FicWad

Straight as a Circle.
Chapter 3 -


I had to give Frank a quick tour of the house, if you could call three rooms and a corrugated iron roof a house. He had already seen the kid’s bedroom, the biggest room in the house.

That led straight onto the ‘living area’ the smallest room in the house and really was only a wide corridor with a low table with cushions for seats and 3 doors leading to various places; the front door and the two bedroom doors. We didn’t have a back door as we had no garden, if the children wanted to play they would go to the street outside and have to dodge the fruit carts and business men taking short cuts to the city. They only ever went out there to draw in the dust, something Liang in particular found very amusing.

I told him where the toilet was, along with the shower. Marie and the helper before me had to add that room as there hadn’t been one built in. It was so small it didn’t even really count as a room.

Lastly I showed him our bedroom-come-office. 3 single beds were squeezed into the room, the one against the wall covered in paper work as no-one had been there to use it.

‘I’ll help you shift all that later tonight, its just all the children’s files and we had no-where else to put it. I suppose it will have to go under the beds now.’

Frank nodded and sat down on my bed in the middle. ‘Gee, what’s it like here? I mean, I’ve only been in china a few hours and already I find it suffocating, how the hell have you managed to last 6 months?’

I smiled and sat next to him, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach. He probably didn’t even swing that way. ‘I almost died in the first week. It was so humid, I could barely breathe the air was so thick. My hair was constantly stuck to my forehead and I just felt generally dirty all the time, I couldn’t have a shower every day like I did in America. Our water supply only allows us two five minute showers a day if you want to leave enough for cooking dinner and drinking, let alone washing the dishes afterwards. We have a rota so everyone gets clean at some point. Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine once your body has adjusted to the heat and humidity.’

Frank nodded and thought about it. He looked down at the bed before asking another question.

‘So, how poor are we? Like, I noticed none of the beds have sheets, just pillows…’ He looked kind of awkward asking it bluntly like that.

‘They don’t have sheets because its summer and gets so hot, we put them away to stop them getting dirty so we don’t have to waste water on washing them. As for the money… well we are slightly better off then some of the people around here, but sometimes it gets incredibly tight. Marie brings in extra money from teaching English to local business men, and I do what I can here and there. I’m mainly here for the children though, to teach them and look after them. That chocolate you saw them get today is a treat they only get once every 4 months or so, the rest of the time they put up with eating rice and some vegetables and never once complain. Sometimes my Mom sends stuff over from America meant solely for me, but I always end up giving it to the kids.’

Frank chuckled. ‘My dad said he’s gonna do something like that, but he’s gonna be just to busy I can see it now. He’s a great man, my dad, but sometimes he works too damn hard.’

‘What about your Mom?’ I asked, trying not to yawn. I didn’t realise how tired I was.

‘She died when I was like 2 years old. I was kinda hesitant to come here at first, because that meant I had to leave my Dad on his own, but he was really keen for me to go. Told me it would earn me some life skills and experience.’ He picked at a lose thread on his shorts as he said this, his face showing no extreme emotion.

‘Hey, I’m sorry about your Mom,’ I said, sincerely.

He just shrugged. ’It’s okay I suppose, it sounds mean but I don’t really mind. I never really knew her, and sure, it would have been great to have a Mom, but I’ve dealt without one for so long it just feels normal to me. I suppose a Dad is the most important thing for a boy to have anyway.’

I nodded, taking it all in.

‘You know, that’s one of the reasons I came to work here for a bit. These kids have got no parents, and I’ve seen how hard it can be with just one. I wanted to help in any way I could.’

I smiled at him. ‘That’s really noble of you.’

Just as he was about to answer, Marie’s voice was carried through-out the house. ‘DINNER!’

I grinned at him. ‘Ever had dinner with 11 hungry children before Frank?’

A smirk appeared on his face as he shook his head. He was in for a surprise.

I took him through to the living area to find 11 kids already sat down on their cushions, bowls and spoons waiting expectantly. I told Frank to take a seat and went over to Marie who was in the corner, mixing noodles and vegetables in our make-shift kitchen. All it consisted of was a gas powered ring, a small low cabinet and a bowl of water placed under the tap.

We took the pots over and filled each child’s bowl as fairly as we could, trying to make the food last as long as possible but at the same time trying to make sure the children wouldn’t go hungry. We served ourselves and Frank before we sat down at the table. It was really a large piece of wood placed on the floor, it didn’t even had legs, but it did the job. No-one complained.

‘Frank could you tell us about America?’ Liang asked in slightly fragmented English, leaning over the table trying to get as close to Frank as possible.

Frank smiled and swallowed the mouthful of noodles he had. ‘Well… what do you want to know?’

‘Everything!’ Tian shouted, causing a ripple of giggles to go round the table.

Frank grinned and started on a story about his old school. I zoned out and just watched his face as his spoke, watching the different expressions he did to entertain the children. To my right Marie cleared her throat, drawing my attention away from Franks beautiful face.

‘What’s up Marie?’ I whispered, not wanting to disturb the children during Frank’s story time.

‘I need you to go to the market again tomorrow, sorry. I ran out of rice so we had to have the last of the noodles, I was meant to tell you to get some today but I forgot. Maybe you could take Frank, show him the way so he can take over some of the market runs?’

I nodded and finished off my food. By now the children’s bowls had been empty for a long time, and it was getting late.

I snapped my fingers to get the kids to listen. ‘Bowls in a pile by the tap please, then get changed and into bed. No arguments, no time to play I want you in bed now.’

They grumbled a little bit, but did as I said. Once we had them in bed, me Frank and Marie walked through into our bedroom and collapsed on the bed. Well, Frank didn’t, he sat rather gingerly on the edge of his bed as there was still paperwork on it.

Marie glanced over and yawned. ‘Just shove the paperwork on the floor Frankie, I’ll sort it tomorrow.’

He nodded and began picking it up and gently placing it on the floor. I smiled at him before I sat up, shoving the rest to the ground in one quick motion. It was all in folders anyway, its not like it would fly everywhere.

‘So much easier that way Frankie.’

He smiled shyly and sat down on his bed, facing me and Marie.

We were silent for a few minutes and just as I was drifting off to sleep, Frank asked a question.

‘Guys… can I ask you something?’ He whispered.

I nodded but didn’t open my eyes. ‘Sure Frankie fire away.’

‘Are you like… together?’

I tried to process his question before I heard Marie burst out laughing.

‘Me? And Gerard?!’ Marie had to stop talking because her laughter got in the way. She wiped one of her eyes before carrying on. ‘Honey, Gerard is about as straight as a circle. I have a boyfriend back home.’

I glanced over at Frank, to see an almost relieved smile on his face.



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