, seemingly trying to judge his reaction, Thomas managed to look up at the boy, saying, “Thank you.”

The nervousness in Levi’s body appeared to evaporate with those two small words and he deflated, nodding contently at the fact that Thomas liked his gift. He turned around and then went upstairs, leaving the blonde boy standing alone, blinking after the departing figure of Levi.

Then, he tied the bandana around his neck, similar to the way he saw other people wearing them. He fingered the material, marveling at the fact that Levi, the boy who loved to terrorize the younger kids, the boy who had snapped at him for being too loud just that morning, the boy who had just been mean to Lila about her drawing, had gifted it to him.

“Thomas,” a voice said suddenly, cutting through the thoughts running through his head. Thomas looked up to find Ms. Jesse coming back down the stairs, sitting down on the couch. “Sit with me.”

Thomas nodded, quickly sitting down beside her on the couch. “What is it?”

“I wanted to give you this.” She held out her hand to reveal a slim package.

Thomas took it, looking up at the woman with a question in his eyes. She inclined her head, indicating for him to open it. He did so, revealing a small dagger. It wasn’t fancy, not adorned with any jewels or gems. The hilt was a simple design, just wrapped in smooth leather. As Thomas brought it out of its sheath, the silver of the knife caught the sunlight. Thomas didn’t need to touch the blade to know that it was just as sharp as it looked. It was, in all sense of the word, a practical weapon; not fancy nor pretty, but simple and deadly.

“Now that you are sixteen,” Ms. Jesse began to say, “you’re considered a man. As such, you need something to defend yourself with.” She paused for a second before adding, “Especially since you will be leaving us shortly for the army.” She sounded impassionate, her voice devoid of any emotion, yet Thomas didn’t miss the way her mouth tightened as she spoke, nor the way her hands shook as she placed them in her lap.

“Thank you,” Thomas said. He placed the dagger back in its sheath. He didn’t know what else to say besides that, so he simply sat next to the woman who had raised him for the past twelve years in silence. A part of him wanted to begin their goodbye now, but that would make his departure seem more real.

After a few seconds of silence, Ms. Jesse cleared her throat. “I will miss you,” she said, the emotion she had hid just moments before creeping into her voice.

“I’m going to miss you as well, Ms. Jesse,” Thomas replied.

“Thomas, I--” she broke off, her voice thick with her emotions. “I love you. You children are the closest things I have to my own kids and I care for each and every one of you deeply. Getting the chance to raise you, to teach you, and to simply watch you grow up has been the best moments of my life. Letting you go explore the world is hard for me to do, but I understand that it has to be done. My only regret is that you have to go fight for the Empire, thanks to the Enlistment Act, and that there is a very high chance that you won’t ever return. I don’t think I can bear the thought of you or any one of you kids departing from this world before me. Just know that, wherever you are and however you are doing, my thoughts go out to you. Please keep in touch, Thomas, and I wish you the very best in life.”

Thomas felt a lump in his throat, making it hard to breathe much less respond to Ms. Jesse’s emotional speech. The woman was rarely emotional, hiding her thoughts and emotions behind a stoic mask. To see that mask disappear, if only for a second, was unnerving and, frankly, Thomas didn’t know how to respond. Still, he opened his mouth, trying to find suitable words to say to Ms. Jesse.

“T-thank you, Ms. Jesse,” Thomas said, allowing his gratitude to flood his voice, making sure that it was filled with his sincerity. “I’ll write as frequently as I can and I’ll think of you and the other children, wherever I end up going. And I prom--”

“Don’t make promises that you can’t fulfill,” the woman interrupted.

Thomas huffed, then amended his words. “I will try my best to come back to you. I appreciate everything you have done for me and--I know this for a fact--I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for you. Goodbye, Ms. Jesse.”

“Goodbye, my dear boy,” she said, her voice wobbling from the tears falling down her face. He reached over, giving Ms. Jesse a hug. She returned the hug.

They stayed that way until the other kids began to come back downstairs, asking Ms. Jesse when breakfast was. As she pulled away and answered their questions, Thomas gathered up his gifts again, creeping away as she answered their questions. Up in the room that he shared with the other boys, Thomas found himself alone for the first time all morning. And only then did he truly feel like one door of his life was closing and a new one was opening. Only then did he allow his emotions to come rolling up inside of himself, letting them spill out in tears that streamed down his face. Only then did he allow himself to grieve his departure.

Finally, after what felt like hours, Thomas stopped crying. He threw on his cloak then pulled out a pack, filling it with the things that he thought would be needed. Sadly, he couldn’t take all of the gifts with him, so he settled on only taking the short stories Myla had given him, the snow goose Charlie had given him, and the bandana from Levi around his neck. He picked up the knife Ms. Jesse had given him, about to put it by his side. He quickly stopped, though, when he realized that he hadn’t the faintest clue on where it should go. On his right side where it was closest to his dominant hand or the left side where he could draw it across his body? Deciding that the swords he saw the Aspayan soldiers wearing were usually on the left side of the body, he placed the knife on the left, figuring that it was custom to draw it across a person’s body. He was about to turn away when, with a pang, he remembered the other kids’ awe with the snowglobe and the twins’ explanation about it. So he wrapped it inside one of his shirts and placed it in the pack.

He slung it over his back and began to walk out of the room. He stopped in the doorway, looking back at the room that he had slept in every night since he arrived here at the orphanage when he was three. He smiled sadly around the room, imprinting every single detail about the room into his memory. Then he turned around, stepping completely out of the room. Only to run into a person that he didn’t know was there.