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- 08/26/2022
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
ARROW - 73. Chapter 73
I met the young lady who was going to teach my men, Spanish. We agreed on meeting Tuesday evening at the club. She gave me the name of a book, Beginning Spanish. She said she thought the Yale bookstore had it but it could be found in any book store.
Dropping Tommy off at school, I went to the Yale book store. They didn’t have any books on learning Spanish but did offer to get them for me. I checked one of the book stores close to Yale and they did have them. In fact they had a selection of books in most languages. I picked up two books, Learning Spanish, and 2 books, Learning French.
Monday evening I gave a Spanish book to Colin and Tommy. “Classes start next Tuesday evening.”
The look on Colin’s face was like he was going in front of a firing squad. Tommy, open the book right away. If I had to bet, Tommy will outpace Colin in speaking Spanish The younger you are the easier it is to learn a language.
Within a week, Tommy was calling me father in Spanish, Padre. I told him that term was used for a priest.
The following week, I was papa. I wonder what name he will give to Colin.
If they spoke to me in Spanish, I responded in Spanish. If they didn’t understand, I would speak the word or phrase in English and repeat it in Spanish.
At the club, Anna spoke to them in Italian. I was glad, it is easy to forget a second language when learning a third language.
I tried to make a game of it. If Tommy was able to say a sentence, he could have a treat. If Colin said a sentence, he could have a special tweet, the kind he was the only one to have.
Six weeks have passed, and now my boys were speaking more and more Spanish. Beside Anna was helping them to remember Italian, Tony’s son who was working Sundays, was speaking to Tommy in Italian.
With school being over for the summer, Tommy was speaking a fair amount of Spanish. Colin was still struggling but I had to give him an ‘A’ for effort.
With summer and no school, I found we had overnight guests from the orphanage. And the big question from Tommy. “Papa, when are we going to the zoo?”
Talking it over with Colin, we agreed to go on a Tuesday when the club is closed. He would take the day off, “Good, you can drive the bus.”
I made arrangements to hire a bus with driver, I discussed the date with the people at the orphanage. When they gave me the list of people going, I had to hire another bus. Colin took the day off, I bought several cases of water. We met at the orphanage, the buses arrived on schedule, I stowed the water in the undercarriage of the buses. We watched as the children boarded the buses followed by staff. Tommy boarded the same bus as his friend from school. I boarded one bus and Colin boarded the other bus. He was with Tommy. I shared a seat with a pretty little girl, I would have guessed her age at 8 or 9. We talked about what she would see at the Bronx Zoo. She wanted to know if she could touch the animals.
“There is a special area where you can pet the animals. Maybe we will see them having lunch.” She smiled.
As I looked at the kids on my bus, I wondered how they became orphans. I knew the smiles hid a pain, I saw that in Tommy.
Arriving at the zoo, I asked the drivers to accompany us. “Sure, we’ll be glad to, it beats sitting in the bus.”
I guess it makes sense rather than drive back to New Haven and then return, just stay with us.
We spent the morning watching the animals that were in the open pits. The zoo had done an amazing job of creating an environment for the animals depending on their natural habitat. Tommy insisted that they ride an elephant. The keeper gave the kids some peanuts. They would hold them in their hand, as the elephant would take it.
Colin went and arranged for a private lunch for us. They said they could do it at one.
When he came back to tell me, “You know we have to do this again in a few months. Just listen to those kids. This was a great idea, Armand. We should have done this sooner.”
I thought now is the time, “Colin, how many of these children could we adopt?” I saw the look on his face, “Just think about it.”
“I think if you had your way, you would adopt them all.”
I understood we couldn’t do that but I could provide special events for them like today.
Now I had a project.
Lunch was fun, for the adults as well as the kids. Some of the zoo personal would come with an animal or bird and explain about where they lived and what they ate. One came with a monkey, he must have been new, the monkey got away. Climbed on Colin’s lap and started to eat his food. I couldn’t believe Colin, he started to pet the monkey and offered him food. The kids crowded around him to see the monkey. I thought, the highlight of the day for Colin.The individual that brought the monkey was able to catch him by bribing him with a banana.
Lunch over, petting zoo was next. Checking the time, I knew this would be the last stop before heading home.
Colin was snapping photos, I gave my camera to Tommy and told him to take as many photos as he can.
One of the staff from the orphanage came over to thank me. “We will be hearing all about today for at least a week.”
“Maybe we can do this again in the future.”
That was when my little seat companion ran over to me, grabbed my hand and was leading me to a sheep. She got a carrot from the attendant and was going to feed it to the sheep. I had to watch as I held her hand. Every once in a while she would look at me and smile.
Soon it was time to leave, I had promise that we would do this again. “Armand, we have one more stop.”
I watched as he lead them to the gift shop. I stood by the cashier, “Just ring up what ever they have. I’ll pay for it.”
As they got the animal, they brought it to me, I handed it to the clerk, she rang it up and handed it back to the child. The staff from the orphanage led the children back to the bus with their animal.
“Do you have more teddy bears, seems you have run out.”
She called someone and soon two boxes arrived with teddy bears.
The drive back was quiet. My seat companion fell asleep. I put my arm around her as she snuggled in my arm.
Arriving back at the orphanage, Colin and I stood by the buses as they departed from the bus. Each one said thank you, the girls kissed our cheek and the boys shook our hands.
That night laying in bed, “If you could, you would want to adopt everyone of those kids.”
“Yes, but I know that isn’t feasible. I want to create happy memories for them. If they would let me, I’d tucked each of them in bed.”
“They had a good time today, Uncle.”
“And you didn’t.”
“Shush, go to sleep.”
I did fall asleep but not before telling GG I needed help.
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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