Orphan Train Tragedy

by Rachel Wesson

  Kathleen felt the girl close up. Her open expression was replaced by a look of defiance.

  “Don’t matter, I ain't got any brothers or sisters. Not anymore,” Cindy said.

  Chapter 21

  Kathleen took the girl’s hand, but Cindy pulled it away. Kathleen didn’t push it. She remained silent, waiting to see what Cindy would do next. Would she ask more questions, or would she keep quiet?

  Cindy stared out the window. Without turning around she asked, “What happened to the rest of your family?”

  Kathleen knew it was important to be honest, but she didn’t want to scare the girl either.

  “My oldest sister went away with some friends. I don’t know where Maura is now, but she was an adult and a widow at the time, so old enough to make her own choices. My brothers, Shane and Michael went on an orphan train out West. It wasn’t one organized by the sanctuary.”

  Cindy turned around, her shoulders pulled back as if readying herself for a fight. “You trying to say the sanctuary does the best orphan trains?” Cindy asked.

  “Something like that. Anyway, the boys got into trouble.”

  “See, I told ya. There’s nothing good to come from these trains.” Cindy’s told you so tone made Kathleen want to react but that wouldn’t be helpful to anyone. She did her best to keep her voice calm.

  “No Cindy. I tried to blame the orphan train too for my brothers’ problems, but the reality is they were growing wild in New York. They kept up that behavior and while what happened to them wasn’t all their fault, it was partly. You can’t blame other people, not all the time. Shane came back to New York, married a lady called Angel and now lives in Riverside Springs.”

  Cindy didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds. Kathleen didn’t fill the silence. If Cindy had more questions, she would ask them. Kathleen didn’t have to wait long.

  “If all your family lives there, how come you don’t? Don’t tell me it’s because you love orphans so much.”

  Kathleen smiled. “No, it’s not that. Well, not completely, although I do love my job at the sanctuary. I fell in love with a doctor I met on one of the orphan trains. He wasn’t involved with the movement, just a passenger on a train. His work means he must live in New York so there you go. That’s my life story. Why don’t you tell me a little about yours?” She hoped the girl would open up to her but it was too soon.

  Cindy ignored the question instead asking one of her own. “You got kids?”

  Taken aback, Kathleen tried to hide her reaction. Although, to be fair, she should have expected the question. “I have a son, Patrick. We adopted him when we got married.”

  “Don’t he miss you when you are going on one of your mercy missions?”

  Wincing at Cindy’s cold tone, Kathleen tried to keep her voice soft. “Patrick is almost an adult. We all adopted each other if you like. He will become a doctor and is much too busy volunteering at the hospital or studying to notice whether I am there.”

  Cindy didn’t look convinced, but that was the truth. It was part of the reason she felt so lonely and questioned the meaning of her life. Why couldn’t she and Richard have a child?

  “You don’t want to know about my life,” Cindy said. “It ain't all roses and it don’t get to have a happy ending.”

  Chapter 22

  Kathleen did her best to hide the pity she felt for Cindy, knowing the young girl wouldn’t appreciate it.

  “I know it hasn’t been easy for you. I don’t know what it is like to live on the streets personally, but I’ve been working with children just like you for the last ten years. I am not easily shocked.”

  Cindy’s eyes widened as her cheeks grew red. She drew back from Kathleen. “Don’t you put me in the same boat as your orphans. I didn’t want to get on this train. The coppers forced me. They said I could pick between going with you and going to jail. It wasn’t much of a choice.”

  Kathleen knew Cindy was baiting her trying to get a reaction she was used to. Cindy expected Kathleen to shout or react in a harsh way. Just like most of the adults the child had previously been in contact with. Kathleen had seen it before.

  She spoke calmly ignoring Cindy’s declaration. “I’m glad you came with us. What type of family would you like to find?”

  Cindy stared at her, her expression veering between disbelief and a hesitant curiosity. “You mean I got a choice?”

  “Yes Cindy, a small one. I can try to find you a family in a town or out in the country. There aren’t any big cities out in Wyoming, well not like New York. But we stop at some larger towns.”

  Cindy held her head to one side as she took a few seconds to think about what Kathleen had said. Just when Kathleen decided, the girl wasn’t going to answer, Cindy spoke quietly. Kathleen had to bend forward to hear her.

  “I’d like to live in a town. I can find somewhere that suits if the family you give me to turn out to be mean.”

  Kathleen resisted the urge to promise the girl everything would work out just fine. Hopefully it would but she didn’t know for a fact. Cindy would resent her lies. She decided to be as honest as possible without scaring her.

  “It doesn’t work like that Cindy. You can’t just run away if you don’t like the placement. The family you go to will have to report on your progress. I encourage all our children to write to us to tell us how things are going. What you like and don’t like. If something goes wrong, and it might no matter how careful we are, we will move you to another family.”

  She saw Cindy withdraw, a veil of indifference falling over her eyes. Kathleen kicked herself. She should have been more reassuring.

  “You mean when they find out what a brat they got and kick me out?” Cindy short but resigned tone spoke volumes. The girl didn’t trust anyone. Who could blame her?

  “You can behave badly if you want and see if it works. Some families who look to take our children have adopted other orphans. They know it takes time. And then…”

  “Then?” Cindy leaned forward slightly.

  “There are people who think children are like puppies. They believe they will get a child who behaves well all the time, who smiles and is grateful. Who never cries or wets the bed.”

  “I ain't going to wet the bed.” Cindy reared back, giving Kathleen a dirty look.

  Kathleen did her best to hide a smile. She hastened to clarify what she had said.

  “I’m not talking about you. Some little ones take a while to settle with a family. There can be problems with bed wetting or tantrums in the first few weeks. Most of the time our new parents are happy to wait but sometimes…well it doesn’t always work out.”

  “Do I got to go with who you pick, or do I get a say?” Cindy asked.

  “I won’t ask you to go with anyone you really don’t want to go with. But before you tell yourself you will hate everyone, please give it a chance.” Kathleen stood up. “I best go check on everyone.”

  Cindy didn’t move but stared out the window. Kathleen hoped she had listened to what she had said. Cindy would be difficult to place given her age and her appearance. Even though the ladies at the sanctuary had done their best, Cindy didn’t look much better than she had when she first arrived, kicking and screaming. Her hair had been shorn some time ago and was only now growing back. It was blonde and curly but given its length, at first glance Cindy looked like a boy. Add her appalling manners—eating with her mouth wide open, wiping her snotty nose on her sleeve—and she was hardly what one would call endearing. It would take a special family to see the good in this child. But there was good in her, of that Kathleen was sure. She’d seen for herself how Cindy refused to let anyone, regardless of their age or stature, pick on the younger children. One of the younger kids had been in the same gang as Cindy. Toby confided to Kathleen that Cindy had acted like a mother to the younger ones, making sure they got to eat and stepping in when anyone threatened them. That was how she’d gotten the knife marks on her arms. Some gang leader tried to teach her respect for the rules.
>
  Chapter 23

  As Kathleen tended to the smaller children, taking them to the toilet and making sure they had something to eat, she wondered where the best setting for Cindy was. She would have more choice of families in a bigger town, but that also gave her a chance to run away. To go back to living on the streets was a fate she didn’t want for any child, but particularly a girl on the cusp of womanhood.

  “Miss Kathleen will you tell us a story?” a girl named Julie asked. “Pieter says he only knows German ones.”

  “Pieter comes from Germany and is learning to speak English. He isn’t being unkind,” Kathleen explained wishing she could speak a little German to make the boy feel more at home. A picture of Granny popped into her mind. Was this the foreign boy for whom she had to pick a special family?

  Pieter smiled uncertainly. Kathleen wasn’t sure exactly how much English the boy understood. His parents had only recently immigrated to the States. They had lived in in Kleindeutchsland, or Little Germany as New Yorkers called it, among the large German community so didn’t see the need to learn English. They had only been in America for six months when they were killed when a trolley had hit some pedestrians. Pieter’s father had pushed him out of the way, saving his life.

  “How about I tell you the story of Little Women?” Kathleen asked. The children had probably never heard of the civil war story, but it was written by one of Kathleen’s favorite authors and it would help the time pass by faster. “Cindy would you like to join us?’

  “No thanks. I’m going to sleep.”

  Kathleen didn’t press the girl. She had a lot to process. Instead, she sat between Pieter and Billy with Toby on her lap and started her story of Little Women.

  The hours passed quickly as the children demanded she tell them the rest of the story. Her mouth grew dry, but Pieter made it his job to fill up a cup with water for her. Only when their stomachs rumbled with hunger would the children let her stop.

  “You tell good stories. Like Papi.”

  “Thank you, Pieter, that’s a real compliment. Do you like to read?”

  “In German yes. In English, it is difficult. But I hope to learn. If I can.”

  Kathleen saw the boy was trying hard to be brave. She compared him to Teddy and Laurie. Although of similar age, Pieter’s life couldn’t be more different. Not only had he lost his parents, but he lived in a strange country where everyone spoke a different language. If only Reverend Haas had been able to find him a family in Little Germany. But times were tough. There was a lot of competition for jobs and families in that area were struggling to look after their own. Maybe she would find a German family willing to take on this lovely child.

  “It is important to keep up your schooling. I will make sure your new family knows you like to read,” she told him.

  “Thank you, Miss Kathleen. You are great for me.”

  After Kathleen had fed the children with the help of the other boys and girls, she soon had all twenty in her care settled for the night. Even Cindy was asleep, or pretending to be.

  Kathleen tried to get comfortable in her seat, her book on her lap. But the hard seat was hurting her back and her mind was racing. Granny Belbin had predicted a foreign child who needed a good home. Was that Pieter? And she’d mentioned a fire hurting a child. Father Nelson said the girl she’d pick up from her uncle, Mia, was a victim of fire. So if Granny had been right on those two counts, was she also right about Richard’s inability to father a child? Was she destined to meet a child who would find a loving home with her and Richard on this train?

  Her mind played over the children traveling with her. Pieter was the opposite of Cindy —he’d never had to fend for himself before and wouldn’t last two minutes on the streets of New York. She had to find him a good family. Some would-be adopters would take one look at his strong muscles and clear skin and see not a child but a worker.

  Kathleen knew all the children would be expected to help in their new homes. They would have chores to do just like most children. Her mind flew back to the stories Bella’s husband had shared of growing up an orphan on a farm out West. He and Mitch had been forced to work from sunup to sundown and were treated horribly. The newspapers that highlighted the fact that some children became almost like slaves to their new families weren’t always wrong. But not the kids from the sanctuary. No child in her care would end up that way. Of that she was certain.

  Chapter 24

  The train stopped at a small station the next morning. There were only two passengers standing on the platform. George, the conductor, came to find Kathleen.

  “Miss Kathleen, the gentleman outside wants a word with you. Says he’s been in contact with Father Nelson. I will come with you.”

  Pleased, if amused, by George's effort to protect her, Kathleen asked Cindy to look after the children.

  “George, it’s fine. Father Nelson arranged for me to collect the child.”

  “All the same, I will wait with you.”

  Kathleen stepped off the train, looking at the figures in front of her. The man aged in his early twenties looked stressed, as if being on the station platform was the last place he wanted to be. The child beside him held onto his hand, her long black hair twirling around her face with the wind.

  “Mrs. Kathleen Green.” Kathleen held out her hand. The man shook it but didn’t offer his own name.

  “Father Nelson said to give you Mia. You’d know a good home for her. I can’t look after her. Lord knows I’ve tried, but I ain't set up for looking after children. I didn’t know it would be this hard.”

  Horrified, Kathleen glanced at the young girl, but she hadn’t appeared to hear. She was practically glued to the young man’s side.

  The man couldn’t seem to stop talking. “I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Anyway, I got to be going. You take her now. Mia, let go of my leg. You go with this lady now. She’ll find you a new home. With kind people.”

  This added remark made Kathleen look closer at the man. Surprised to find tears in his eyes, she wondered if she had misjudged him. But her heart went out to the child holding his leg. She must have been terrified.

  “Hello Mia, my name is Kathleen. I am taking a group of children to Green River. We would love you to come with us.”

  Mia glanced up at Kathleen just as the wind lifted her hair. The child’s face was marked with a horrific red scar. Granny’s words came to mind. A child hurt by fire. Granny had seen Mia. Kathleen’s heart hammered so loudly, she was sure the others could hear it. Kathleen used every ounce of self-control not to move. She had to restrain herself from picking the child up in her arms and running back to the train.

  Despite Kathleen’s lack of reaction, the child must have expected her to cringe as she turned her face back into her uncle's leg.

  Kathleen bent down to speak to Mia.

  “Mia, darling, I know you are scared. We are strangers now but by the time we get to Green River, we will be friends. I have some other girls in the group, they might be the same age as you.”

  Mia didn’t look up. She clung tighter to the young man despite his attempts to free himself.

  George stepped forward. “Miss Kathleen, I don’t mean to intrude but we have to get going. The train has to arrive on time at the next station or there will be upset.”

  “Sorry George. We’re coming now. Mia, can you take my hand?” She glanced at the uncle. “Does she have anything to take with her?”

  The man looked rather bemused before his neck turned red. “You mean clothes and stuff. That’s all she got. I told you Missus, I is only a small farmer. I don’t have money to buy stuff like that. I can't look after a kid. Look Mia, we spoke about this. You will have a better life somewhere else. Without me. I got to go now. Be happy.”

  The man wrenched his leg away from the child and stomped off. Mia tried to run after him, but he was too fast.

  Chapter 25

  Kathleen moved quickly and gathered the child to her, picking her up
and carrying her onto the train. She held her in her arms until she reached the car with the other children in it.

  “What’s wrong with her? Why’s she wailing like a half drowned cat?”

  “Cindy. Be kind. This is Mia. She is coming with us to Green River.”

  Kathleen sat on the seat with Mia on her lap, the child’s face buried in her chest. The train whistled before it moved off away from the station. Glancing out the window, she saw the young man staring at the train, the tears running freely down his face. Her heart went out to him and to the child on her lap.

  Billy moved closer.

  “You’re an orphan like me. We can be friends,” Billy said, moving forward when Mia didn’t turn her face. “How do you like…” Billy stared at Mia’s face. “What did you do to your face? It looks awful sore.”

  Kathleen waited to see if the child would respond but when Mia stayed silent, she gently explained.

  “Mia was injured in a fire. The scars will heal in time.” Kathleen smiled at Billy, hoping he wouldn’t cry or scream, but he seemed to accept what she’d said. The child on her lap was a different story.

  “No, they won’t. They will be like this forever. They said so at the hospital.”

  Shocked to hear Mia speaking so eloquently, Kathleen stared her in the face. Mia was watching her closely for a reaction. Kathleen thanked the Lord for her husband Richard and his work with burn victims. She had seen cases like Mia before and while the scars never ceased to upset her, she didn’t run in revulsion.

  “I hope the doctors are wrong, Mia. Now why don’t you take a seat here beside us and tell us a bit about yourself?”

  But Mia seemed to have used up her words and although she moved off Kathleen’s lap, she sat in silence. Kathleen had to see to the needs of the other children so left Mia with Cindy and Billy. Billy was kindness himself, but Cindy was the one who surprised Kathleen. She spoke softly to the young girl, telling her about how they would find her a family who would love her and look after her. Kathleen knew Cindy didn’t believe that would happen for her, but maybe she believed it would happen for the little ones. Kathleen crossed her fingers. If Cindy believed good things could happen, it should be easier to convince the young girl they would happen for her as well.