Hawkeye House

Children

Every morning and every night, Riza passed a small church on her way to and from the office. She liked passing it as the grounds were always filled with a group of kids playing. She enjoyed seeing the smiling faces of the children, almost always wondering to herself when that day would come for her.

Riza passed the church on her way back from work, the sun bleeding red. She felt as exhausted as she thought the sun must as it lost all it's color to the clouds.

All of a sudden something hit her in the side of the head. Riza turned, almost whipping out her gun, only to see a boy of about eight run up to her. "I'm sorry Miss!"

"That's alright," She spoke softly, trying to not sound as surprised as she felt. Had she really been that out of it that she hadn't noticed a ball heading straight towards her? If anyone she knew had seen that, her reputation would have been ruined completely. She picked up the soccer ball and tossed it to the boy.

Before she could start off again the boy spoke. "Hey Miss! Can you help us?"

"Sure," She felt completely off guard by his question, "What do you need?"

The boy glanced around then leaned close to her. Riza followed suit, bending down to hear him whisper. "We are running out of money here and the church might be sold. If that happens my friends and I will all be spilt up and sent off to different orphanages. If you have any money could you please give some to our Father?"

"I'm sorry, I don't have any left to give." Riza responded.

"What about time?" The boy insisted, "if you have any extra time could you come help us do repairs, I know most girls don't do that sort of thing but maybe you could help with food or helping take care of us kids."

She didn't know what to say. Sure, she supposed she could come in on a Saturday or a Sunday, but didn't she have to be of the church's faith to do something like that. It wasn't that she didn't believe in God, or that she did either. In many ways she hoped there was one and in many ways she hoped there wasn't.

"I'm not a …" She struggled to find the right words, "religious person exactly."

"That doesn't matter! Any help is good help!" The boy smiled. "Anyway, who can say no to this face?"

That was how she was guilted into volunteering at the church that Saturday and every Saturday after. He was right, she couldn't say no to that face.

A/N: Kinda a "bleh" chapter, but the past two weeks have been more than stressful _