"Money, despite Wade's modesty, is not an issue for us. Wade is an important businessman. He manages his family's very large plumbing supply company, although he doesn't really know anything about plumbing, do you, Wade?"
"I do too," he protested, his face finally taking on some color. "I worked with Dad for--"
"Oh, Wade." She waved at him. "Does he look like he worked with wrenches and pipes all his life? His mother wouldn't let him work that hard."
She laughed.
Wade's blush rippled down his neck. He smirked and shook his head. Then he forced a smile at Mother Higgins.
"My mother always told me you could lift more with your brains than with your muscles," he said in his own defense.
Mother Higgins nodded.
"I quite agree with your mother."
A look of satisfaction sat on his face. He turned triumphantly to Ami.
"Whatever," Ami said, already bored with the topic. "How soon can she come to live with us?"
"Well," Mother Higgins said, eyeing me. "Before we get into any of that, I suppose Celeste should tell us what she thinks. We do let the girls think for themselves, especially when they reach Celeste's age. In a year, she will be on her own--not that we would ever desert her," Mother Higgins added, smiling my way.
"Oh, yes, of course. I'm sorry. I just thought . . ." Ami paused, glanced at Wade, who shook his head, and then sat back and folded her arms under her breasts. "Go on. Tell us what you think."
They were all looking at me now. Even Wade's face suddenly was full of interest. Something was swirling about them, something I had never sensed. What had brought these people to me now? I had always harbored the deep belief that nothing happened to me without a reason, that my destiny was clearly and plainly laid out in a map of events solely designed for me. These people didn't simply find me. It was meant to happen. But why?
Ami looked absolutely terrified that I would reject their offer.
"I don't know. It's true that since the academic year has just begun, it wouldn't be a terrible burden to change schools. I suppose I'm fine with it all," I said. "As soon as whatever has to be done is done," I added, looking at Mother Higgins.
She smiled at me.
"Oh, how wonderful!" Ami cried, nearly leaping out of her seat. "How long will it all take? Do we need an attorney? We have dozens of attorneys, don't we, Wade? What do we need?" she said, grimacing as though she expected a dreadfully long laundry list of preparations.
"You don't need an attorney," Wade said slowly. "Why don't you and Celeste take a walk and get to know each other while Mother Higgins and I go through the paperwork?" he suggested.
Ami brightened again, and her skin, which was so soft looking and so smooth it looked smeared over her body with a butter knife, took on a rosy blush at the crests of her high cheekbones.
"What a wonderful idea. Thank you, Wade. Celeste, shall we?" she asked, rising.
I glanced at Mother Higgins. She wasn't smiling now. Her eyes met mine as they had often. She had a way of reaching inside me to find out what I really thought and felt. I liked her very much, but the prospect of having a life outside of' this orphanage away from all these younger girls and attending a school that was far from the dreary one I now attended was truly exhilarating for me.
"I'll show you our gardens," I told Ami.
She practically leaped across the office to thread her arm through mine.
"Good. I hate boring business talk anyway," she whispered.
She was my prospective foster mother, but I felt like I had joined arms with one of the younger wards in the orphanage. We stepped outside into the warm early September afternoon. Summer wasn't over, and anyway, it did look like we would have an extended one. A military jet had drawn a trail of milk white exhaust across the darkening blue, but other than that, there wasn't a cloud in sight.
Ami was right. The orphanage wasn't very large, and the grounds were narrow toward the front, the boundaries of the property shaped more like a parabola. To the right was an old fieldstone wall with mold on the stones and weeds growing out of crevices and cracks. Between the building and the wall were some modest attempts at creating gardens. The people who worked on it were volunteers, and the flowers and plants were pathetic in contrast to those I remembered on our farm. Sometimes, almost as a way of reliving those days, I would work on the gardens here, and when I did, I thought I sensed Noble standing behind me, even though it had been quite a while since he had shown himself to me. It's only a memory, I told myself, just a memory, and I don't need it. I'm stronger. It was a chant my therapist had suggested I repeat every time I was tempted to call for Noble.
"I have a confession to make," Ami began. "I've seen you before."
"Oh?"
Was she referring to something in my past? I wondered. A picture in a newspaper? A magazine? What did she actually know about that?
"I did a bit of a survey of the orphanages and foster homes in our area, and when I learned about you, I parked my car across the street there one afternoon and waited for you to return from school."