The Divine's Kin

Roger came back home with delightful treats for the kids. He brought chocolates, candies, toys, and some pretty outfits in several bags that the hands of the servant carrying them were getting tugged down by their weight. He gestured for the house helper to place the bags on the table, and he put them down.

"I don't know if you will like any of these but I just thought of you and bought them on my way back."

Neither Collin nor Oriel seemed any excited or uplifted on receiving those gifts. Roger was awkwardly looking at them, accepting the gifts with straight faces. Bella was also beside them, prodding them to act pleased. "Wow! Collin, you love this superhero figure, don't you?" she took out from the bag a plastic model of a character and showed it him, trying to stimulate a reaction out of him. "

Oriel! a barbie doll for you."

Collin took the notice of her mother's actions and realized that even if he was feeling uncomfortable accepting those gifts, he was not supposed to show it on his face. "I like this very much and I always wanted to have one of these."

Oriel saw him appreciating the gestures of his step-father, but it was the time when she had just lost her father and nothing except that wallet and watch could comfort her heart. She braced silence, not paying attention to the sweets, toys and dresses scattered on the table.

Roger's effort to get closer to the children by buying them goods that children in general loved, failed miserably. He sought to find out more ways to make friends with them. He brought them on the dining table, having supper together.

Oriel's short legs couldn't help her climb the high legged chair at the dinning table; she struggled trying to jump and sit on it. Roger saw her adorably exhausting herself to sit on the chair, "let me help you, my lady!" He raised her in the air and seated her. He took the chair beside her for himself and served rice in her dish.

Although he knew that she was just a guest staying for a few days, he adored the cute and chubby little girl. "So when is your birthday Oriel?" asked Roger.

"It's April 1 2029," she replied while taking a mouthful of rice from her spoon.

"What?" Bella almost choked on her food. "Sweetie, its 2008 outside in this world. If you haven't traveled back in the past, it's almost impossible."

Oriel didn't understand what Bella meant; she was focused on the food and had her cheek smeared with sauce and a few rice grains stuck to it. Roger pulled out a tissue from the box and gently dabbed on her face, removing the sticky ketchup. "Relax honey, she wants to say April 29 in 2001."

It irked Bella that Roger was tender and pampering with Oriel. She nudged Collin to approach Roger as well. Meanwhile, he was ironically busy, pouring some cold water in a glass tumbler to give Oriel.

"By the way, Collin's birthday is also a couple of months ahead, how about I organize a small party here?" asked Bella, attracting his attention off Oriel's face. "We can invite the children from your circle and get them to be friends with Collin."

"That's a good idea!" he replied. "Oriel and Collin will meet new friends."

"Oriel?" she enunciated with emphasis. "But she won't be here till then, she would have gone to her family by then."

On hearing that, Collin tilted his face towards his mother. He was furious to hear that. Leaving his meal in the middle, he stormed upstairs. "Collin!" screamed his mother.

Roger called for the house help to come and he came bringing a tempting large sized cake. "Honey! why did you buy this cake?" Bella asked confused over the unexpected dish served on the table.

"Yes, I thought the kids would like this," he said. Oriel jumped from her chair on seeing her favorite mango cake. "Do you like mangoes that much?"

"Yeah! I love mangoes," she was blissful to have the biggest slice of the cake and she dug her spoon in to take a bite from it. The velvety cake slice wobbled at the jab of spoon. She ate it deliciously, relishing in its sweetness. She forgot her grief by its sweet taste. Roger smiled at her sight. "Remember to brush your teeth thoroughly after this."

Bella creased her forehead seeing Roger adoring her more and more, she was concerned for Collin, who was aloof and unfriendly.

"Collin! come here and have a slice of this cake," shouted Bella in the direction of his room. "Roger has specially bought it for you."

Bella wished Roger to treat Collin as his own son in order to complete her family the way she had always imagined. "I have the most perfect husband and my precious child with me, and all I want is to make a home with them. But, why am I worried for this child's presence; why do I see her as a threat for my dream, when she is only a little orphan girl. Is it my overthinking?" contemplated Bella for a long time the following night.

Next day, she put on her shoes on to take Oriel out and look for her family or relatives. "Tell me, where is your house?" she asked while turning the steering wheel.

Oriel being a mentally vulnerable child had no recollections of the complicated paths and routes. She was staring outside the car window trying to tell the pattern of buildings and shops apart, but they all looked same to her.

"There was a tree in front of our house," she said, instilling anger in Bella.

"Is that all you remember? There are thousands of houses in this city with so many trees in front of them, do you want me to look every house for you?" her voice gradually became louder. "How are you so stupid that you don't even know the way to your own house. Are you even normal?"

Bella passed through every street and road of the city hoping for Oriel to identify her neighborhood. She became tired, and resorted to call Bob, who was in possession of her fathers I.D card.

"The number you are calling does not exist in the directory..." came through the phone and Bella frowned on the bad luck struck on her. "Nothing is helping for me to get rid of you. You are like a stubborn stain, refusing to go away."

She stopped her car for a moment beside an electric pole and inclined her seat backwards to take a rest, when she suddenly caught the sight of an orphanage that almost was misunderstood by her as a haunted house, due to lack of funds for renovating its walls it looked like an abandoned pile of bricks. But on seeing the sign saying, 'The Divine's Kin Orphanage', her tensions washed away at the knock of an idea.