Take My Daughter from the Orphanage
Mary stood bewildered, staring distrustfully at the woman in front of her.
The caretaker had just explained that her mother had arrived!
Her mother had been searching for Mary for a long time, and it turned out her mother never abandoned her, as Mary had thought. One day, little Mary had gotten lost in another city, and someone found her, eventually bringing her to the orphanage. All this time, her mother had been searching for her!
Mary looked cautiously at the face of the unfamiliar smiling woman, trying to recognize her. Were those her mother’s eyes? Her hands? Could this really be her mother? She didn’t remember her at all.
Mary tilted her head, and suddenly, something changed in the woman’s face. She tried to keep smiling, but tears began sliding slowly down her cheeks, and she couldn’t hold them back any longer.
Mary’s little heart softened. Of course, this was her mother. She recognized her by the sparkle in her eyes, the tilt of her head. Who knows what else made her recognize her?
Taking two hesitant steps forward, Mary spread her arms and ran toward her, shouting, “Mum, Mum, you finally found me!”
Later in the evening, at home, they sat close together on a large, soft sofa. Julia stroked Mary’s hair, her thin shoulders, and kissed her tear-streaked eyes.
For the hundredth time, she tried to answer the most important question, “Mummy, why did it take you so long to come? I waited for you so much!”
“My sunshine! Forgive me, I searched for you every day. But you vanished, it was horrible! Someone saw a woman running with a child in her arms. We even went to look among the travelers, but you were nowhere to be found! I traveled to every nearby city. Then, I got a tip about a girl who had been brought to an orphanage, and I thought it might be you, so I came!”
“So long, Mum! I’m so glad you found me!” Mary hugged Julia tightly with her warm little hands.
From a pastry with milk, the warmth of the home, and her mother’s embrace, Mary began to grow drowsy. Her hands clung to her mother, but they weakened and relaxed. Julia scooped up the sleepy child and carried her to bed.
“No one will take me away again, right, Mum?” Mary whispered sleepily.
“No one will ever take you from me again, I promise!” Julia held the little body close and kissed the silky hair. Then she laid her down in bed.
“Don’t go,” Mary asked, and Julia lay down beside her on the little couch.
Mary immediately started snoring sweetly, though she kept one hand holding onto Julia’s robe as if to make sure her mum was there.
“I’ve fulfilled my dear sister’s last wish. I’ve found Mary, and now she’s with me. Diana asked me not to tell Mary anything about her. So now, I am Mary’s mother,” Julia thought, lying awake.
She adjusted the soft blanket over the child, and Mary smiled in her sleep.
Let all the bad things be left behind, though it was hard to come to terms with the loss of a sister and a mother.
Their mother had been kind but somewhat helpless. She had given birth to Julia and Diana without a father. And as long as Julia could remember, their mother constantly cried about how hard it was to raise two girls on her own. As if someone was to blame for that!
Diana was fifteen minutes older than Julia and always made decisions for both of them.
When their mother brought home yet another partner, Diana said they needed to run away from home, or things would get worse!
But Julia felt sorry for their mum; how could they leave her behind? She was trying her best, wanting to make things better for her daughters by ensuring a man was in the house.
“Julie, I’ll get some money, and we’ll run away,” Diana persuaded her, “Otherwise, it won’t end well! We’re already seventeen; we’ll enroll in college, live in a dorm, understand? This guy won’t leave me alone!”
Julia was so naive back then!
Diana whispered things about their stepfather, but to Julia, it seemed Diana was making it all up. Their mother seemed happy, and even their stepfather smiled, bought sweets and fruits. He even winked at Julia, “Well, isn’t it better with a father around? Stick with me, and everything will be fine, got it, blue eyes?”
“Leave the little one alone, understood?” Diana immediately stood in front of Julia. And Julia found it very strange how Diana spoke so sharply to him.
Diana changed a lot back then. A boy from their building was courting her.
Anton had liked Diana since fifth grade. They were good friends; Julia even teased her sister that Anton would marry her, and Julia wouldn’t know what to do without Diana.
But recently, Diana had a falling out with Anton, and he seemed gloomier than ever. He even approached Julia, but she didn’t know why or what to say to him.
Soon Diana had found a large sum of money from somewhere, and Julia was terrified to think where it had come from.
“Don’t worry about where it came from,” Diana told her irritably, “Are you with me or not? You’re always like a child, even though you’re only fifteen minutes younger! Are you coming with me?”
Diana’s expression frightened Julia, and she… agreed. After all, they wanted to go to college.
But things turned out differently. Diana rented a room and refused to enroll. Then it turned out Diana… was pregnant!
“Maybe you should tell Anton, Di?” Julia tried to encourage her sister, but she snapped back as if she had been switched with someone else, “What does Anton have to do with it? Leave me alone, understand?”
Later, Diana cried and begged Julia for forgiveness. Julia comforted her, promising to help with the baby. She would work, and everything would fall into place. But Diana only got angrier at these assurances.
The baby girl arrived early, premature. Julia met her sister and the infant at the hospital. She had taken a job as a sales assistant. Bought a trousseau for her little niece and did her best to help Diana in everything.
But what was meant to happen, happened. Their mother found out from someone about how her daughters were “studying.” And then their stepfather made a scene about his money being gone, claiming the girls must have stolen it! One word led to another, and the stepfather blurted out that it was from him Diana got pregnant, just like that!
Their mother, taken aback by such a confession, shoved him away, causing him to hit his head on the sharp edge of the table and collapse. In hysterics, their mother called them, “Girls, I did something terrible, what do I do?”
Their mother was given a sentence, but she was frail and didn’t survive, never returning.
From all this, Diana lost interest in life completely. And one day, when Julia came home, there was no one there.
A note lay on the table, “Don’t look for me, don’t look for Mary, I took her to another city’s nursery. You have your life, I have mine. Goodbye, sister!”
Julia cried throughout the night. How could this be? Her mother was gone, and now her older sister had abandoned her!
Julia cried enough to last a lifetime. But in the morning, she washed up and firmly decided to find Mary. After all, she had no one else.
But all her efforts yielded no results, despite how hard Julia tried.
Two years later, the phone rang, Diana’s voice on the line, though rough, strange, and desperate, “Julia, fulfill my request, take Mary from the orphanage. This orphanage is in the city of ***. And forget about me!” She hung up, just like that…
***********
Mary whimpered in her sleep, and Julia adjusted the blanket, “Shh, shh, sleep, sleep… my darling.”
My darling.
Yes, my darling.
Soon, Paul would return from his business trip. They had discussed everything. They would adopt Mary and not tell her anything for now. Did the little girl really need to know all that?
Eventually, fate would sort things out.
Maybe, just maybe, Diana would come back?
Life is so unpredictable.
Mary’s mother had been found.
In the meantime, they would simply live. She and Paul wanted more children and only wished for everything to be good—nothing more, nothing less!
It’s the simple family happiness that Julia always dreamed of.
And dreams do come true if you wish hard enough…
