Joaquin has always called ‘The Orphan Farm’ his home. Abandoned as a baby and different from other kids, Joaquin like Clara and some of the older children, don’t know their real parents. Father was Papa Arnold and Mother was Mommy Bernadette. Nana Josie and the others are their teachers and nanny. Joaquin loved them all. Here at home, Joaquin could run, swim, play ball and learn his letters and numbers.
Joaquin especially liked Science and experiments. Just last week, Joaquin and Clara learned about sound waves. After class, Joaquin and Clara gathered and cleaned empty soup cans and twine to make a telephone. With just one arm, Joaquin needed Clara’s help to punch holes on the bottom of the cans and thread the twine through. It actually worked and Joaquin and Clara spent several nights ‘calling’ each other after everyone was asleep. Clara did not have to walk with her crutches just to talk with Joaquin or share stories. With their ‘telephone’, they read stories to each other and laughed at jokes. They traced and named the stars in the evening sky. They kept their telephone a secret from the others until Iggy caught them. Soon, Iggy, Peter and Teri wanted to use it all at the same time. They caused quite a commotion that Nana Berna confiscated their homemade telephone “until such time that you all learn to take turns.” That was the end of it.
The children followed their routines for bed. With much reluctance and with several “Shush” from Nana Berna and the other nannies, the children finally made it to their beds. As usual, Joaquin and Iggy were the last ones to sleep, whispering about the days’ adventures.
“Am I dreaming?” Joaquin asks aloud.
He looked around; he was standing outside the main house. He could see the White House from a distance. That’s what they called the main house. It looked like the Farm and yet it did not. Hope Cottage, his house which he shared with Iggy is also there. Faith Cottage, Clara’s cottage is also there. It’s all the same but different. The house and cottages all looked new and bright; and the trees looked young. And smaller. Much smaller. “Weird” Joaquin thought.
Joaquin looks around and decides to walk away from the main house and the cottages and into the sugarcane fields. “Sugarcane!” he thought. Papa Arnold and Mommy Bernadette planted pineapples, not sugarcane. “Really weird!” he thought.
He has not been this far away from the main house. The sugarcane stalks are high. With his left arm, Joaquin could part the hard leaves. But he could not help some of the leaves brushing and scratching his face. At the other end of the field is a clearing and beyond, under a lush mango tree is a small bamboo cottage. “This is not right” Joaquin thought. “We don’t have neighbors that live in bamboo cottages.” Chickens are moving about, pecking on the ground. A small girl in a clean, white camisole is throwing seeds at the chicken. She does not see Joaquin.
“Hello” Joaquin greets in a small voice. He is not sure if he is scared or not. “She is just a little girl, smaller and younger than me” Joaquin tells himself. “Maybe she’s only 6 years old.” The girl does not look up. Joaquin moves closer. “Hello” he says in a louder voice. Still, the little girl does not look up. He walks closer. The chickens flee from him as he goes closer. The girl notices and looks up.
“Whaaaaaaa!” the girl shouts as she drops her bowl of feeds and turns to run to the back of the cottage. The chickens fly in all directions sending dust and dirt in a swirl. They make such a noise that breaks the quiet of the morning.
Joaquin freezes, too scared to move. He looks around with wide eyes. After what feels like a long time, he starts to relax. The girl is nowhere to be seen. He slowly walks to the back of the bamboo cottage and stretches his neck to look around the bend. Crouched between two large clay pots is the little girl. Her eyes were larger than his and more scared. Joaquin relaxes and smiles at the little girl.
“Hello” he says again. No response. The little girl just stares at him. “My name is Joaquin. I live in The Farm, over there in the White House,” he says pointing in the direction of the sugarcane fields.
The little girl follows his finger and back to him. She claps her hands to ears and shakes her head.
Whack! Joaquin sits up, fully awake. Iggy was laughing, standing beside his bed. Whack! Iggy slammed a book on the bedside table.
“Wake up, lazy bones or we’ll be late! Everybody’s gone to the main house. I volunteered to wake and wait for you.” Iggy proudly said with a silly grin.
Joaquin looked at Iggy and out the window. “I just had a very weird dream” he says.
“Well, you’re weird, so nothing weird about that” Iggy says chuckling. “Let’s go, I’m hungry.”
“Did you know that we have neighbors beyond the field? There’s a little girl who lives there. I think she’s deaf.” Joaquin persisted.
“Impossible. We have buildings for nei—” Iggy suddenly stopped and gave Joaquin a strange look. With eyes almost jumping out of its sockets, Iggy asked “Was she wearing a white dress and feeding the chickens?”
“You saw her too? So it wasn’t a dream? Or was it?” Joaquin whispered.
Stories 4 Tots 