Chapter Five

Ezra 

"Oh that was something." I say sighing once we're out of the pub. Maylin's presence is like a storm.

"Right? May has more energy than the three of us combined." Luna smiles. One thing I've learned about Luna in the short time I've spent with her is that this girl can smile, she's like always smiling. And it suits her like a second skin.

"Let's go, I'll show you something interesting." 

"Now I'm scared. Do I have to mentally prepare for someone else to make their claim on me?" I say and Luna blesses me with that gorgeous smile of hers once again. Her stunning dark curly hair bounces every time she does that, truth to be told I've never seen hair quite like hers. Luna has mid shoulder length dark curly hair, which compliments her perfectly.

"Nope. But you have to prepare for the worst."

"Oh dear, you're really scaring me."

"How much experience do you have around kids?" she suddenly asks.

"Huh?" I ask, confused.

"Well jokes aside if you hate kids then this may be a bad idea." she says looking at my eyes.

"I don't hate kids." I state firmly.

"That's good. Let's go." she smiles. She seriously needs to stop. I'm not used to people smiling this much around me. I'm usually surrounded by grumpy workaholics. "But we can't go there by walking. You're okay with the bus, right?" she asks.

"Yes, why wouldn't I?"

"um.. you just looked like a posh kid who won't ride anything other than their personal car. " she says hesitantly. She probably saw my SUV, which I only brought so I could look like a spoiled and carefree rich dude. It isn't even mine, it belongs to my grandpa.

"When did I?" my voice sounding more offended than I intended.

"Okay okay, I'm sorry. I just-"  Before she could finish a huge track park right beside us.

"Hey Lu! What are you doing here?" a muscular guy with bronze skin peeks from the open window of the truck. He has brownish hair quite similar to my original hair or maybe a few shades darker. 

"Wow Cass. What perfect timing! Are you going to the city?" Luna asks. Cass? I don't think I've heard that name before.

"Yes. I have deliveries for the city." He points at the back and I notice the cartons in the back and judging from the smell, they are filled with vegetables.

"Can you give us a lift to the Echoes on your way?" She asks.

"Of course but who is he?" He asks, eyeing me.

"Oh he's staying at the guesthouse. I was giving him a tour around the town." She introduces me. "Ezra, this is Cass. Cass, this is Ezra." 

"Hi man." He says. He looks like a female version of Luna, personality wise. "So you're gonna sit on this fine gentleman's lap?" Cass says, looking at Luna. 

"Lap? What?" Luna asks, confused.

"I don't have a bench seat on the truck. If I have to take both of you then one of you have to carry the other." He says in a teasing tone and then looks at me. "And I don't think he'll fit in your lap, Lu." I laugh at his statement while Luna blushes.

"You know what? Forget I asked you something. We'll take the bus." She starts walking, tagging me alone by pulling my shirt.

"Are you sure? I have no problem having you on my lap." I say laughing. It's kind of fun seeing Luna lose words. 

"Wait you dumbass. I was kidding." Cass calls back. "You know I have a bench seat here." 

"Yeah I know." She comes back and goes to the other side of the truck. "I'll go first okay?" 

"Okay. But what was that about?" 

"Nothing, just this dumbass's another attempt to make me launch on a guy's lap." She glares at Cass.

"Worth a try" he laughs and Luna lands some punches on his bicep, which only hurts her hand judging by her reaction. He's too muscled to feel those. "Well you can't deny it kind of worked last time."

"It did not. And next time you try something like this again, I'll officially send a wedding proposal to Donna for you." She settles in the smaller seat in between the two seats and I hop on.

"As if you have a candidate in mind." Cass shrugs. "You settled?" He asks me.

"Yes." I say closing the door.

"Oh you have no idea" Luna murmurs which fades under the loud engine sound of the truck.

              Soon the atmosphere becomes silent except the loud sound of the truck on the bumpy country road. I busy myself in sightseeing as that's the only way to make myself not look at Luna, who's literally plastered on my side, squeezed between two dudes. I can feel her feeling awkward and that's definitely not because of the hulk over there.

"So why y'all going to echos?" Cass breaks the silence.

"I don't even know what that is," I state. I know it's the town orphanage, being here for generations. But I can't tell them that. I wonder why Luna wants me to go there.

"You'll see when you're there." Luna says as she keeps fidgeting in the middle. 

"Are you uncomfortable?" I ask. Noticing how she keeps moving uncomfortably every minute.

"No it's just..." her legs bump into mine once again. "I'm sorry, the seat is a bit small for me." 

"It's okay, it's not your fault." I scoot to the side a bit to give her more space. "Better?"

"Yeah thanks" 

"So Ezra. What do you do?" Cass asks, his eyes on the road.

"I'm jobless right now." 

"Huh? I thought you were a photographer." 

"Well yeah. I love taking pictures. So that's what I'm doing."

"Oh I see." 

"What about you?" I ask.

"I'm a farmer, I grow vegetables and all." 

"You deliver them by yourself too?" I ask as I connect the dots. He has to be the one with Luna that night, the friend Jack told me about. 

"Yes. There's a few trusted wholesalers in the city. I deliver to the warehouses by myself."

"Must be lots of work."

"That's true."

"I keep telling him to hire someone for the deliveries and he keeps saying he can't leave his orders with someone else. But leaves Donna all by herself when he's away for deliveries." She sighs. "Like if you don't trust anyone for the deliveries at least have someone with Donna when you're out of the city."

"Donna?" I ask.

"My mom. And for your information, it's her who says she doesn't need anyone to help her. She said the only one she can accept is a daughter-in-law." Cass laughs.

"More reasons for me to find a wife for you." Luna doesn't miss the chance.

"Yeah you do that." he smiles. 

             We arrive at the orphanage in about an hour. The sign says "Children of Echoes", so that's why they keep calling the orphanage echoes.

"Bye. Cass." Luna waves.

"I'll be looking forward to my future wife candidate."  Cass waves off. "Bye, Ezra. It was nice meeting you." 

"Me too. I'll make sure to visit your farm during my stay." 

"It would be an honour." 

            As Cass's truck disappeares along with it's engine's loud rumbles, I switch my focus to the imposing gate in front of me. It's made of wood and metal. The metal is a bit rusty. The orphanage is pretty old. So far I know it's been owned by the town head for generations.

            I had information about the orphanage because of the intel I had on Freya and June. Both of them grew up in this orphanage. I was curious about how Luna met both of them here. She doesn't even know how she just made my work easier by bringing me here. 

"It's a place I frequent in." She says.

"Frequent? In an orphanage?" I ask. 

"How did you know it's an orphanage? You haven't even gone inside." She asks, confused.

"The sign is obvious." I lie.

"I guess." She pushes the big metal gate. It makes a creaking sound. 

         As we step inside, we're greeted by a big yard, covered in lush green bushes on one side while having some sort of playground on the other part. There are a few kids on the playground, but the number is very small. There's a small part of the yard in the far left, filled with flowers. There are some purple flowers that particularly stand out but I have no idea what they're called. There is a woman, nope, a girl watering the plants.

"Hey Lily" Luna says as she walks towards her. The girl turns abruptly as if someone broke her meditation. Her eyes scan both Luna and me, eyes slightly widing as she takes us in. 

"Meet Ezra he's..." before Luna could finish the sentence the girl runs inside dropping the water pot in the ground.

"Worth a try" Luna mumbles.

"What just happened?"I ask.

"Lily has mild autism. She doesn't do well in front of strangers. It's my fault for suddenly barging in." 

"Oh" that's all I manage to say. 

"Lunaa" a few kids that were in the playground a few minutes ago ran towards us.

"Hey babies." She kneels. "How have you guys been?"

"Where is Daisy? She didn't come?" A little boy asks.

"Daisy is in school. Sorry she couldn't come." the boy's face falls, which squeezes my heart a bit. I kneel beside Luna, drawing his attention.

"May I know what your name is, gentleman?" I ask, putting my best smile on.

"Beau" he replies, the sadness still subtle on his face.

"So little Beau. Have you ever seen a camera before?" I hold my camera up. 

"No." he says trying to show indifference but I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine the spark in his eyes.

"Want to play with it?" I ask and the lingering sadness in his eyes vanishes.

"I can?" he asks, anticipating.

"Of course. Why not? Come I'll show you." I say taking the camera neck strap off me.

"Can I come too?" another kid says.

"Me too. Me too." a few kids surround me. Pretty sure there were less of them a few minutes ago. 

"Okay. Let's go." I take the following kids towards the flowers and show them how to use the camera. Thank god Luna doesn't follow me. She chats with some other girls. They're a bit older than the ones surrounding me, likely teenagers.

              After which feels like eternity, I return to Luna's side who's now chatting with some older woman, probably someone who works here.

"Oh hey. Thanks for handling Beau earlier. How was babysitting?" She asks, laughing.

"Don't even ask." I sigh dramatically, which isn't exaggerated at all. Those kids drained the fuck out of me.

"Meet Marigold. She works here." She then introduces the old woman with her, who's probably in her sixties.

               After another round of introduction, she steps inside the building. The main structure of the building is old, off-white colour. The paint is faded and chipped at some places. The small  one storied buildings surrounding the main building, do not share the same structure. They look comparatively new.

             I follow her up to the second floor of the main building, into a room. She settles herself in the middle of the space with a bright book in her hand, the kids surround her like she's the center of their axis. The room has a glass door and a few colourful toys scattered here and there. I try to take a glimpse of the title of the book but fail, it looks like a story book.

            Then with the most soothing voice ever, Luna begins to narrate the tale from the story book. And I just stand there, leaning against the wall, my arms crossed, focused, just like the kids around her.

"So they were abandoned too." a small voice says.

"Just like us." a little girl adds, her eyes sad. Luna stops in the middle of the story and scoops the little girl and places her on her lap. 

"Don't be sad now. Just wait until you see what they do to that evil witch." 

"What do they do?" 

"So they.." she continues and I realize she's reading them 'Hansel and Gretel'. So I just stand there and listen like I was doing earlier. Haven't heard the tale in decades. 

               I don't even realize when I close my eyes and zone out but I'm snapped back to reality by the gentle tap on my shoulder. 

"Hey. Morning sunshine." Luna says with a soft smile.

"I was not sleeping."

"Yeah sure. You were literally snoring while standing up."

"I did not." I say a bit embarrassed, how did I even zone out in the middle of the work? "I guess your voice was just too soothing for me." the words slip out of me catching both me and Luna off guard. I didn't mean to flirt with her. I am just being honest. That's all.

"Always the charmer." She waves to the kids, though some of them follow us regardless. 

"Where are we heading now?" I ask half expecting her to take me to a local restaurant for lunch.

"Home, where else? Freya's going to cook us if we miss lunch there."

"Oh" the word falls flat as a pang of disappointment hits, surprising me. I should not be enjoying my little tour, I remind myself. 

              We head towards the big gate with a few kids following Luna, blabbering about when she will visit next or if Daisy will be there etc. One of the caretakers I was introduced to earlier is here too. 

"How's Freya doing? She hasn't visited us for so long." I hear the older woman asking Luna, my ears alarmed, finally something.

"She's doing fine. She's just...you know busy." Luna smiles awkwardly. The woman sighs. 

                I try to listen to their conversation but it doesn't continue as the woman's focus switches from Luna to another girl, someone who just got here. 

"Girl, what did I tell you about arriving before lunch?" The older woman scolds. The girl laughs and raises her arm which gains the attention of the kids around Luna, they all run to her.

"Hey come on! You cheaters." Luna says playfully as the kids surround around the new blonde girl, whose hands are full of bags filled with chocolates.

"Let's just go. Those little shits won't give me attention anymore anyways. We both start walking as she waves off to the new girl.

"Is she a visitor like you?" I ask.

"Oh no. Mira lives here." 

"She seemed too young to be a caretaker?" I say as the girl looked barely eighteen.

"Not a caretaker. She's an orphan just like them."

"Oh I see. So kids are allowed to go outside and buy stuff by themselves?" I ask, genuinely curious. As far as I know, orphanages don't allow a kid to go outside alone without supervision. Maybe it's different for small town orphanages like this one.

"Nope. They're not allowed until a certain age, which happens to be sixteen. After that they're allowed to have part time jobs within the town if they want. Mira works at a convenience store." Luna explains.

"I see. That's a good way to teach them to be independent."

"Right? June also-" she pauses abruptly, as if catching herself. "June and Rae must be waiting for us. Let's hurry." 

            It's so obvious she was about to disclose the fact June also grew up here. I wonder why she didn't though. Maybe we're not close enough for her to share the details about her friends yet? Well, that can certainly change.  

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