Hello, this story came to me a while ago. It's... interesting. Not a normal work. I am fully capable and willing to continue this story if it gets enough of a response. But as it stands. It is techinically complete. Hope you enjoy!
The Diana Foundation Orphanage
It was a cold bleary day in the town of Cedar Hill, Washington. A downpour of an unseasonal freezing rain hampered the normally sunny forests of the Pacific Northwest. The beautiful autumn days usually had the expansive field outside the complex full of children, playing in the brisk weather and expending all kinds of energy.
Yet the rain and dark grey clouds seemed to remind all the young girls here that they were indeed all alone in the world. None played, even the unassuming girls who didn't really comprehend the poetical glum of the weather around them. The indoor foyer, which was characterized by long solid tables, was filled for the evening meal, the low electric light casting shadows in the room, where the girls quietly sat, eating their soup.
It was a sight that never failed to make Artemis's heartache. She tried her best for the girls, as the State gave good funding for its Orphanages. But Cedar Hill was a small town, one of the only ones for thirty miles that had a functioning Orphanage of a high caliber. There just wasn't enough demand for the girls stationed here.
Artemis looked up from the head of the table, her fork playing with a green vegetable. She cast her gaze down the two rows of tables, finding Zoe in an instant. The girl was tall, and lithe, attending the local high school as a junior. But there was always an absence of mirth and joy from her onyx eyes. She had been at the Orphanage ever since Artemis had arrived, ten years ago.
The orphanage in many ways was as much of home to Artemis as her girls here. From her early twenties, into her thirties she had spent almost every day at the Diana Foundation Orphanage. College had gotten her an internship at a social work program in Seattle, and from there, a position for a live-in caretaker in Cedar Hill had been plopped on her desk. The complex, which housed twenty girls, had seemed like a paradise at the time, with a large mansion-like living quarters, with a tennis court and field for the girls to play in.
In many ways, it was the only thing that kept the girls alive, as Artemis had seen horror-show Orphanages throughout her courses in college and travels worldwide. The girls were lucky in that regard. The facility itself wasn't state of the art. In was constructed in the seventies and had somehow inherited a brutalist architectural style. To whoever designed this place, Artemis sorely hoped they hadn't known it was to be an Orphanage, or she would have to track them down and beat them with a tennis racket.
The exterior of the main house/mansion was a light grey stone, with sleek white and tan windowsills and a flat roof. In the rain, it looked as if the stone was melting into the hard earth of the surrounding pine forests. The interior was a bit better, with hardwood floors on the main floor, and a neutral tan drywall covering the entire house. Other than the dining room, there was a large kitchen, laundry room, and a living room packed with as many chairs, couches, and blankets as possible: all surrounding the one TV in the house. Movies were almost exclusively played there, 24/7, a never-ending cycle of the fifty-odd DVD's the Orphanage had. Stored with those disks was the battered boxes of Settlers of Catan, Guess Who, Life, and Checkers. Life never left the dusty corner of the closet where Artemis had first found the game when she had arrived in Cedar Hill for the first time.
The old caretaker had apparently been a stern middle-aged woman, with a dreadful sense of humor. From what Artemis had been able to coax out of the veteran girls who had lived under Diana's authority, the woman had meant well, but never connected with any of them in their prolonged time at the Orphanage. Artemis couldn't imagine a worse fate for the girls she cared for now. She had learned about Diana from Zoe, just over a year after she had first began working in The Diana Foundation Orphanage, a name she knew to never use.
Ever since that day, Artemis had thrown herself into her work here. The money she earned went straight to the Orphanage, every penny. There was no assistant, no cook, or maid. Artemis's days often were an almost never-ending day of cooking and cleaning. Fortunately, the older girls always stepped up to help her. Zoe sat next to Phoebe, anther girl who attended high school with Zoe. The two of them were the oldest girls at the orphanage by three years and had seen girls adopted over themselves far more then they ever cared to reveal. However, Zoe and Phoebe were by far the most mature girls Artemis had ever met. Far too much for their age. Zoe taught the younger girls how to clean and do laundry. Phoebe often led the girls on morning runs, which was the far more hated activity. It kept energy levels manageable for Artemis though, and she couldn't fault the teen girls for trying to help.
Neither one of them could cook though, which was the most expensive and time-consuming part of Artemis's day. Once every couple of weeks, a truck arrived with food and beverages for the house, shipped down from Seattle. But Artemis mostly used that food to give to the homeless. Some supplies she kept, but the majority was frozen food that growing children really had no business eating daily. So, she cooked three meals a day. The frozen vegetables she kept, but homemade pancakes were a breakfast staple. Another favorite were the giant pans of mac and cheese that graced some dinners (She didn't make it often, as cooking for twenty-one people made for a lot of mac and cheese). That was why tonight was a simple soup, another favorite.
If only the weather had cooperated.
The long dark shadows, combined with the ever-shortening winter days, and chilling rain, made for a bleak evening.
"Momma? Can I have some more?" a little voice called from the right. The voice was instantly recognized in Artemis's practiced mind.
It was the six-year-old Jenny, a recent addition to the Orphanage. She had bounced from Californian Orphanages ever since her parents had died in a car crash when she was two. Artemis remembered first reading Jenny's file about two months ago, amazed that the girl had even lived through the accident. In the two months, the girl had been here, she had grown attached to Artemis, and she in return.
After ten years, Artemis found it increasingly difficult to not think of the girls has her children. Seeing Jenny beaming at her, with an empty bowl of soup, was all she needed to shake off the somber atmosphere of the girls in their quiet muted dinner conversations with one another.
"Of course, honey, there is more on the kitchen counter in the pot." Artemis turned to Zoe, about to ask the older girl to help her younger sister, but Zoe was already on her feet, calling Jenny over to her. Artemis watched them both with a small smile. Zoe shepherded the young girl towards the Kitchen door, and that actions seemed to shake off some of the somber expressions on the girl's faces.
Everyone seemed to be finishing their soups, and since it was a Friday night, Artemis was about to ask Phoebe to take all the girls to watch a movie in the living room, so she could clean the kitchen when a knock from the front doors reverberated throughout the dining room. The entire room seemed to freeze over. Quickly standing up, Artemis smoothed down her jeans and button-down flannel shirt.
It wasn't uncommon to receive knocks on the door. They happened every other day or so. But it was only ever in the late morning or early afternoon during hours of operation, and certainly not at night. In the rain. The Orphanage was also out of the way of downtown Cedar Hill, so that meant it was hard to get lost and stumble across the Orphanage.
"Phoebe, start getting the girls ready for our evening movie, ill check the door. It's probably an expeditated mail delivery."
Fortunately, the younger girls seemed to accept this, understanding who the mailman was. Artemis sighed in relief as they girls began badgering Phoebe about what 'expedited' meant.
It wasn't necessarily a lie that mail delivery could have been expedited, but Artemis always received an email from her superiors in Seattle about any mail that would be shipped here. And that had happened as many times as she had fingers in ten years.
Preparing herself, Artemis swiftly walked out of the dining room, and down a hallway that was covered in pictures of smiling girls that had been adopted at one point or another. The front doors lay at the end of the corridor, made of solid oak with window panes on either side of each door. They were too dark, and rain-soaked to see onto the sheltered landing outside though. As she neared the door, there was another loud knocking at the door, making her jump, her spine tingling with an unnecessary fear. In her office, the room to the right of the doors, where she conducted her work and adoption processes with visiting parents, she considered fetching her pepper spray. She had almost convinced herself of going to go get it when she hear a sweet little voice from the other side of the thick front doors.
"Daddy, can we go now? I don't like the rain anymore." A small little girl's voice permeated the wood, coming into Artemis's ears as a muffled voice.
"I know sweety, we'll find a hotel in town and come back in the morning…" A man's voice responded.
The pepper spray was forgotten, Artemis reached up and unbolted the heavy iron lock on the front doors. She pulled the left door open, immediately feeling the chilly wind rush over her ears and neck, blowing her auburn curled hair behind her.
In the doorway, under the little veranda that had sheltered many a postman, and even a wild animal, was a man and a little girl. Artemis found her gaze naturally drawn to the little girl. About 5 or six, the girl was decked out in a flashy yellow raincoat and orange boots, with long blonde hair for her age, that was damp and clung to her head, falling behind her back. The girl turned to Artemis and looked at her with wide bright grey-hazel eyes.
Then Artemis finally looked at the girl's… Father. The man was tall, holding one of his daughter's hand lightly by two of his fingers. Like his daughter, he was dressed for the weather in jeans and a tight raincoat and an underlining hoodie. He was… tall, easily over six feet, with a grin on his face, as he looked to his daughter. The opening of the door alerted him though, and as he turned to her, Artemis made eye contact. He had deep green eyes, that were a startling comparison to the damp black hair that clung to his forehead in scissoring waves. Raindrops slipped down his face and onto his sharp cheeks and angular jawline, the electric lanterns giving enough light for Artemis to see a slight hint of stubble.
Blinking rapidly, Artemis blurted out a hurried, "Hello? What can I help you with?"
The Father was quick to reply, maneuvering his daughter in front of one of his legs, "Oh! Hello there, sorry for the late-night knocking… but we have just driven up from California, and we're wondering if tomorrow you could take an appointment?" He smiled at her, revealing a small dimple at his right cheek. Artemis found herself blinking rapidly, before shaking it off.
There were better things to focus on, and she cocked her head, responding to this man's question, "Appointment? Are you looking to adopt? Or…" Artemis paused, unable to finish. She couldn't bear to think of the alternative.
Thankfully, the man nodded in reply but was cut off by the little girl at his hips.
"Daddy says that we are going to find me a sister!" The young girl beamed up at her, seemingly oblivious of the rain now, unlike the little whining voice Artemis had heard through the front door.
"Hush Emma," The man quietly spoke, patting the girl's wet head, "Where are my manners, my name is Percy, and this is my daughter Emma. A friend of mine said this was the best-run Orphanage on the western seaboard. So…here we are."
Of all the adoptive parents that came through, Artemis had to admit that this was the most awkward if not oddest she had even been a part of.
"Well, "Artemis began slowly, "thank you. I do my best to make my… the girls here comfortable. However, the Orphanage is closed to visitors and adoptions as of right now. You will have to come back tomorrow morning."
Emma's noise of discontent at this news almost brought a smile to Artemis' face, her mouth twitching in amusement. Little girls all acted the same sometimes. There was also an easy way to console them, as Artemis had spent years learning how. She walked up and knelt to the girl's height.
"How about you come tomorrow Emma, as soon as the sun rises? I'm sure that you wouldn't want to play in the rain with your new sister, when it could be sunny."
Emma nodded vigorously, before she smiled shyly, "Thank you…"
"Artemis," She supplied.
"Ar-teh-mis." Emma repeated, "You are really pretty." Then the young girl bolted off, going to splash in a nearby puddle off the porch.
"You handled her temperament better than I ever could." Percy chimed in. Artemis looked up, bringing herself to her full height.
Percy was watching his daughter lovingly, but Artemis saw a glint of sadness in his eyes. Something was amiss in his gaze, and she had to know what that was.
"The Mother?" Artemis asked quietly, not looking at the man's face.
There was no response.