by Lacy Camey
“This is so beautiful,” I admired.
“Yes, built for Church.”
I nodded as I continued to follow her.
“Yeah, about the men here.” Before I could mention Logan, the other grouch, I remembered moments earlier in the kitchen and how her eyes shot at me as red hot coals when I almost openly vented about Logan to the ladies. I decided to hold my tongue.
“Don’t you worry about the men. You just concentrate on the precious children. They are what matters. This way.”
She led me down a stone hallway into a surprisingly large laundry room with two washers and two dryers. “This is the laundry room. You will find many baskets under here.” She opened a cabinet door revealing stacks of wicker baskets. I thought about all of the children’s beds and their linens. “Who changes the children’s bed linens?” I asked. Mine at home were changed twice a week.
“I do, dear. But not very often I afraid. I a very busy woman.” She smiled kindly.
Without even thinking, I said, “Let me help you. You do so much it seems.”
“It’s all for the children. But if you have time, yes. I’d love the help.”
“My help is yours.”
“Thank you. I must get back now to kitchen before your friends burn down.”
I laughed. “Okay, sounds like a good plan.” I watched her walk away and realized I had forgotten how to ask to use the wash. How hard could it be, right?
Minutes later, after attempting my first load, Norah rushed through the medical headquarters. “Chloe, hurry quick. You must come quick!”
I looked at the doctors who shrugged their shoulders.
As I followed her running footsteps out of the door, I asked, “What’s the matter? What happened?” Vinny was behind me, running as well.
“Uh, something happened in the wash room.”
Feeling the heat on my cheeks, I nervously asked, “What?”
“Yeah, soap everywhere!”
“Oh, no!” As we made our way back to the laundry room, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Water and soap were everywhere. How did that happen? Even though I didn’t know how, I knew it was my fault.
“Oh, my word what do I do?”
“I don’t know! I mean, are there towels somewhere, or sheets? Soak up the water.”
We were attempting to soak up the two inches of water that had flooded the room when Josephina and Logan walked in.
“Oh dear, oh my,” Josephina said.
“What happened here?” Logan asked.
Before I could reply, Josephina responded quickly, “Oh my, Brother Logan. It is all my fault. I was so caught up in my prayer time this morning that I didn’t even realize how much soap I put in the washing machine. It must be because I’m so happy to have these lovely ladies help.”
He nodded his head. “Well, I’ll go grab a mop and bucket.” He ran off to get the supplies, leaving the three of us alone for a moment.
“Josephina, I am so sorry! I am so sorry! I’ve never done laundry before. Please forgive me,” I pleaded. “I just wanted to help.”
“You never do laundry yet? You just ask! I show you next time. Oh, accidents happen,” she said plainly, completely void of judgment.
“I’m so sorry,” I said again.
“Chloe, it’s okay. Accidents happen,” she said, but quickly stopped since Logan reentered.
He began soaking up the water and releasing it in the bucket as I attempted to use the remaining towels to help.
“I wouldn’t use those!” he said quickly, then stopped since the towels were already soaked in water. “Those were the children’s fresh towels for the week.”
“I, uh . . . am so sorry,” I said, feeling completely defeated and useless.
Feeling tears creep in my eyes, I quickly said, “I’ll stay up late. I’ll wash new towels.”
“We have a washing budget we have to abide by. It’s expensive. The electricity.”
“I’ll write you a check. Have money wired,” I said quickly.
He laughed but in a I can’t believe you just said that way. “I’ll write you a check, huh? Venezuelan currency?”
“Yes,” I said honestly. I could easily have that done right away.
“Right, because money fixes everything. Money is power, right?” he said as he continued to mop and shake his head.
“I really am sorry,” I said quietly.
Josephina looked at him strangely, as if wondering what had gotten into him.
“Look, just let me take care of it. Josephina, can you go check in the chapel and make sure everything is going as it should?”
She nodded, then looked at me once more with kind eyes as if she understood.
“Norah, you can go back to preparing lunch. The children will be hungry in a few hours. Thanks so much.”
“Well, uh. Okay,” she said.
“And what about me?” I asked.
“You can go back helping the doctors.”
“But they sent me to clean the linens.”
“Well, they’ll have to give you another assignment.”
I felt a giant rock drop to the bottom of my stomach. “Right, I’ll just go ask the doctors who don’t want me around, think I’m a joke, to give me another assignment because I already messed up the only simple task I was given.” I left the room, and I heard Logan stop mopping for a moment.
After being completely humiliated, I made my way back to the medical headquarters sans bedding.
“What happened?” Dr. Richards asked.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Nothing? Seemed like quite an emergency to me.”
“No, it’s fine. It will all be fine,” I said, trying to calm down and believe it myself.
“Well, good because we have three children in need of cots stat.”
I glanced over at the bare cots.
“Right,” I said trying to think of a solution. I thought of the sheets in our bunk and I knew what I had to do—use our own sheets. They had only been slept on for seven hours. Better those sheets than dirty sheets.
I made my way to our sleeping quarters with—of course—Vinny on my tail. I wondered what he thought about the matter. I was sure he was dying inside of this so very not important job. He was most likely thinking of his daughter.
“I’m sorry about you missing your daughter’s first day of kindergarten,” I said.
“Yeah, well. Nothing to be done about it now. There’s always next year.”
Not wanting to prod too much, but just a little more, I asked, “Are you normally traveling away doing these types of jobs?”
“Yes. Anything so my wife can stay at home with the children. I take months off at a time after jobs like this one so I can be at home.”
Oh good, I thought. So he wasn’t suffering too much.
“May I tell you something?” he said as we made our way into the bunk.
Oh no. What?
“Yes,” I nodded cautiously as I began moving bags and clothes off the beds in order to strip the sheets.
“That doctor in there, the guy giving you a hard time. He hides behind a name, a title. No real man belittles women.”
Feeling a smile develop across my face I said, “Thanks.”
“And what you’re doing, giving up your own sheets. Says a lot,” he said freely, shocking me.
“Well, thanks,” I said as I bundled the sheets in my arms. “That’s really an encouraging thing for you to say.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t sure what to think of you and your friends, but you prove to have real heart.”
It was the least I could do. I wondered if he really meant what he said or if he was paid to say things like that. Regardless, I needed to hear it to help lift my spirits.
As I made my way back to the medical headquarters to re-fit the cots, I overheard the doctors talking about a special dinner, but they stopped when they saw me and grew very quiet.
After I dressed the cots, I stood looking anxious, ready for something else.
“We’re about to go get the ill children. Your services are not needed for the remainder of the day.”
“My services are not needed? But—”
“That’s all,” Dr. Richards said.
“But—”
“That’s all,” he said firmly.
Fine. I shook my head. Unbelievable. I made eye contact with Vinny as I opened the door in haste and headed towards the kitchen where Josephina, Norah, Maycee, Ana, Lucia and Cordilla were.
“Need any help in here? Please tell me you do.”
“No, dear. We have it. Why don’t you go listen to the chapel service? Brother Logan should be speaking by now. Normally we all go but we get tiny behind,” she said as she held up her fingers as if showing a tiny pinch.
“There’s nothing I can do?” I asked again.
“Do you not like chapel?” Josephina asked as Ana, Lucia and Cordilla stared at me with innocent faces, waiting for my response. Clearly they adored chapel.
“It’s not like that at all. I do like uh . . . chapel. I just want to be able to help.”
“Well, sometimes you need to sit in chapel so you can help others better.” She patted my shoulders. “Now, go. It’s only thirty more minutes until lunch.”
Norah and Maycee nodded their heads at me and smiled, trying not to laugh.
I sighed. I really did not want to face Logan. In fact, I just wanted to hide.
Chapter Five
I made my way to the chapel entrance with, of course, Vinny as Steve re–joined us. Each step I took felt like a ton of bricks. I did not want to go in there. As I stood on the outside of the door, I heard the most beautiful sound–children singing.
They were singing the old hymn, Amazing Grace. As I listened, every fear of stepping foot in the chapel dissipated. I had to go in there to be closer to the children singing.
I quietly opened the door and kept my hand on it, allowing the door to shut quietly as I put my finger on my lips, trying to usher Steve and Vinny to be as quiet as possible. The children were oblivious to our entrance, but Logan saw me at the end of the aisle as he led the song. I quickly found the nearest pew and we sat down.
I looked at the back of the children’s heads. They all wore uniforms of tan polo shirts.
Their happy voices echoed in the beautiful acoustics of the room. No music was played. Simply their voices. As the song ended, Logan motioned for them to be seated. He brushed his wavy blonde locks back from his eyes and placed his baseball cap in his back pocket.
“Every good deed God sees and rewards. Every seed sown, a bountiful harvest is reaped. He who gives freely receives freely. Jesus spoke to his disciples and said I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was without clothes, and you clothed me. Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me. You see, no good deed goes unnoticed.” He stopped and I could tell he was peering right at me.
“And it is God who looks at our hearts and He is the one that sees the sincerity of our actions when we give. It doesn’t matter the size of our gift, all that matters is our heart.”
He continued on with his message as I felt my cheeks warm. I looked down at my hands. I am here in good intention, God knows that. I had to look unphased just like Steve had told me earlier. I lifted my chin and met Logan’s equally challenging gaze.
After his message, he asked for the two bell ringers to come forward. Apparently, each day there were new volunteers. Two eager children opened a door and moments later, the bell rang dismissing them for lunch in the giant eating room.
As the children exited the chapel I looked at each one as they passed and waved hi to them. Some smiled at me, some looked at me as if saying, “Who are you and those two big men?”
Finally, Logan walked passed us without barely even acknowledging us.
“Well, let’s go eat some lunch,” I said to Vinny and Steve.
Moments later I sat at a table with Maycee, Norah, Josephina and the women from earlier in the kitchen. Josephina was right. Their food was astonishing. It was some type of soup that had just the right kick to it and homemade corn bread. As I dipped the cornbread into my soup, I smiled at the comfort of carbs.
“You feel better now?” Josephina asked me.
“I guess. I mean, carbs cure everything, right?” I said.
She smiled at me politely, probably wondering what I meant.
As I walked into our bunkroom ready to let my hair down and scream with my opinion of how rude Logan was earlier and his inspiring chapel message, the establishment of men in the orphanage, and how I just had to do something to make some sort of difference, Maycee’s utter excitement stopped me.
Her eyes were bright, and she jumped up and down like a child.
“Look at this!” Maycee pointed to her computer screen.
As I went to look, I said, “How did you get the internet to work in here?”
She pointed to her internet stick. “It works sometimes, but sometimes the signal isn’t there. Right now it’s working and look!” She pointed in animation.
“Since we’ve been here and since I’ve been vlogging— you know, video blogging—about my experience here writing a play with the orphanage.”
“The play I so kindly came up with,” I added with charm. “And wait, that was hours ago.”
“I know! Crazy thing is, over ten thousand viewers have seen it today! That’s crazy! It’s so insane,” she said.
“It’s because you’re hot,” Norah said.
Maycee ignored her sister and said, “But what I wanted to show you is there is this guy, named Matt.”
“Oh, a guy, Maycee? Please! That’s the last thing you need right now,” Norah started.
“Um, gross. You know I’ve sworn off guys. No, it’s not like that. Look here.” She held up her computer displaying a handsome guy in a suit posing for a headshot.
“He’s this big time acquisitions editor in New York and he contacted me about setting up a meeting about a children’s book series idea. But because the reception is so bad, I haven’t been able to reply.”
“Wait, all because of a video that literally aired a few hours ago?” I asked.
“Well, what can I say? If it’s meant to be it’s meant to be! This could be the ticket that gets me back into the game,” she said.
“You’re doing pretty fine from the looks of it without a publisher,” Norah admitted as she looked through a few shirts to change into.
“Speaking of audience, how is your man bashing blog going? How’s your book doing?” I asked.
“It’s going insane! Seriously, if I budgeted right, I wouldn’t have to work for another year just from sales. How do you think I got to come here without working?” She started typing as she continued to speak. “I am working, technically because as a writer, it can be a full-time career. I mean, I’m not just here mooching off my parent’s money or anything like that.”
We all stared at her. No one had said anything of the nature. But since I was sensitive to the day’s occurrences, I asked, “Like me? Is that why you said that?”
Norah shot her sister an evil shut up don’t say another word glare.
“Absolutely not, Chloe. I wasn’t referring to you at all. I mean for crying out loud, you’re doing a service. I’m sorry if you took it that way. Are you about to start your period or something?”
I sat down on my bed and looked at my feet. I took off my shoes and let out a big sigh. “Sorry, I don’t want to rob the show here. I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but I’ve just had the worst day ever. It seems I can’t do anything right. I’m tired of trying to make people see me beyond a name.”
Norah immediately went to my defense. “You know what you need?”
I was waiting for her to give me a life changing, deep answer. But as she rustled through her bag, she reached in and pulled out a bag of Dove milk chocolates. “You need chocolates!” My eyes lit up. Chocolate always did that do me.
“How did you ke
ep that from melting? Please give me the whole bag.” Like I said, carbs were the cure for everything. But chocolate is the catalyst for brighter moods.
She handed me a package as I reached for one and let the flavor melt in my mouth. Maycee also unwrapped one for herself. “This is great, we should do a vlog about eating chocolate in the jungle. How no matter where you are, chocolate soothes all wounds.”