09. 2003

February

Eduardo pulled open the door of the children's home and walked inside to the desk, where a young girl sat talking on the phone. She excused herself from her conversation and looked up at him expectantly.

"Hello, my name is Eduardo Rivera; I am here to meet Mrs. Flowers."

"Sure. Just a minute, she's upstairs with a newcomer, she'll be down in a minute." She immediately went back to the phone.

"Thanks." There was no place to sit in the so-called waiting area, so Eduardo stood and studied his surroundings. The foyer he stood in was just big enough to house the desk and the bottom of a flight of stairs. Through a doorway to the left appeared to be a kitchen. There was another door on the right side of the room, but was closed. On the walls were framed pictures that were obviously drawn by the children that lived in the building. Eduardo was studying them when he heard someone coming down the stairs; he turned to meet the woman in charge.

"Mrs. Flowers? I am Eduardo Rivera; we talked on the phone yesterday morning?"

"Yes, you are our new volunteer; please, call me Rose."

"Ok, Rose."

"You come highly recommended, we are so glad to have you here. Now, let's get on with a tour of the building, shall we? This is my daughter Maria; she works the desk Monday to Friday." Maria looked up from her computer monitor long enough to smile at Eduardo, then went back to work. "Now, in through that door is the staff bedroom, for whoever is staying the night with the children, and this way is the kitchen."

Rose led Eduardo through the open doorway into an immaculate commercial kitchen; it had two stoves, ovens and dishwashers, and two huge refrigerators. Off to the side, Rose pointed out the massive pantry, and then led him into the dining room. There was three massive tables, Eduardo counted fourteen chairs around each, and off to the side were a dozen high chairs. He had known this place was big, but he didn't think it housed that many children. As they went back through the kitchen towards the foyer, Rose pointed out a small table with four chairs around it.

"That table," she explained, "Is for when a child may get over-stimulated and is unable to join the rest of the group; we don't normally have too many discipline problems, though." As well, in the corner of the kitchen was a small elevator, which Rose explained was locked so the children would not play in it.

Back in the foyer, Rose led Eduardo up the stairs. "There are four floors above the first," she explained as they climbed over a gate at the top of the stairs, "The second floor is for the infants and toddlers, they are here until age three. This is the only floor in which the boys and girls are allowed to sleep in the same room." She led Eduardo into a long room that appeared to be the length of the building. There were six windows, and two cribs under each window, except for the last, it had two beds with rails. Across from the cribs were three changing tables. A woman was standing at one, just finishing up with a baby.

"This is my other daughter, Sara. She is here almost as much as I am, Sara, this is Eduardo." She smiled at him as she put the baby back into its crib, and before Eduardo could say anything, Rose had swept him off into another room. This one was a playroom that was almost as big as the bedroom. There was a man there reading to three small children, Rose introduced him as Robert. He waved and went back to his story. "I will introduce you to the children later." Rose said, and led him back into the hall. Also on this floor, were a full bathroom and a nurse's room. Rose introduced him to the nurse, Candie, and then showed him where the elevator came up and all the emergency things were. Then she led him up stairs again.

"The next floor is for children aged three until six. From her up, it is boys on the right, girls on the left." She led him into a room that was similar to the one downstairs; it had four windows and eight beds. To one side was a door that led to a bathroom, both rooms were decorated in blues and greens. Rose led him to the other room, it was exactly the same, but decorated in pinks and reds. Like the floor below it, this floor had a playroom, and there was a staff member there with a few children. This person was introduced as Mateo. As she led Eduardo to the stairs, he noticed that every hallway and stairwell were also covered in framed pictures that the children had drawn.

"The next floor has aged six until twelve. We can house up to 54 children here, but at the moment we only have twenty-four: six on the first floor, four on the second, eight on the third and six more on the forth." The rooms on this floor were exactly that same as those on the previous one, except for the play room was slightly smaller, making way for a homework area. The worker here was named Jacob.

"Finally, our top floor is for our teenagers, ages twelve to eighteen. We don't usually get a lot of children here older than thirteen; most other places don't push to have the children adopted by that age as much as we do." This floor was similar in color scheme and layout, only there were five beds in each room. Each bed had its own desk, and instead of a playroom, there was a library with six computers. Rose explained that these computers and the library were for the entire house to use, but this seemed like the safest place for them. There was a child at three of the computer stations, and an adult named Tanya watching them.

Rose then led Eduardo all the way back downstairs and showed him the staff bedroom, the office that was off of it; and the garage that was off the side of the building. Then she led him back into the office to talk about the children.

Two hours, and twenty three files later, Rose's daughter Marie came in.

"Sara is having problems with the new child, she was wondering if she could get some help?"

"Perfect timing! We were just about to go over his file, why don't we go meet him, Eduardo?" Rose said, standing up from the desk. She took the file and led Eduardo towards the foyer and the stairs.

"Six month old Mikel was brought here this morning, just before you arrived. We already have a foster home lined up for him, but he has to stay here a few days, first. He was found two weeks ago in a school playground by some children, and was put into the hospital for observation. A note was with him with his name and birth date; that was it. There was a through search of the neighborhoods around the playground, but, of course, nobody remembers seeing a thing. He seems to be perfectly healthy in every way."

"So what is wrong?" Eduardo asked, climbing over the stair gate once again.

"Robert and Mateo took the older kids out for a walk, and all the babies won't stop crying!" Sara said as a greeting. She handed her mother one baby, picked up another and handed it to Eduardo, and then picked up the third. Eduardo was surprised, he hadn't held a baby since his nephew Kevin was one; he wasn't sure what to do with it! He watched Rose and Sara bounce lightly and make shushing noises, so tried the same. This made him feel really silly, so he started singing. Eduardo listened to himself singing a soft Spanish lullaby, thinking to himself, 'where did I learn this song?' When he was through, all three babies had stopped crying, and the one he held was sleeping. Rose and Sara were staring at him.

"Why, Eduardo, you didn't say you could sing!" Rose said, setting the baby down in its crib.

"I didn't know I could, either. I don't even know what that song was."

"It was an old Spanish lullaby; I caught Mateo singing it once, and he told me that's what it was. Maybe it was something your mother sang to you?" Sara said; she set the baby in her arms down, too. "It seems to have worked, Mikel is sound asleep." Eduardo looked down at the baby in his arms. He was so peaceful looking. Eduardo started to feel a soft spot growing for this baby, but he knew Mikel would be gone in a few days, so he quickly set him in a crib and turned away.

"You are obviously good with babies, Eduardo; I think I will assign you to work here with Sara for a little while," Rose said, "but I have some paperwork to do, and there is another baby coming in this afternoon, so I must go and let her teach you the ropes. Good Luck!" With that, Rose headed out the door to go downstairs again. At the same time, one of the babies started stirring again.

"Have you ever changed a diaper, Eduardo?" Sara asked, picking up the baby and giving her new partner a big smile.