The girls waved with both arms so he couldn’t miss them.
“Mary? Hey, Winny!” Edward called, then he turned back to the other boys and dragged his brother Cecil forward so that the sun shone like copper off his thick red hair. Then, just like that, there was Jack.
three JACK
Jack didn’t care what Mr. Keller said. He broke from the group and sprinted toward Mary, gathering her into his arms before either of them could speak. She held him tight, her frame racking with sobs, and it was all he could do not to cry with her. From the day his sister was born until the day they’d been separated at the orphanage, the two of them hadn’t left each other’s side, and for the past three years, Jack had felt as if a piece of him was missing. Holding her now, he felt truly alive for the first time in ages.
She stepped back, her red-rimmed eyes taking him in as he did the same with her. She was taller than he remembered—as was he, of course—and she looked so grown up in her uniform. So many questions rose inside him that he couldn’t speak at first.
“I thought…,” she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “I was afraid you… I thought I’d have to go without you, and—”
“Me too. No one would tell me where you were. I didn’t know if you were still at the orphanage, or if Barnardo’s people had come for you, too. I’d never thought to see you here today!”
From his first moments in the orphanage, he’d questioned anyone and everyone in authority, demanding to know where his sister had been taken. Answers had come in the form of beatings, sometimes followed by days locked in the black, earthy pit of the cellar, but he never stopped asking. How many nights had he lain awake, wondering how and where she was? Praying she was eating well, that she was safe and warm? Mary had always prided herself on being tough, but Jack knew how fragile she could be.
By the time he, Edward, and Cecil had been transferred from the orphanage to Barnardo’s Stepney Causeway Home for Boys, he had almost accepted that he’d never see his sister again. But here she was. He took a step back and saw Winny hopping on her toes at Mary’s side, her cloud of curls bouncing under her hat.
“Hi, Jack,” she said. Her wide brown gaze was just as intense as it had been the first day he met her.
“Hey, Irish,” he said, pulling her in for a hug. “God, it’s good to see you.”
“We missed you so much,” she said into his ear.
Edward and Cecil took turns embracing the girls. “You two sure are a sight for sore eyes!” Cecil said, grinning.
“Thought I’d seen the last of you,” Edward said quietly to Mary, and Jack heard relief in his friend’s voice.
Mr. Keller strode over, separating the boys from the girls with a wide sweep of his arms. “Back in line, children,” he said.
But Jack didn’t move. “Can’t I have a moment with my sister?”
“It’s all right, Mr. Miller. You’ll have time to talk when we’re on board. We’re travelling together.”
Happiness surged through Jack at the news, so he nodded and returned to his group. All that mattered was that Mary was here, safe and sound. From this point on, he could take care of her and Winny again, just like he used to.
Winny’s chipper voice rang out from across the dock. “See you on board, Jack!”
Her teacher scolded her for shouting, but as soon as the woman moved away, Winny looked back at him, still beaming. Her smile was as contagious as ever.
* * *
The first time he’d met Winny, there had been no smile on her face. Mary had found her down the street from the market, dirty, shivering with cold, and stooped with hunger, and she had brought the little waif to their hideout in the tunnel. The girls were the same age, but Winny looked much younger. A tiny little thing. They gave her some of their food, then Mary took her under her wing and explained how their gang worked. He was glad to see Winny didn’t argue when Mary told her she’d have to contribute to the pot if she wanted to stay with them, whether that was by earning money fair and square or by stealing, as most of them did.
“I took a plum yesterday,” she’d said in her singsong Irish accent. “On my own.”
“That’s a good start. Just grabbed it, did you?” Mary said. “Jack can teach you some tricks too.”
He liked how Winny watched them all—Mary, him, Edward, and Cecil—and how she seemed to ingest everything that happened around her. Her eyes were big and as brown as nuts, and Jack was well aware that those were valuable to a little group like theirs. He knew from experience that folks would do just about anything for a kid who looked like her.
By the time Winny joined them, he and Mary had been scraping by on the streets for about two years. Their father had been a tight-lipped, hard-fisted man who couldn’t stand children, and their mother cowered before him. Jack was eleven and Mary was ten when he’d abandoned them. They’d hoped their lives would get better after he was gone, but their mother blamed the children for driving him away and making her life miserable, and she turned to gin.
One day, three solemn-faced women from the Children’s Aid Society showed up at their door. They had taken one look at Jack’s mother, unconscious on her bed, then said that for the children’s own safety, they had to go with them. Jack and Mary had always been able to communicate without words, and when he glanced at his sister he could see the idea didn’t sit right with her. It certainly didn’t with him. Feigning agreement, Mary assured the women they’d collect their things and be right back. Instead, they escaped through a rear window and never looked back.
Jack sometimes toyed with the idea of going back to the old place just to make sure their mother was all right, and once in a while, he and Mary dreamed about a happy ending for their family, but they knew it would never come true. The truth was, their mother had probably barely noticed they were gone.
Life on the street was difficult, but they were used to fending for themselves. Finding shelter was the hardest part. One cold winter morning they came across a woman’s frozen body, curled against a wall like a snail, and Jack had peeled her shawl off to wrap around his sister’s shoulders. Living rough was the price they paid for not going to an orphanage or workhouse, where they’d have to pick oakum, smash rocks, or do some other kind of miserable labour for a roof over their heads and food to eat. But there, they would be separated from one another. That was the one thing they couldn’t face.
Other children, including Cecil and Edward, had met up with them along the way, but only the brothers stayed. No one knew where the others went. They might have returned home, they might have gone into a workhouse, they might have died. With so little certainty about what might happen on any given day, no one ever thought to say goodbye.
And then Winny came along.
A few days after she joined their group, they had gone to the market, and he’d asked if she was ready to try something new. She’d nodded eagerly, and he was glad to see there was already a bit more colour in her cheeks.
“Today, you’re the bait,” Jack said.
She blinked once. “What’s a bait?”
“Don’t be daft.”
“I’m not daft. I just dunno what a bait is.”
“Sure you do. Like a worm when a fella goes fishing,” he’d said, though he’d never fished in his life. “It’s easy. You’re real small for twelve, so they’ll think you’re just a tyke. You don’t gotta say nothing, just look up at them with them eyes of yours. So you distract ’em, see? Try it. Show me them eyes.”
She looked up at him, eyes wide.
“That’s it. As big and sad as you can.”
“But—”
“Is ya hungry, Irish?”
“I am,” she said.
“Then let’s go.” He spun her around so they both could watch the crowd milling about the stalls. “There. See the lady with the big hat and the black feather?” He pushed her gently forward. “That’s the one for you. Go over and look sad. So she sees you.”
“Then what?”
&nbs
p; “You’ll see. Sad as you can.”
He left her there, but as he wound his way between the merchants, he kept a protective eye on her. He didn’t want her getting hurt in the bubbling stew of people. She stopped behind the woman with the black feather hat and sought Jack out, but before she saw him he’d ducked behind a stack of crates. She had to do this herself. She needed to know how to get her own food if she was to survive. After this first time, it would get easier.
“Go on,” he urged. “Do it.”
As if she heard him, Winny stepped into the woman’s line of sight and heaved a deep breath before gazing soulfully up. She bit her lower lip and looked through her eyelashes at the woman, making her saddest face. It was the juiciest piece of bait Jack had ever seen.
“Oh my! What a pretty little thing you are. Where’s your mother, dear?”
Winny just looked at her, not saying a word, then the woman leaned down and asked the magic words.
“Are you hungry?”
Winny nodded, and the woman gave the grim-faced seller a coin before handing Winny an apple. Jack was especially glad he wasn’t with her in that moment, because the man knew him and their gang well. He’d chased them away from his stall many times. Then again, he most likely wouldn’t say anything as long as this woman handed him her coins. A sale was a sale, after all.
The woman smiled with appreciation as Winny bit into the apple. Quiet as a cat, Jack wound his way back toward her and waited for his cue.
“What a dear little thing you are,” the woman said, producing a small sack from within her coat. “Here now.” She peered into it and Jack braced to run. “I’ve enough here to—”
He snatched her purse before Winny or the woman saw him coming, then he vanished back into the crowd. He could hear the woman screaming, “Thief! Thief!” but they’d never catch him. As he ran, he glanced behind, but Winny wasn’t there. She must have stayed put. He circled back at a safe distance and spotted her standing in the same place, looking around for him.
“Winny!” he called, just loud enough for her to hear.
Looking slightly annoyed, she headed toward him. “You never told me if I should run or—”
But the seller was right behind her, hollering for the police.
“Run now, Irish! Run!” he said, shoving her ahead of him. “I ain’t getting caught ’cause of you!”
Winny got going as fast as her legs would carry her, her arms pumping like mad. When she started to lag, Jack scooped her up and carried her lickety-split out of the market. He ran until he reached an alley, then he let her go, his chest heaving against his threadbare shirt.
“You gotta run faster next time, Irish.”
“My name is not Irish,” she said, gasping for breath. “It’s Winny.”
“I know that. But you’re from Ireland, ain’t ya? That’s your home.”
“I live in England now, so England’s my home.”
“Nah. That’s not the way it is.” He took a few big gulps of air. They both needed to get their breath back before they could run again. “This is my home because I was born here, but it’s more than that. Mum said—” He hesitated. He never liked to think about Mum. “When I was little she told me home is where your heart is.”
Winny cocked her head to the side. “In Ireland I lived in a dirty wee house in the middle o’ nowhere. In England I lived in a dirty wee house in the middle of a city, until I met you lot. Now I live on the streets. I dunno where my heart is.”
“Maybe you just have to wait and see.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment. “I feel like I’m home when I’m with you and Mary.”
He laughed. A person couldn’t be a home, he wanted to say.
“Coast is clear,” he said, ducking his head out of the alley, and they started off again. Jack reached the tunnel first, and when Winny arrived, puffing behind him, he was already telling them about her success.
“There she is!” Edward said, grinning. “Well done, mate.”
“Whatcha get?” Cecil asked.
Jack handed over the purse. “You mean what did Irish get,” he said, giving Winny a wink.
Cecil squinted into the bag, one finger stirring the coins within. “Looks like ten pence, maybe.”
“Your first steal,” Mary said. “Now you’re one of us.”
Winny smiled, but her brow creased.
“What’s wrong?” Mary asked.
“I feel bad for doing it. That lady was kind to me, then we stole from her.” She looked at Jack. “It feels like a lie.”
They all knew stealing was wrong, and Jack was plenty guilty of that, but he was also responsible for making sure he and the others ate. In his mind, those two things balanced each other out. He’d never actually thought of stealing as lying until now. Somehow that was a harder thing to swallow. It made what they did feel more personal.
“Would you do it again?” he asked.
The crease in her forehead disappeared. “Oh, well. If it means we don’t starve, then I’ll do it again.”
And that was all Jack needed to know.
* * *
From his place on the pier, Jack watched the group of girls begin to cross the gangplank and board the ship. At the last second, Mary glanced over her shoulder at him, and their eyes locked.
I’m here, he thought hard, needing her to know. And I ain’t leaving you again.
When she nodded with understanding, he grinned. It was astounding how much life could change in a moment. Minutes before, he’d been dragging his heels, torn apart that he’d be travelling to Canada and leaving Mary behind. Then she’d appeared as if by magic, and now he was impatient to board the ship. When it was his turn, Jack stepped forward then grasped the rope banister when the gangplank swayed. The seawater looked very black beneath his feet, and Jack had no idea how to swim.
Once everyone was on board and gathered on the main deck, Mr. Keller and the girls’ teacher, Miss Pence, explained where on the ship they were permitted to wander. To Jack’s relief, it was announced that as long as they all behaved with decorum, the boys and girls were allowed to socialize during the voyage. Jack could hardly wait to hear about the girls’ lives and tell them about his.
Edward clapped him on the back, looking happier than Jack had seen him in a while. “We’re all together again, just like the old days.”
Cecil snorted. “For how long? Once we’re over there, we’ll probably never see each other again.”
The reality of what Cecil was saying smothered Jack’s joy, and he looked away. He knew his friend was probably right, but he didn’t want to think about that just yet.
“Ain’t you a bringer of glad tidings,” Edward muttered to his brother.
“What? You’re daft if you think this is gonna go well for us. They said we’re being sent to different places. They’re sending us over to work.”
“And live,” Edward reminded him. “Which means maybe we will see each other.”
“Doubt it,” Cecil muttered, and Jack heard the fear behind Cecil’s words. The brothers had never lived apart from each other.
“Shhh,” Jack said, noticing the girls coming toward them. “No more moping.”
“There you are,” Mary said, hugging Jack again.
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” he replied, stepping back to take a better look. “Or how grown up you both are.” He turned to Winny. “You’ve gotten bigger. You must be eating all right.”
“I’m fifteen,” she said, as if he didn’t remember. “Practically a lady.”
“I can see that.” And it was true. She’d always been small, and she still was, but she stood taller now, and her wild mane of hair had been slightly tamed under her straw hat. Those big brown eyes were as deep as ever, though.
“And look at you.” She gestured to his cheeks. “Shaving like a man.”
“I’m sixteen,” he copied her. “Practically a gentleman.”
Winny laughed just like he remembered, but when he glanced at Mar
y, her tense expression was unfamiliar. Every gaze, every lifted eyebrow or shoulder had always carried an implication that he understood, but he couldn’t quite read her now. Maybe the past three years had taken away more than time spent together.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“This shouldn’t be happening,” she said, wringing her hands. “Cecil’s right. We shouldn’t leave England. We know nothing about Canada or what they’ll have us do there. Jack, tell me you have a plan to get us out of this.”
“A plan? I suppose if you’d asked me an hour ago, I’d have agreed with you, but that was before you lot showed up. Canada don’t seem so frightening now we’re together again. Sure, they’re sending us to work, but—” He elbowed Cecil. “There’ll be no more marching in lines, no more ‘yes sir, no sir.’ Right?”
Cecil wrinkled his heavily freckled nose at the memory.
Just the thought of living without those restraints made Jack feel as if he could fly. No more living in a cage. Whether at the orphanage or at Stepney Causeway, he’d always felt trapped. It was true that once they’d been taken to the Home, they’d had better food to eat and books to read, but they’d still been inmates in a prison of sorts.
“They say we’ll be cowboys in Canada,” Edward put in, trying to lighten the mood. “We’ll live good.”
Mary shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”
“Don’t believe what?”
“Any of it. That Canada will be a good thing,” she said. “Who knows where we’ll end up?”
Jack caught Edward’s eye, recalling an incident where they’d both ended up at the wrong end of a teacher’s belt. “It’s gotta be better than here.”
“It wasn’t so bad in the Home,” she insisted.
“That’s true. I liked Barkingside,” Winny said. “We always had food and warm beds, and they taught us loads. I can sew and cook now, and I never knew none of that before. We used to sing, too. I liked a lot of things there.”
Jack didn’t remember Stepney Causeway with that much fondness. He remembered the discipline, the drills, the work, and the everyday drudgery. He remembered staring past the black iron gates, wishing he could run through them.
The Forgotten Home Child Page 3
