by Rachel Burns
The Girl Without A Name
By: Rachel Burns
The Girl Without A Name
A Science-Fiction Romance
Copyright 2017 Rachel Burns
Published by Rachel Burns
Text Copyright © 2017 by Rachel Burns
All Rights Reserved
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act 1976, no part of the publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by and means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 1
Today we were outside, enjoying the beginnings of spring when Mrs. Brown, one of the nurses at the orphanage, called us back inside. I sighed disappointed. I didn’t want to give up my spot on the highest branch of the best climbing tree in the orphanage’s garden. I was up there so rarely.
At first, it was because I was too small and didn’t have the strength in my arms to pull myself up, and now it was because a couple of the boys felt it was their right to have the best seat. However, they were off chasing after a ball, so I was up here for once.
From my high spot, I had seen the long car pulling up. I had worried that it would mean that we would have to line up, and now we did.
Lining up was a waste of time for me. Some young smiling couple or a man in work clothes would look us over and then pick someone, or not, and then leave.
I always felt a bit of hope when a young couple came, but they never picked me. They wanted a cute younger child. I was already too old to be adopted by parents. I would either end up working, helping a farmer’s wife, or I would never get picked.
I was relieved not to get picked by a farmer, who was looking for help. They were said to work home children to the bone and then to yell at them because they felt that the children were ungrateful.
I dreamed of being adopted by a nice family. I wanted a beautiful mother to love me and brush my hair. That was the picture I had in my head every night before I went to sleep, a smiling mother.
We filed inside and ran up to the bathroom where the nurses helped us brush our hair and dust the sand and dirt off of our uniforms. We had to wash our faces so the potential parents could have a good look at us.
Once we were presentable, we went down to the hallway and lined up. After we were assembled, the sliding doors of the director’s office would slide open, one door at a time, and then we too could get a good look at whoever was there to see us. Everyone was staring at the closed doors, waiting to see who would step out.
When the person or persons did come out, they would look us over. That would make me feel like a zoo animal. I was already twelve, so I wasn’t even a good zoo animal anymore. Babies and toddlers were the interesting animals. They could be compared to elephants and zebras. Strong older boys could be compared to workhorses. I was like a prairie dog, one of many and not the reason that anyone went to the zoo.
Nevertheless, I was nervous. I suffered from hope. I had no reason to hope that I would be picked, but it was like a broken switch that I couldn’t turn off. Every time we lined up, I hoped that a couple would want me. In fact, that they would insist on me, and me alone. I prayed that destiny existed, and that my future would show up at the door one day, perhaps today?
The doors were finally sliding open. I stood up straighter and smiled as sweetly as I could. A man and a woman came out of the director’s office. The woman was wearing a maid’s uniform like you saw on TV. She was wearing a proper gray dress with a perfectly ironed white apron tied over that. The woman had a basket with her. She was older like a grandmother, and she was smiling at the man.
The man was something to see. He was tall with really broad shoulders, and his hair was long down to his shoulders. He had light brown hair, and he looked strong like the farmers sometimes did. But he was dressed in the finest of clothes.
He started with the youngest of the children. He bent down to them and asked them their names. The maid gave the child a wrapped up gift when the man was finished talking to him or her.
I exchanged a look with a couple of the other girls. It wasn’t normal that people brought wrapped gifts. or that a man came alone, and then for him to bend down and talk to a mere orphanage child. That was unheard of.
He talked nicely with all the children. He was getting to us older kids. I had half expected him to stop when the kids got to be too old for adoption. He chatted with the children, and I was getting nervous that I wouldn’t think of anything interesting to say when it was my turn.
For a long time, he talked to Kyle, who was standing next to me. I guessed that he wanted a boy. Kyle was going on about his latest wound. He had scraped up his knee playing baseball, and the man was interested so Kyle rolled up his pants and showed him.
The man saw that the wound hadn’t been tended to. He commented on that, and the orphanage’s nurse stepped forward and took Kyle off.
Then the man was standing in front of me. I could see that his eyes were green with brown specks in them. I curtsied to him.
“What’s your name child?” He was smiling at me.
“Umm –– they call me Molly at this orphanage,” I replied.
He smirked at me. “Well, Molly At This Orphanage, could you please give Kyle his gift when he gets back from the nurse?”
I nodded and hung my head. He was already moving on. I was the child he had talked to the least. I guessed I wasn’t even a prairie dog. I was more like a bug.
He talked to the girl next to me for a while, in the meantime, his maid had given me two wrapped up presents. I thanked her.
When the man was finished, he stepped back to me. “What’s the problem, Molly? Don’t you like Kyle?”
I gazed up at him surprised. He must be interested in Kyle. He wanted to know what he was like.
“Kyle is really very nice. He never pulls anyone’s hair or picks on the little kids,” I replied.
“Then tell me what made you look so sad.” He wasn’t smiling anymore. He looked curious.
I shook my head, letting him know that I didn’t understand him.
He nodded and glanced away for a second. “What did they call you at the other orphanage?”
“At the first one, I think they called me Becky, but that could have been the second one. I’m not sure, and at the last one it was Mary. Somewhere in between, I was called Stacy.”
The director stepped forward. “She was one of those baby hatch children. The mother gave her up right after her birth.” Great the director was telling him that I had never been a wanted child. “Then when she was a few days ol
der, she got sick, very sick,” he went on, pouring more salt into my wounds. “She was moved to different orphanages so she could get better care. The humid air here is good for her lungs.”
“I haven’t been sick at all the last two years,” I barked back at the director. He would never get rid of me if he told people that I was sickly. No one wanted a sick child.
The man bent down so he was looking in my eyes. “Young lady, you were very disrespectful to the director. I want you to apologize this instant.”
I blinked and felt a tear running down my face. The man stepped away, and I peeked at the director. “I’m sorry, sir.”
“Of course, child,” he said to me. “She has never had an outburst like that before. I’m sorry Mr. Reeves.”
“So so, you have never had an outburst before. Then why now?” The man was backing away to get a better look at me.
“I just thought that if anyone ever did show interest in me, then it would be better if he didn’t list off that I had been a bit sickly as a child.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So you felt that talking back was the way to get someone interested in adopting you?”
“No, but I figured that you were already interested in Kyle so –– So that bridge was burnt.”
He laughed aloud then. He moved along the line, and when he was finished, he thanked us for our time, and then we were dismissed.
I went up to the nurse’s office to see if Kyle was still there. He was, so I went in and gave him his box. He ripped it open right away, and we saw that different kinds of candy were in it. We never got anything sweet, so Kyle started right in eating.
I went to the girl’s dormitory and laid my box unopened on my bed. I hurried out and went back to the tree to my spot before anyone could take it away from me.
Once I was hidden between the branches and leaves, I cried. I hoped that no one would see me doing it and pick on me for it. I couldn’t take a scolding, and that man had scolded me, and before that, he had ignored me. He had talked to everyone longer than me. I was probably ugly too. There had to be something so very wrong with me that no one had ever wanted me.
“Molly!” one of the nurses called out.
Great I was in trouble now too. I dropped down and went to her.
“Come with me, girl. He wants to see you again.” She took hold of my hand and raced back towards the orphanage.
“But why?” I asked her confused.
“Never you mind, but be polite to him.” She warned me.
Was he going to scold me again? I went with her into the director’s office. I peeked around quickly because I hadn’t been in there since I arrived a few years ago.
The man was standing there looking down at me. He was somehow bigger than I remembered him from half an hour ago.
“I’m sorry I ruined your stay here. That wasn’t very considerate of me,” I told him.
He grinned from ear to ear. “Well, young lady you really do know how to make an impression.”
I nodded at him then glanced at the director. He was still looking at the man. I looked back at him too.
“Why didn’t you open the present that I brought you?” He cocked his head to the side as he looked down at me.
“I saw Kyle open his,” I replied.
“That didn’t answer my question.” He pressed on.
“Because I knew what was in it, and I didn’t feel that –– that –– I needed a piece of candy.” I hung my head and stared down at my feet. My shoes were dusty. I wished that he would leave already.
“Look at me,” he demanded in a deep strong voice.
I looked up at him and frowned.
“Didn’t you think that you deserved it?” he asked me.
I blushed red. I wanted to leave now.
“Look at me,” he demanded.
I looked up at him and chewed on my lip a little.
“I gave it to you because I wanted you to have it.” He had his hands behind his back, but then he moved his right hand around in front of him. In his hand, he held my wrapped up box, which he handed to me.
“Thank you, sir.” I took the box and looked at it again. Had he been in our dormitory and seen the box on my bed and gotten mad? He probably asked whose bed it was, only to find out that it was mine.
He was mad. I would be glad when he left.
The door opened, and Kyle was brought in. The man was still looking at me, but then he sighed and went over to Kyle. He laid his hand on his shoulder. “How is your knee, son?”
“Fine, sir. You don’t have to worry. I get hurt all the time. I patch up real easy too.” Kyle beamed at the man. Kyle was good at talking to adults.
The man smiled at him. He wanted Kyle that was plain to see. His hand went right to his shoulder after he looked at his knee.
“Okay children. I want you to say thank you to the director and the nice ladies here before we leave.”
I was confused and uncertain what he meant.
Kyle’s face lighted up. “You want to take us?” he asked.
“Yes, both of you.” He smiled at Kyle and then looked over at me and nodded.
I was still very confused. After twelve years of never being picked, I didn’t really understand what being picked meant.
Kyle thanked the director and the women, and then I stepped forward and repeated what Kyle had said, using the same words he had. When we were finished, the man grabbed onto my hand. His hand was so large and strong. He thanked the director and promised to send him a donation for our orphanage. Then he walked out with us. That was it. I was suddenly no longer an orphan.
“Sir, I need to pack my sport equipment.” Kyle had been popular right off the bat because he had arrived with so much stuff when his parents died. When the boys went out, the others surrounded him right away. They wanted to play with him and his stuff.
The maid that the man had brought with him was waiting outside with the basket. She smiled at him. “Congratulations, sir. You found two this time.” She spoke before he could answer Kyle. I understood that Kyle wanted to keep his things. He had gotten them from his parents. They were proof that they loved him.
“Yes, I feel I got lucky,” the man answered the maid. “Children, get in the car. Kyle, the nurses here have packed your bags. They’re loaded in the car already.”
Kyle opened the door to get in the funny long car.
“Wait, son. I know it is a very old-fashioned idea, but I still believe in the old school ways. Hold the door. The ladies get in first.”
His maid gave her basket to a man who got out of the front of the car. Then she got in. The man adopting us stepped forward and placed his hand on my elbow and helped me in. Then Kyle got in and sat down across from me. The man sat down next to me. I had laid my gift on my lap. Kyle was still staring at it.
“Did you want some more candy, Kyle?” I asked him.
“Sure. Could I have the red one?” Kyle’s eyes lighted up.
“Kyle, you already had yours. This is for your sister.” He spoke with Kyle very strictly.
Kyle had missed my scolding before in the line-up and then in the office too, so he was surprised by the man’s tone. He nodded and leaned back into the seats.
The man asked him about different sports, and Kyle was able to relax and be himself again. They seemed to have a lot in common.
Chapter 2
The car parked, and the man who adopted me grabbed onto my hand again. “Stay close to me. Clara, watch Kyle for me.” The driver opened the door for us, and he got out still holding my hand. His maid got out too. Kyle went to her. She was saying something to him. The man was pulling me into the airship station. I glanced around as he walked to an office. When we walked in, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him. Some people nudged other people to get them to look at us.
A man stepped forward with his hand held out to the man who adopted us. “Mr. Reeves, what a pleasure to meet you. I have heard so much about you. What can I do for you today?” The man’s
eyes lighted up, like Kyle’s did when he talked about sports.
“I just adopted two children on this wonderful planet of yours, and I need the paperwork so I can take my children home with me.”
“That won’t be a problem, sir. A background check won’t be necessary. Everyone knows who you are. I need the papers from the orphanage, and we’ll get everything settled right away. The children do have their shots don’t they?”
“Yes, yes. I adopted from a respectable orphanage.” He gave the man a stack of papers. “I have a nanny traveling with me too. Her papers are also in the pile. I want to share a cabin with my family and staff, but with four separate bedrooms.”
“No problem. We will take care of everything for you. Please have a seat.” He sat down behind his desk and went to work.
I sat down on the bench facing the man’s desk when the man who adopted me also sat. I could feel all the eyes in the room on us. Some of the people were whispering.
“Would you or your daughter like something to drink or eat, Mr. Reeves?” the man behind the desk asked him, eager to please him.
Mr. Reeves turned to me. “Would you like something to eat? It must be lunchtime at the orphanage about now.”
I shook my head. I was too nervous to eat.
“I want you to answer me when I talk to you. You should either say yes, please, or no, thank you.” He reprimanded me.
I nodded at him and cleared my throat. “No, thank you.”
“Good girl.”
“I have a bit of a problem. Which name did you want us to use for your daughter? I have six names listed here.” The man looked a bit surprised by that.
“Do you prefer one over the others?” Mr. Reeves asked me.
“Not really,” I replied.
“May I choose one for you?” A tiny spark in his eyes told me that he would like to pick one for me.
I nodded and then remembered that he wanted me to speak when I answered him. “Yes, please.”