ARROW - 133. Chapter 133

Sitting at the table, I heard the front door opening. “Shh, someone’s coming.”

“Hello”

The head cook, “In here, Pat.”

Pat walks in and sees the kids first, then she sees Colin and then Armand. “You’re back.”

“Yes. We just got in. Armand had to see the place. We came here directly from the airport.”

“Who are all of these children?”

“They are friends of our boys. They are from Italy and this is their first trip to the US . I’m not sure if you remember Marie, I think you met her when Richie became a member of our family. And who is that young lady behind you?”

I do remember Marie and it is nice to see you again. They is Lois, she is the new secretary.”

“Welcome Lois, I’m glad Pat has some help.”

“Hello, where is everyone.”

“In the dining room Doc. Armand, Colin this is Doctor Garvey who will be our in-house doctor.”

“Welcome Doctor Garvey, I’m glad that you have joined us.”

“Doctor, this facility is the result of these two men, Armand Rowe and Colin Roberts. The children refer to them as Uncle.”

“Pat, are you completely staffed now?”

“Yes. We have a nurse that was recommended to us by Doctor Garvey. She should be here soon.”

Pat no sooner said that when we heard, “Hello”. This granmotherly woman walked into the dining room.

Pat made the introductions and then told Colin and I we needed to help as the children will be arriving soon.

She was physic, a bus pulled up and the children began to enter the building. “Boys, help them to bring in their luggage.”

I though my 4 boys but all the boys headed to the bus.

“Armand, this is a list of the children by floor. I’ll need you to show them their room. The list has their name and room number.”

“Armand, I going to take our luggage home and help bring over the children.”

“Pat, have the new beds been delivered?”

“Yes, but the old beds will be delivered from the old orphanage after all the children are here.”

The cooks went back to work, I went to the second floor to await the kids.

The first group came in, I heard Tommy, Ronny and Richie talking a mile a minute. Then Lois, told those to go to the second floor.

As the first of the boys came up, I checked their name and led them to their room. “As soon as your beds arrive, we will set them up. This will be yiour room.”

The rooms all had a number on the door, like a hotel. The first boys that went into a room, were excited. I listened, “Look desks." Then the cupboard but the biggest excitement, “Look, our own bathroom.”

If I heard those comments once, I heard them from every boy. I was wiping my eyes when Colin caught up with me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I’m so happy for these children. Listen to them as they see their room for the first time.” I watched Colin, I handed him my handkerchief.

“I never thought they would respond like this. You need to be proud.”

“No, we need to be proud.”

For the rest of the afternoon, as the children arrived, we helped them to their rooms. “Pat, you had 4 new children?”

‘Yes, two boys, one girl and another baby.”

For the next few hours, we helped the boys and girls get settled in. After the children arrived, Moving vans started to arrive with the furniture. Now we needed to help the boys set up their beds. Clean sheets, pillow cases and blankets were brought from the linen closet. I showed them were to put the dirty sheets and dirty clothes,

“Colin, we need to sew their names in their clothing like when I went to camp. ”

I noticed the young man who worked with Charle’s gang. He came over to thank me.”How are you doing workig for Charlies?”

“Great, now that I can live here, I’ll be able to save my money and in a year I might be able to afford my own apartment.”

“How about school? Community college will give you a taste of college and you might like architecture. Think designing your own homes and helping Charles build them. I’m glad you are here.” I thought being a little older he can help Pat with the boys.

The cooks called everyone for dinner. I noticed the tables were larger, as before staff and guests ate at the head table. I sat with the boys. Well, I started to sit with the boys, when a certain little girl, ended on my lap along with her baby doll.

“Pat, if we are Uncle’s family, we all need to eat together. I’d like the cooks and the housekeeping ladies to join us.”

And so we started a new tradition.

After dinner, the boys headed to their rooms. “Pat, have the children been to the basement?”

“No”

“Guys, follow me.” Now I was the Pied Piper I watched them as they saw the games room. Pinball machines, bowling machines. , basketball tossing machine,

puzzles on tables, card games, coloring books. They walked around, touching these games, smiling.

“Uncle, are these for us?”

“Yes, but when you are in school, you can come here after you do your home work.”

The next thing I knew, Colin was showing them the pinball machine. I knew the next question before it was made. I looked at Colin, he smiled.

We would have a pinball machine at the club.

I asked Pat to show me the books. Pat, Lois and I sat down in Pat’s office. Since Pat will not receive any money from the City, I wanted to make

sure the money she got from the State was at least as much as she got from the City.

At first glance, it looked like she would be ahead. But that would be offset by having girls over 15 and boys over 18. I made a mental note and would to take

care of that.

“Armand, the boys are tired. Let’s go home. You can come back anytime.”

Saying goodbye was going to take sometime, I had to give each little girl a hug and a kiss on their cheek.

I shook hand with the boys, pulling them in for a hug. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see a tear or two.

The boys were beginning to look tired as well. “Are you awake enough to drive?”

“Yes, I’ll be careful. Talk to me. What do you think? I think the kids were very happy with their new rooms. The little girls liked their beds.”

“I didn’t have much time to talk to the new children. I’ll do that tomorrow. I need to finish reviewing Pat’s cost to date.”

“I can do that for you. I’ll set up a system which we can monitor as well as a roster so we will know who is living there and when some one comes or leaves.”

“That’s the old orphanage. Why are you turning in here?”

Then the van made a left hand turn and in doing so, the van’s lights luminated a building. Richie was the first.

“Pop, stop. That, that is my house.”

Colin pulled the van to the front of the house.

Richie was the first out of the van, he ran to the door which led to the kitchen and turned on the outside lights. Now the home could be seen by everyone.

Armand, looked at the home and then Colin. “Welcome home.”

“When and why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise. If you remember it was your idea. Let’s go and take a look at our new home.”