Chapter 14 The Beginning
The next morning, Father Ed moved himself and them into the building up the street and hung up a sign that read "Father Flanagan's Boys' Home". Then he went out into the streets and came back with Tony, Rick and Joe. It was obvious when they arrived that they were going to stay. They had a few belongings and each chose a bed in one of the large, inner rooms.
Jeff stood at the window and stared out at the sign for so long that Bogg wondered if he was okay. "What's up?" he asked, but when Jeff turned to him, he knew things were all right. Jeff had that familiar glint in his eye. "Okay, what have you figured out?"
"Father Flanagan," he paused, "all this time we've been calling him Father Ed and I didn't even realize. Bogg, this is the start of Boys' Town."
"What's Boys' Town?"
"Probably the most famous orphanage in this country. It revolutionized the way orphanages were run."
"So Father Ed really did change things?"
"You wait, this building will be crowded before you know it. Eventually he'll move outside of town and it will become a real town of its own. I saw a famous movie about it on the Late Show. I think it was made in 1938. It won all kinds of awards. Father Ed will be famous, but only to people who care about things like this."
Bogg moved next to Jeff and put a hand on his shoulder as he stared at the sign too. "This is what's great about being a Voyager," he said.
"Yeah," Jeff agreed.
Later, Martha brought supper over and they all sat down to eat. Halfway through the meal there was a knock at the door. Father Ed got up and opened it and a boy walked in, carrying a younger child who was asleep.
"Here, I'll take him, he must be heavy," the priest began and reached for the child, but the boy holding him spoke in a clear voice.
"He ain't heavy Father, he's my brother," he said and Father Ed smiled at him. He motioned to a second room off to the side.
"Put him here, on the bed, and come have some supper, son."
The boy obeyed, and when he got to the table, Martha had a steaming bowl of soup in front of a vacant chair.
The boy ate quickly, as though he was starving.
"How did you find me?" Father Ed asked.
"Officer O'Reilly finally caught me, but when he saw my brother, instead of taking me in, he brought us here. Just left us on the front steps and said this was a home for us." He paused, "I'd like to stay, if I can. I'll work, I just want Tommy to have a safe place to sleep."
"Hey, Officer O'Reilly's caught me a lot of times too, and he always let me escape," Rick offered.
"That was you with the candlesticks, then?" Bogg said to Rick and he nodded. "I didn't think he looked too friendly at the time."
"He looks mean, and sounds mean, but he's fed me more than once," Tony added.
Bogg sat back in his chair and exchanged a look with Jeff, who smiled.
Another knock at the door interrupted them as the meal ended. "This is getting ridiculous," Martha said as Father Ed went to the door once more. Officer O'Reilly stood there holding the shirt collars of two boys who didn't look like they wanted to be there.
"Sorry to bother you Father," the officer began, "but these two are gonna end up dead if they don't learn to stay out of trouble. I'd like to try leaving them with you instead of taking them to jail, if you don't mind that is."
"Thank you Francis, I'm glad to have them."
The officer turned to address the boys, "if you leave here, it's into jail with you, and with the likes of the men in there, you might not come out. Do you understand?"
"Yeah," both boys answered.
O'Reilly touched his hat and smiled as he left, and Father Ed invited the boys to have supper.
"I wonder how many kids he'll get here before he has to move to a bigger place?" Bogg asked Jeff as they settled down for the night.
Jeff yawned, "he had a plaque made up with that saying on it and it became famous, kind of like a motto for Boy's Town."
"What saying?"
"He ain't heavy Father, he's my brother," Jeff answered softly and Bogg could tell he would soon be asleep.
The END
Author's Note:
Father Edward J. Flanagan originally established Boy's Town in 1917 as a home for orphaned and abandoned boys. Today, Boys Town directly cares for more than 27,000 boys and girls annually in fourteen states and the District of Columbia. Boys Town programs include education, residential homes, emergency shelters, foster-care, family counseling, and a medical research hospital. At the 900-acre home campus in Boys Town, Nebraska, 550 girls and boys in grades 3-12 live and attend school.
Boys Town, formerly Girls and Boys Town and Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, is a non-profit organization, dedicated to caring for its children and families, with national headquarters in the village of Boys Town, Nebraska. The property was listed as a National Historic Landmark on February 4, 1985.