Jerry and I loaded into his minivan and made it to the first home before noon. And followed the helpful signs to the administration office.
"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Mr. Orland!" Jerry shook a stout mans hand after we had made it to the office and let ourselves in with a short knock.
"Ahh, Mr. Mercer, it's no problem at all! Now who did you say you were looking for?" Cliff Orland furrowed his brow, trying to recall the conversation they had had the day before.
"Well, there is a small dilemma that we run into with that." Jerry looked at me, and back at the man, "We don't actually know his name..."
"But we do know what he looks like!" I chimed in.
"Well I'm afraid that won't help us too terribly much in this. You see, we have more that eight hundred children here! More than half being boys." He sat in his chair and folded his hands across his formidable belly.
"You're telling me you can't get a description from us, and ask your staff if they know of the boy?" I asked, trying not to jump out of my hard wooden chair.
"If you had a picture of him, it would make it easier, or a name, even. But if you're looking for a boy with brown hair and brown eyes, there might be eighty or ninety children that look like that, more if we can't narrow down by age!"
I forced myself not to roll my eyes. "Sandy blond hair, blue eyes. Probably about seven or eight. OH! And he was with a black woman. She was the guardian at the skating rink!"
"Well I can stop you right there!" Orland raised a hand to silence me, "I haven't authorized any trips to the skating rinks since February." He crossed his arms across his chest.
"Not to make a hasty accusation, but you're acting as if you don't want to help us adopt one of your children, if he is here." Jerry asked, twisting his short beard around his finger.
Mr. Orlands face suddenly was very red, and he chuckled nervously. "Well you see, I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but we don't typically adopt children out to homosexuals!" He tapped his fingers on his belly rythmatically, his face still beet red. "You have to understand, we do it to protect the children!" He quickly tried to cover his slip up.
I bit my tongue until I was sure I would taste blood. Shaking my head I got up and walked out of the office, as calmly as I could.
Jerry stood also. "You remember [i]Evelyn[/i] Mercer, don't you?"
"Of course! She was only the most respected woman in Michigan state foster care ever! And she will be sorely missed!" The man looked blustered at the indignity of the question.
"Well, we're her children," Jerry crossed the room, "Not lovers." He added.
As we walked down the hall a tall lean woman dressed in a gray pant suit gestured to us. We followed her into another, smaller office, and she turned to us.
"My name is Ramona Frost. I knew your mother well; we were good friends." She waved her hand at her computer. "I heard you talking as I passed the office. I pulled up all of the children in our system that match your description, and in the age group you said, there are only six boys." She turned the screen so we could see it clearly. We huddled in closer to her screen to see the tiny mugshot-like photos.
"Do you see him, Bobby?" Jerry asked, his voice just barely above a whisper.
My hopes weren't high, but I asked Ramona to blow up one of the photos to get a better look.
"That's Zachary." She smiled fondly. "He's a great kid! A real joy to see every day."
"Well if I don't find the kid I'm looking for, I'll keep him in mind. But unfortunately it's not him." I frowned. "Sorry. He has the same shaped face. But it was a different boy."
"Well I'm sorry I couldn't have been of more help!" Ramona sighed, turning the monitor back the right way.
"No, no. You were more than helpful!" Jerry smiled.
"Yeah, a helluva lot more helpful than Dingbat in there." I gestured to Orlands office.
Ramona nodded. "Cliff has a small mind and a large mouth. He will be out of office soon, and I will be there to clean up his mess, and take over."
"Well you have our vote!" I smiled. It felt nice to have a genuine one on my face for once in so long.
"Thank you boys, I hope you good luck in finding your child." She walked us to the door, and saw us out.
We walked out to the van and I slumped in. "Well [i]that[/i] was a complete waste!"
Jerry chuckled, "No it wasn't. There are only so many places he could be, Bobby. And we just took one of them off of our list. We're getting closer. Slowly, but surely." And his smile slowly started to creep onto my face. Jerry was absolutely right.
Slowly, but surely.