First part of the Orpheus Hall universe

Reaffirmation

A story by Allie Elle (from the word smith of a hot latte and lots of cuddles)

Outline:
I suppose you could call Richard a normal teen ager in a lot of things, but like any one there were many facets to his character. A chance encounter at spell R us changes his life, he goes from an orphanage into a loving family but what does he loose along the way?
But she sure does look cute in that stroller...............

Part one: openings
Richard looked out of the window it was the usual grey fare of the welsh borders, he examined his clothes. Another selection from the charity box over washed and slightly thread bare, for as long has he could remember it was the way he dressed. He was what the locals called a hall kid; he lived in Orpheus Hall a local authority child care facility. It was all he knew he was taken from his mother at a week old three days before she committed suicide. She was a drug addict and had reacted to a bad batch of heroin and in her altered state had jumped in front of a passenger train.
Richard was also a loner and would watch the girls in the hall and feel jealous when they were fostered and adopted before him. There was also something else Richard walked with a limp due to a badly treated muscle disorder that was slowly eating away at him. Some nights he could sit there and he thought he could feel what he called the little daemons eating away at him. He knew that with all that was wrong with him he was in the hall until he turned nineteen. That was something he really was not looking forward to in three years. He was the only kid in the hall that faced that prospect. So many times kid’s had come and gone and still he had been left there watching as the faces around him changed.
Sarah Roberts was the house mother at the hall she was responsible for overseeing the care of the children under her care. She was worried about Richard he seemed to be getting more depressed as his sixteenth birthday approached. She had worked at the hall for ten years starting as a care assistant and had built a rapport with him. She was a little distracted as she looked through the post and saw a letter from the social services. It looked ominous and she was scared to open it so she left it there and looked over the rest of the letters. There was one that was marked with a strange post mark, she placed that one aside. The rest were the usual junk which she threw away. The department letter and the strange post marked one tugged at her but she knew it was time to

get working for the day. The day to day routine was firmly set so Sarah could concentrate on what she called her special cases. Richard was one of them and she wondered the best way to help him. She left the office and walked through to the children’s dorms. As the oldest in the hall Richard qualified for his own room and she saw him in the hallway looking out of the window. She could see the sadness in him and she knew the reason why it was so pronounced. Yet again yesterday another child was sent to a foster family and another was adopted.
Richard looked up as Miss Roberts walked down the dorm corridor and saw that she stopped to look at him. He could not help but feel anger when he saw the pity in her face as she looked at him. He stopped to think about what he faced he was now coming to the age of sixteen, there was no way he would now be adopted or even fostered he knew he was too old. Also he knew that he was also the wrong gender or so he thought. For many years he had fantasised about what would happen if he had been born a girl. A couple of times he had even worn some girl’s clothes and had felt totally comfortable with it and he felt that in a way it was the right thing for him to wear. He never felt embarrassed when he played dress up as he called it.
There was something also that he hid rather well in his private room in the hall; he had a couple of very infantile items. He had a pacifier and a Sippy cup and also a pink teddy bear that he hid from the staff and the other kids. The desire he had to be treated as both a child and a girl was growing stronger the older he got. There was a deep need in him that was taking over all the time and the effort to bury it was getting too hard. As he looked out of the window he slowly tuned out the rest of the noises of the hall around him he started to slip into his fantasy.

Part two: dream state.
Richard let the sounds of the hall and opened up his mind to the sensations he wanted to feel. He left a part of his mind to control what his feet and legs were doing and slowly slipped into what he called his safe zone. Slowly the images in his mind formed and his mentality slipped into the dream space. The images that formed were vivid to the point he could actually smell everything and feel the light breeze that tugged at the curtains. He let his mind eye wander around the room that his dream self was stood, it was the sort of room that would gladden the heart of any truly feminine little girl. The bed was actually more like a crib and with a canopy and pink gingham, on the walls there were prints of care bears and my little pony. There was also the smell of strawberries and an overlay of home baking and Richard let his body relax. He felt his body slip into its dream form and he walked around the room his dream form was skipping as it touched everything. The sensation of soft fur tickled the tips of his fingers and the smell of the air tingled in his nose. As he neared the door the smell of fresh cooking reached his nostrils and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

He slowly opened the door and was faced by the bars of a child gate in his way, he gently let his hand reach out and touch the white painted metal. It was warm to the touch and the metal was warmed by the air around him. He looked at his dream form hand and he smiled when he saw that it was fine and gentle and he giggled in his mind as he noticed the nails were painted a light pink. He shook his head and blonde hair flicked across his vision. The hair looked slightly curled and he felt warm inside. Suddenly a huge woman stood in front of him and she smiled and reached down and released a catch on the gate and opened it. The woman although large did not give out any sense of danger in fact the sense there was of love there. The woman reached down and ruffled Richard’s head and he felt his head shake with the rough but gentle caress.
“Come on sweetie I can see you are hungry, time for some breakfast.” The voice was melodious and gentle. She took his hand and led him down the hallway towards the smell of cooking and there was still the feeling of love surrounding around her.ve and safety. And the warmth of the woman seemed to fill the air, it was something that Richard craved deeply inside himself and he was drawn deeper into the dreamscape.
Richard after having a dream breakfast let himself slip out of the dream and back into the reality of his life. He sighed and walked out of his room down to the dining hall. He followed the crowd of the children towards the room where they all ate. His usual breakfast of two pieces of toast and a glass of orange juice set on a tray and he went to a corner of the room to eat. The other kids ignored him and allowed him to eat in peace. A couple of new kids to the hall walked over to where he was sitting but as another longer resident quickly whispered to them , they turned away and went to sit at an empty table. Richard was glad to be left alone and finished his meal and stood up and walked away. Miss Rogers was waiting outside of the dining hall and she made to try and detain him. He shrugged her hand away as it touched his shoulder.
“Richard please come with me” She said.
“Why what have I done this time?”
“Nothing honey I just want to talk to you.”
Richard took it as an order and followed her to the office and without waiting to be asked sat down. Sarah settled behind her desk and looked at her charge she waited a few minutes and looked at him. Richard crossed his arms and waited the Matron sat in silence waiting for him to speak. The minutes ticked past and nothing was said and Sarah started to tap the front of the desk gently. Richards gaze slipped to the corner of the desk and he saw the strange letter and reached a hand to touch it. Sarah did not stop him as it was the first time he had taken the initiative. She was not going to stop him as it seemed to be a way of reaching him.
“Miss Rogers why didn’t you open this letter?” he asked.
“It did not seem to be important today Richard, but dealing with you is important to me.”

Part three: warning in the wind

Richard reached for the letter to him it seemed to glow as he reached for it and as his fingers touched it. Sarah watched as the letter almost moved across the table towards Richard’s fingers, she did not believe in magic but it seemed as though this letter was. She watched as he opened his hand and the letter settled onto the palm of his hand. He gently reached a finger nail and slipped it under the flap of the letter and slipped out the expensive note paper from the embrace of the envelope.

The letter unfolded and Richard looked at it and seemed to look at what it said and frowned as he read the words in front of him.
“I think you should read the other letters from the department Miss Rogers, it is very important.”
Sarah listened to the voice of Richard and she reached for the letters and slowly opened the brown envelope from the department and she slipped the envelope open and read the fateful words.
“Dear Miss Roger’s,
The social services department unfortunately has to make cuts in their budget this year. Due to the expense of running the hall being a drain on our budget we have to make the decision to close the hall and place the children under your care in other establishments. This we have done with great sorrow as we also have had to make the decision to release you from your position. The closure will take place in two months time to give us time to rehome the children.
It is also known that you have a child in your care that is coming to the age of sixteen. Unfortunately we know that this child cannot be rehomed easily and we are deciding to move him into local authority housing with support. It is one decision that is rarely made but in these circumstances it is the best.
Yours Faithfully

Graham Siloe.”

Her gaze took in the letter and looked at Richard now she was worried about what was going to happen to him. She knew that children that were forced into adult situations were prone to fall apart and fail easily. She dreaded the thought that he would lose the innocence and end up in the clutches of the sort of people that had destroyed his mother. The lure of drugs would be strong if Richard could not fit into society. She did not have too force too much of the image into her mind of him sat on a street corner trying to turn tricks for another fix. She shuddered as the image sat in her head and she promised that this could not happen.
Richard watched Miss Rogers as she read the letters and he knew it was not good news. He watched closely as she felt thoughts cross through her mind. He saw a slight depression cross her face and he wondered what she was thinking. His attention was taken again by the letter and his eyes were drawn to letter head. It was very ornate and looked ancient, the paper of the letter was very stiff and was smooth to his touch it almost crackled as he ran his fingers across the top. There was a staff and a rabbit and a hat, it was almost as if it was the mark of a stage magician but there was a feel of a deeper power seemed to pulse from it. It slowly seemed to fade and the words seemed to run together until it was just a mass of black marks and Richard could not read the letter. Richard felt as though the letter was meant for him although the envelope was marked for Miss Rogers.

Sarah felt the anger in her start to run over about how the social services were looking at treating the kid’s under her care here and she knew that she would really have to do something. She knew that Richard would need the most help of all. She saw him take the other letter and stare at it as though he could not understand it, she wondered what the meaning of the letter was too him.

This story is continues in reaffirmation continued as I want to get this up on the net.