“She’s perfect,” Charles said, watching the two year old Korean girl toddle across the worn carpet, her pigtails bouncing with each step. He glanced around him, noting the shabbiness of the orphanage director’s office. He slapped at a hummingbird-sized mosquito that landed on his bare forearm. “When can I take her home?”
“At earliest, one month to get all paperwork completed, all signatures…” the director said in heavily accented English.
“And how much is the adoption fee?” he asked.
“$10,000,” she said.
Charles placed a small briefcase on her desk.
“Would $20,000 speed up the process?”
The director’s eyes widened as he opened the case to reveal more cash than she had ever seen in one place. She cleared her throat nervously.
“We could make arrangements for you to take her home now,” she said in a low voice. “I will start the paperwork. Do you know what you will name her?”
Charles watched the little girl run back and forth across the office as new things caught her curiosity. At the moment, she had stopped her constant movement to fixate at something on the wall. He was thinking hard when one of the other orphanage workers walked into the room and screamed.
“Cuidado! Dendrobatidos! Mira!” she said, pointing furiously at the little Asian girl as she ran in the opposite direction.
Maria lunged for the girl and pulled her away just as she was about to poke the yellow and black poison dart frog that was sticking to the wall.
“Yes,” Charles said, thoughtfully. “Mira. It’s perfect…”
“No,” the director said quickly, “it’s not a…”
“It’s a good thing I was able to convince you to let me take little Mira home today,” Charles interrupted. “Who knows what could have happened to her out here in the next month? This is Guatemala. It’s wild country out here…” He turned to face the little girl. “And how did an adorable little Korean girl like you come to be here in the first place?” Charles stooped to get Mira’s attention, and the young Latina worker crouched along with him. She brushed Mira’s chubby pink cheek with a finger.
“Her roses… are red,” she said in faltering English, smiling as Mira giggled with delight.
The director rolled her eyes. “She means her cheeks… they’re rosy.”
Charles gave the young woman a rare smile. “I agree. Her roses are red.”
a teaser!
ReplyDeletei want to learn more about this mira....of death!
Of course you will! But you get to learn about all of the other girls... of death (!) FIRST. :)
ReplyDeletehahahahahahaha. her roses are red! :)
ReplyDelete