It had been a while since Innu was able to catch a break. Lately, he felt like he was always so busy. His new school was a little further away than his old one, so it was quite a walk to get to the place he was heading to at the moment. Holding two heavy carrier bags in his hands that were filled to the top certainly wasn’t helping either.
‘Hahaha, all those suckers will love these.’ Innu smiled to himself. ‘It’s been a while since I visited them. Before joining the Howlers, I was always busy trying to make money, but it seems like things are looking up these days.’
Before leaving today, Innu had asked Kai for a favour. He had asked if he could get an advanced payment. Usually in a gang, such a request would be put to the leader. Still, their gang wasn’t your typical gang.
Right now, Kai was looking after all the money that they had gotten from the Grey Elephants raid.
This was because Kai didn’t know how much the repairs for the place were going to cost, and after the spend, whatever was left, he wanted to go down other investment avenues with the money. At least that’s what he said.
The group had learnt to have some trust in Kai, they had all seen his special and whimsical ways, and none of them thought they could do better with the cash anyway.
Everyone still had received a cut from that day and some even more behind the scenes. The total amount was really only known to Kai. Before leaving school today, Innu had asked Kai for a favour himself, asking to borrow some of the money. In the end, he had no choice to explain why exactly he needed the money.
‘It seemed Kai was quite happy to give the money. He’s a scary guy to talk to but nice at the same time.
Standing outside, Innu was at the door. It was a wide single floor building on private grounds with a playground in front. Even before entering, he could hear noise through the door.
Screams, and cries and loud noises from outside.
“Ben, will you stop picking on Steward? You know he doesn’t;t like that.” A female voice said.
It was Inuu’s cue to step in as he pushed the door open with his arm, holding carefully onto the bags.
“Surprise!” He yelled with both of the bags held up in his hand.
“Huh, is that…big brother Innu!” A high pitched voice said.
Walking forward, Innu turned around the corner, entering into a large room. There were countless kids of all ages inside. Ages from as young as three, going all the way up to thirteen, were in the room.
“It is big brother Innu!” A cute girl with pigtails and a pink dress said as she ran up to Innu and gave a big hug around his legs. It was so tight he thought he was going to fall over.
“What’s in the bags? What did you get us! Is it food?” Another round cheek kid said who had red sauce all over his face.
“Ah, maybe you would have preferred food, but no, I got you presents,” Innu said as he put the bags down and started to empty them. They were all sorts of different things he had bought toys, books, pencils. Most of the items were either toys or something they needed for school.
“Wow, Big Brother Innu is the best!” They cheered.
Looking at their smiling faces was making his heart melt, but he couldn’t help but look around and notice the condition of the room.
‘This place…it hasn’t changed since I was here, not one single bit.’ Innu thought, which in reality meant it had gotten worse.
Part of the wooden flooring was lifted, and panels were missing. Chairs were broken, with pillows and toys with their stuffing falling out. While the older kids were left without much to do but just stare out of the window.
They didn’t seem as surprised to see Innu as the others had done, but there was one person, a single adult who had large round glasses who had approached him.
“Innu, you didn’t have to spend so much money…I mean, how did you even afford all this stuff?” Suzan asked, but she couldn’t help but smile as she saw the kids excited. Seeing this, Innu thought it was the smile of an angel.
He remembered many times while staying here how many times that smile had warmed his heart because it was the closest thing he had to a real mother when growing up.
This was the Black rock orphanage.
The place where Innu had grown up before he himself had been adopted only a short while ago, but even then, his current parents weren’t exactly the best. For one, this was a tier-three town. Which meant there weren’t many that could truly afford to adopt, but the government did try to support those that would adopt and once in a while, you would get a certain pair of people come by with different interests in mind.
These were Innu’s adoptive parents. They didn’t care about him, but just the support money adopting him would give them. Truthfully he would have tried to leave his adoptive parents and come back here, the place he called home…but he knew it put a strain on their already struggling finances.
New kids were being placed into adoption all the time, and there wasn’t enough coming out. The orphanages didn’t receive enough funding to look after them at all. Each year, it seemed like the amount of money Slough was willing to spend on them would lessen, and all of that burden fell on Suzan.
Being a bit older, Innu knew this. He knew how hard it was for Suzan. Still, instead of leaving them all, she had decided to stay and support the place. She ran it and put her own money into place because she was once an orphan.
“The money she would get for working here would often go back on the kids as if they were her own.”
‘I don’t want to ever see that smile go away.’ Innu thought.