“Why else! After he run from the mining project he hide out with them Amerindians who run deep into the bush when they get chase out from they land. He say he go mad up there. He don’t know how they get on surviving–some days without water, some days without light, some days with nothing to eat but cassava bread. He say he don’t want to swallow another morsel of cassava if Allah bless it himself!” House Mother and Miss Benedict chuckle.
Then House Mother continue: “Finally he and some Amerindian boy escape on the boat that go up there once every month to give the army they supplies. The boy have a piece of gold, Abdul say–not even big enough to make wedding band but enough to pay the boatman to smuggle them back here. And once them make it back the boy just disappear. Abdul don’t have nowhere to go neither till an old neighbour spot him at the market. That is how he find his way to the mosque. They treat him good, he tell me, like he their long-lost brother. He come to the faith on his own terms, he say, and then he come out of hiding. Don’t ask me how he end up here but is a real good thing he did. No one think to look for him here. They not supposed to have no political allegiance, you know. Maybe they give him protection if someone come looking.”
“You mean Mrs. Deoguardi? Who she ever protected but she own kind?”
“This place much bigger than Mrs. Deoguardi! She just like to make we think she still queen of the castle. But this place only standing because of Outside money.”
“So Abdul run from one Outside organization to another?”
“What can I say. Nothing make much sense in a place where the water never run clear.”
. . . “Mrs. Armstrong will show you where the babies are,” I hear Paper Man say.
House Mother straighten she-self up and make the spider-thing stop bouncing up and down. Then she tell Outside People to come in. “They sleeping now so it best we leave them be,” she say, though she not trying too hard to keep she voice down.
“We can’t hold them?” Outside Lady ask.
I can see them better now. She have long gold hair like the doll no one play with no more. Tracy, Becca and Cat-Face pull on it so hard the arm-leg-head come right off. Cat-Face wail because she only come away with the doll arm, and Becca come away with the boobies part, but Tracy get the head and she comb the doll hair till it fall out from all them little holes. No one try to patch it up or play with it after that.
House Mother scrunch up she face and sing the little song she sing whenever
Outside People come: “Well-if-you-pick-one-up-you-have-to-pick-all-them-up-and-if-you-wake-them-now-they-won’t-sleep-through-the-night-and-if-you-hold-one-now-they-cry-and-cry-till-they-held-again-and-the-good-Lord-only-give-we-two-arms-to-hold-his-treasures.”
“Of course, I don’t want to upset the children or their routine. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for you,” Outside Lady say.
The lady have a nice voice and she smile a lot when she talk. Most of them Outside People don’t smile. They just make face like Becca make when she have to eat soursop. But Outside Lady lose she smile when she see Paw-Paw. When Mrs. Armstrong see Outside Lady going to Paw-Paw, she look like she about to say something but she turn and leave the room even though Paper Man tell she to stay with Outside People.
“What race and age you looking for?” Miss Benedict say.
Outside Lady turn away from Paw-Paw. “Goodness, we don’t care about race. But we’ve been approved for an infant. 0-24 months. We can’t have a child of our own, you see.”
“Boy or girl?”
“Either,” Outside Man answer this time. He place one hand on Outside Lady back while she look into the bed where House Mother put the spider thing: “Look how cute this one is! He’s so small. He can’t be more than six months old.”
“Oh, Mrs. Armstrong boy! . . . ,” Miss Benedict start to say and then bite she lip hard-hard, same like when we know we done something what can never be undone.
“You mean she’s going to adopt him?” Outside Lady ask, pulling the spider-thing and making it tinkle again.
“No, I just mean … well, I mean he special, you know. The babies just not ready for adoption right now.”
“And why is that?” Outside Man ask.
“Because we don’t know if they mother or father be coming back for them.”
“You mean to say the children aren’t abandoned? Then why are they here?” Outside Lady ask.
“Sometimes they parents just got nowhere else to leave them. Sometimes they come back for them; sometimes they don’t. Like Constance, our oldest.”
Miss Benedict talking about me! I turn to push Tracy and Meena away but they already bored by the Outside People and move far from the gate that separate we room from the baby room.
