Cloudkicker

The Freeport Home for Children

"I see my path but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I am going is what inspires me to travel it."-Rosalina de Castro

June, 1934-

Twice a month, the staff of the Freeport Home for Children took their charges into the city of Freeport to the local movie theater for Matinee Day. It was one of the few treats the children had to look forward to as part of their residency at the Home. The Home was actually an orphanage, but the government had shied away from that term and had opted to use the word 'Home' to make the place seem more friendly. The Home housed 124 children ranging from newborns to 16. It was a mid-sized Home, the larger institutions in bigger cities tended to house upwards of two hundred or more. Some of the children had been given up by their parents who could not take care of them due to financial hardships brought on by the Depression, some few were problematic children with delinquency issues, but others were in fact genuine orphans with no family to speak of. Every one of them had a story, but many chose not to tell theirs for their own reasons.

The 9 year old bear cub watched the movie in awe, a look of wonder and amazement on his small face. On the screen an air battle took place. Biplanes engaged one another, their machine guns blazing as they fought across the sky. The film was the hit movie "Wings of Glory" The epic account of the pivotal battle of the Great War. It told the true life story of Usland fighter ace, Captain Rick Sky and the Squadron of Seven. Sky recorded 12 kills that day and received Usland's highest award for bravery, the Medal of Honor. Shortly after the battle, the Great War had ended and Sky and his men had mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again.

Watching the climactic battle unfold on the screen, the young cub couldn't help but picture himself flying alongside Captain Sky and pursuing the enemy planes.

Later that night as he slept, the small cub dreamt that he was flying over the no-man's-land of the Western Front, pushing his craft to its limits against his foes. It was the sort of dream that would periodically visit him throughout his life, even intruding into his daily thoughts. A seed had been planted, a seed that would grow into a fully fledged yearning to someday be a pilot himself. The young boy named Kit had found his calling.

April, 1935-

"Hey Kit! Head's up!" Kit heard as the ball whizzed passed by his head and went crashing into the fence alongside first base.

"Oh No!" said Kit as he realized that his mistake had resulted in a base hit that should've been a routine out. All on account of his attention being on a low flying plane.

"Thanks for the free hit Kit!" said a rotund pig named Terry who was arguably the slowest runner around.

Kit felt himself flush with embarrassment at his error. He noticed that Larry the shortstop was staring him down. The skinny weasel had scooped up the weakly hit ball and threw it to Kit so he could have tagged out the hitter. Unfortunately, Kit had been lost in thought while he watched the cargo plane heading in for a landing at the nearby field. Had he caught the ball his team could've been up to bat, but now the tying run was on first in the top of the 8th. The 6-4 score now hinged on the best hitter of the other team. Roy Hughley. Hughley was an imposingly big gorilla with a talent for knocking the ball out of the field. He was also everybody's top pick when teams were chosen. Two pitches later the game was tied off on Hugley's two-run homer and Kit couldn't help but feel responsible for the bind he had gotten his team into. With luck the Leopard pitcher Alby struck out the next batter to retire the side. In the bottom of the 9th, Kit's team managed to get two men on and now Larry strode to the plate with a cocky look on his face that said he was there to win the game… After going down swinging, Larry went and sulked in the dugout and watched as the opposition went three and out. His team was taking the field in the bottom of the 10th with Kit leading off. Larry was still angry that the short bear cub had botched a perfect chance to keep the lead and win the game. Now he watched as Kit swung at the first pitch and knocked the ball over the head of the leaping left fielder. He watched as Kit made his way to second on a double.

Kit knew he had to make up for his earlier error and having managed to get to second, was now edging for third.

The next batter was a tall and slim cheetah named Rhett Swift. Swift was all knees and joints and wasn't very athletic, but he put in 100 percent effort into everything he did. Now, Rhett paid close attention to his friend Kit. Was Kit thinking of what Rhett thought he was thinking? The pitch came in too high and the catcher boggled it. Kit took the advantage and sprinted as fast as he could into third. The catcher recovered the ball and threw it to the third baseman. It wasn't even close. Kit safely stole third and now everything rested on Rhett's shoulders. Rhett took another ball and a strike before he finally swung. His hit took the ball between 1st and 2nd as a grounder which drove in the winning run. Kit and Rhett were met by their teammates who ran onto the field to congratulate them. Larry slowly made his way to Kit and said, "Good job Kit," Then he socked him hard on the shoulder causing Kit to stumble back. "Too bad you were too busy dreaming about flying, you could've won us the game then." With that Larry walked off.

"Don't worry about him Kit, Larry has no room to talk after striking out on three pitches. Just make sure you don't start daydreaming about flying next time we play OK?" Rhett said smiling.

Kit looked up at his friend and said, "Don't worry Rhett, I'll block it out."

"Yeah, sure you will flyboy! Now let's go, it's almost time for dinner."

With that the two boys trotted off to the Home's dining hall.

Shortly after lights out Rhett rolled over to face Kit's bunk and said to him, "This airplane thing of yours is like an obsession isn't it?"

Kit rolled to face his friend and replied, "It's something I like a lot."

"A lot? Yeah, uh ok bub, if you say so."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, for starters, One; you always start daydreaming whenever you see an airplane. Two; your favorite movie is Wings of Glory, and Three; you always doodle airplanes."

Kit blushed in the dark, embarrassed that he had such an interest in airplanes. Then again, why should he be embarrassed? He heard it all the time in school: You can be anything if you set your mind to it. Some kids wanted to be doctors, some wanted to play baseball, he wanted to be a pilot.

"Rhett, I'm going to be a pilot someday."

Rhett listened to Kit's words and detected the undercurrent of seriousness in them. Kit was 100 percent behind his convictions. He sounded totally certain about his future. He had known Kit for two years and had never heard Kit sound so convinced of something before.

"You're right Kit you will be a pilot someday," Rhett said as he rolled back over and went to sleep.

Kit laid there a while longer thinking about what Rhett had just said, 'You will be a pilot someday.' Kit smiled at the thought and fell asleep to dreams of soaring among the clouds.

May 1935-

A sad fact of life is that some children bully other children, particularly younger and smaller children. Kit was small for his age and had had to learn to stick up for himself whenever someone tried to bully him. He had been a resident of the school since he was three and he had learned to stay on his toes and, if necessary, fight back. He took his licks from the bullies but always made them pay for it. He felt that if you were going to bully him, then you'd get more than you bargained for. After a while the bullies moved onto other less resilient kids. Because of his past of being bullied, Kit tended to be suspicious of most people, adults included because they never seemed to do anything to stop the bullies. However, the young cub had developed a soft spot for other bullied kids.

The small rabbit nervously walked down the halls of his new home; The Freeport Home for Children. He was 8 years old and had been an orphan for one year following the death of his mother. The little boy's father had upped and disappeared around his fifth birthday and for the past year the boy had lived with his maternal grandmother until she had become too ill to care for him. With no other close family the rabbit had been taken in by the Home. His story was similar to that of many of the other children who had become statistics of the on-going depression. He was now alone in life and the young rabbit named Trevor was terrified.

Right now a group of boys were going to give Trevor a reason to be terrified. They spotted the lone rabbit and closed in around him.

"Hey, check it out fellas, a new arrival," said a swarthy looking teenaged raccoon to his companions, a rotund hippo and monkey with a nervous twitch.

"Hey ears, where you come from?" asked the raccoon.

"Um, I c-come f-from…uhhhh" stammered the rabbit as he glanced back and forth between the older boys who had him surrounded.

"Spit it out buck-tooth, we haven't got all day!" said the monkey

y with a touch of disdain.

"Hay Valley, I'm f-from Hay Valley," said the rabbit.

"Ohhhh, he's a country boy! Country boy is far from home isn't he guys?" said the Hippo, "Let's give him a good old Freeport Home for Children welcome!"

The Hippo's friends snickered and caused the little Rabbit to take a step back, straight into the arms of Larry the weasel who had quietly tip-toed behind the rabbit as his friends were questioning him.

"Hey there little fella," Larry said smilingly, "Let's take you for a spin."

The silver trash can rolled out of the back entrance to the Home's school building and bounced down the steps into the courtyard where it slammed into a bench that was quickly vacated by a girl lynx. The dazed little rabbit poked his head out at his surroundings and then crawled out of the can and prayed no one saw what had happened. His prayers weren't answered. The sound of the rolling metal can and the laughter of Larry and the gang caught the attention of about a dozen other kids and one angry looking female badger.

"Lawrence Maurice Hilliger!" she yelled, "Stop right where you are young man! And you're friends too!"

Lawrence was frozen in space by Mrs. Hagen's thunderous voice. He friends, Deke, Malcolm, and Stewart were equally frozen. Mrs. Hagen was a force to be reckoned with. The diminutive badger had been a fixture at the home for over thirty years and had spent that time mastering every sort of trouble maker imaginable. It was said that she once stared down a couple of air pirates who tried to hijack the plane she had ridden on a few years ago. Given her no-nonsense attitude no one at the school doubted that.

"All of you! In my office right now!" she said menacingly as she waved a long wooden ruler in her left hand. Obediently the boys scurried off toward her office. Mrs. Hagen turned toward the gathering of children and said, "Don't you all have classes to go to?" With that the recess assembly broke up. "Wait! You there," she said pointing to Kit, "Take this new boy to the nurse's office then help him get situated. You will do that instead of your normal class schedule today."

Kit looked down at the still dazed rabbit and offered him his hand. "Here, let me help you up."

The rabbit stared at Kit's outstretched hand and slowly reached out to it. Kit took his hand and lifted him to his feet. "Don't worry about Larry and his gang, they usually go and do that to all of the new arrivals. By the way, I'm Kit."

"Trevor Spooner," said the little brown rabbit, "Thanks for the hand."

"No problem. Just steer clear of those guys, after a while though they move on to someone else. Sometimes though you need to fend for yourself 'cause if you didn't notice it, no one came to help you except Mrs. Hagen."

"Ok, I'll remember that," said Trevor as he followed Kit to the nurse's office to check the bumps and bruises he suffered during his roll. "Hey Kit, what's your last name?"

Kit continued to walk ahead of Trevor without looking back at him to answer his question.

Thinking that Kit hadn't heard him, Trevor moved up alongside Kit and asked him again, "Hey, what's your last name Kit?"

Kit stiffened a bit as he walked and turned his head away from Trevor and mumbled something under his breath that Trevor couldn't make out. "What was that you said?" asked the rabbit.

Kit turned to him and with a stern look on his face and a voice full of sarcasm said to Trevor, "I don't have one."

"You don't have a last name? How is that? Everyone has a last name."

"Yeah? Well I don't so give it a rest will'ya?" Kit replied with force.

Trevor looked away and nervously bit his lower lip. He should have known; he was in an orphanage and some of the kids had never known anything about their pasts. Had Kit been abandoned as a baby? Had he runaway from an abusive home? Had his parents died and he had decided to erase their memory and his last name in order to save himself from the pain? Whatever it was, Trevor decided that maybe he should leave his bear cub guide alone after the visit to the nurse. The last thing he needed was another person to pick on him.

"Here's the nurse's office," Kit said as they reached the end of the hall. All traces of the anger in his voice were gone and he acted like nothing had happened.

After the nurse had finished with him, Trevor and Kit had been called into Principal Barkley's office. The two entered and saw the old, bespectacled Sheepdog putting some folders into a large filing cabinet to the right of his desk. He closed the cabinet and locked it with a key. He then replaced the key in his vest pocket and then took a seat. Kit knew about the cabinet. It was the infamous Records Cabinet that contained all of the paperwork for each student. My past is in there, thought Kit. He had no idea how much information was in there, but he imagined that there must be something about him, his place of birth, and the reasons for him being abandoned, and most importantly, his parent's names. Were they alive or dead? Did they abandon him? And if so, what were their reasons? If only the office and cabinet weren't locked. One of these days I am going to get into that cabinet!

"Mr. Spooner welcome to the Home. Now I know that you had a rough welcome here from some of our more troubled children, but I assure you that I do not tolerate these transgressions and that all four boys will be severely reprimanded. You may even see them tilling the soil of the garden or painting the outside of the building. They will have every hard work detail for the next month. Also I have warned them that any retribution against you will meet with expulsion from the Home and an immediate transfer to the Marshland Home for Troubled Youth."

Marshland, thought Kit, That's the worst possible place for an orphan. Marshland was set on a marshy isle two miles off of the coast and afforded next to nothing in the way of amenities. Most of the kids who were sent there ended up becoming criminals.

"Now Mr. Spooner, I understand that this place is a drastic change from what you know, but here every child has a past," there was a pause, "And every child has a future. Life for an orphaned child can be difficult, but here we aim to nurture and develop young people with the promise that they can make their own way in life. Do you have any questions of me?" asked Principal Barkley.

"N-no s-sir, I do not," answered Trevor in his nervous stammer.

"Very well then, Kit take Mr. Spooner to his dorm and see that he gets settled in."

"Yes sir," said Kit. Great, this guy is a real piece of work. He goes on about kid's pasts and futures and nurturing and development like we're some kind of crop and then he gets to go home to his own family. They have no idea how it is to be an orphan, Kit thought as he led Trevor to his dorm.

That night after lights out Kit rolled over to face Rhett's bed and asked him, "Rhett, why do you think that the adults here seem to talk about us as if we're nothing?"

"How do you mean?"

Kit went on to tell Rhett about Principal Barkley's little speech to Trevor.

"Well Kit, I think it's like this: This is only a job for them. They get up in the morning and come here then go home to their own lives. Ever since the Depression started there's a lot more of us orphans and, in turn, more work for them. To them we're just numbers. It's nothing personal, but maybe they just try to desensitize themselves to the reality of how bad things have gotten for everybody-orphans in particular."

Kit thought about what Rhett had said and marveled at how deep-thinking the young cheetah was. Rhett had a way of seeing through things to find the deeper meaning. Perhaps it was true; maybe the adults knew how hopeless the situation was for the average orphan. Maybe they saw how the Depression had changed things and that there was no clear way to make things normal again and that the adults felt that in order to cope with the large numbers of orphans, they needed to be as impersonal as possible and avoid any attachment to the children. It made sense now. Kit began to think that maybe the only way to escape the harsh realities of the world was to be indifferent to anyone other than oneself. That's how the staff was so, all things considered; he could be like that too. Besides, he reasoned, looking after only oneself is a lot easier than looking after others and having obligations. One more thought entered Kit's mind: the cabinet. He had to know what was in his records. All of his questions about his past could be contained within the cabinet. Why was he an orphan? What happened to his parents? Did they die? Or did they abandon him like some of the other poor saps in this school? The questions tore at Kit's heart and filled him with a sense of emptiness.

"Why am I an orphan?" he whispered to himself, careful to avoid waking the sleeping kids. The empty feeling grew inside the cub and suddenly his vision became blurred with tears. A sob rose in his throat and he buried his face in his pillow to stifle it. He choked on his sobs and gripped his pillow tighter as he released his sorrows. I've got to get to that cabinet, Kit thought as he cried himself to sleep.

Directly across from Kit, Trevor laid awake in his bunk, his ears zeroing in on the soft sounds of someone crying. The rabbit was blessed with a keen sense of hearing and was able to determine that the crying was coming from across from him. It was coming from Kit.

Kit sat at his desk and stared out the window of the classroom as the teacher went on with the grammar lesson in a deeply monotone voice. Outside it was bright and sunny and a large passenger plane was coming in for a landing at the nearby airport. If only they'd let kids fly, thought the cub.

The swan teacher moved around the desks and slowly made his way toward a napping jackal boy.

"Elroy please do not sleep through my lessons," said the teacher in his dull voice.

"Wha-what? I wasn't sleeping," said the jackal boy as he wiped drool from his mouth, "Did you say something?"

"I said that you must want to go to detention."

"Me? Uh, no way!"

"Then I suggest that you stay awake."

The class giggled.

"Yes, Mr. Downey.

Mr. Downey turned his attention to Kit, "If you would be so kind as to turn your attention away from outside."

Kit flushed in embarrassment, "Yes sir."

A short while later Rhett and Kit went to lunch in the cafeteria.

"I thought that you were going to try and not zone out with the planes," joked Rhett.

"You ever have something you want to do but people won't let you do it?" asked Kit to the taller boy.

"All the time, but the staff won't let me leave till I'm sixteen!"

"Seriously, I want to fly but it seems like no one else wants me to fly."

"We're kids, no one is going to let us leave here let alone fly a plane."

"I know that but I want to fly so bad."

"And I want to play the guitar but the orphanage won't buy any new ones so I have nothing to play."

"Hey guys!" said Trevor as he ran up to his new friends.

"Hiya Trevor," said Kit who was genuinely happy to see the rabbit, "Want to eat with us?"

"Yeah eat with us Trev," said Rhett.

"Thanks fellas," said Trevor as he sat down next to his friends, "Thanks for letting me sit with you."

"Anytime," said Kit.

"Hey losers," said Larry as he and his friends walked past the trio, "Shouldn't you all be sitting with the other girls?"

"Leave us alone Larry," said Rhett.

"You shut up you little know-it-all!" said Stewart who shot a dirty glance at Rhett.

The cheetah ignored Stewart and said, "Maybe we should go and sit with the girls and then you'll be jealous!"

"Lets go guys," said Larry, "We'll deal with these losers later."

Kit and his friends watched as the bullying older boys walked off. "So were the bullies this bad at your old school Trevor?"

"I guess, but at least they didn't roll me around in a trashcan."

"Don't worry about them, we won't let em' pick on you," said Kit with a smile.

"Thanks you guys!" said a grateful Trevor.

As the trio ate their lunch Trevor paid close attention to Kit. The friendly bear cub had been crying last night. He had no idea why that was but hearing the seemingly confident boy cry made him realize that Kit seem more fragile than he came across. Because of this, Trevor felt a strong connection with him. Both boys, and probably Rhett too, were alone in the world but at least they were alone together.

"Hi Kit!" said Trevor as he came up to Kit's side.

"Hiya Trev, how was your class?"

"Not as boring as other classes I've been in."

"Lucky you, all this stuff bores me."

"Only planes interest Kit," said Rhett who came up besides the pair, "One of these days this guy is going to be a pilot, I'd put money on it."

"You guys heard about the air show right?" asked Trevor.

"Course we did!" said Kit, "I've been waiting all year for it!"

"Its an annual thing here and all the kids here are invited to go. It's free for us," said Rhett.

"I don't know a whole lot about planes, but I'd like to learn," said Trevor.

"Well you've come to the right place," said Rhett, "Kit's the resident expert, ain't that right Kit?"

Kit smiled at his friends and said slyly, "That's the rumor!"