Blurb
All of Clara Watson's life was spent hoping to be adopted and live a life outside of St. Peter's Orphanage so when she adopted by a peculiar Mr. Stevenson for the holiday season, she surely got the adventure, she was after.
This novel is limited to 100 free copies due to its part in Inkitt’s Novel Contest.
By Brittany T. Noring All Rights Reserved ©
My name is Clara Watson.
I was an unwanted child from depressed parents during the early days of the second World War and I was dropped off at the doorstep of St. Peters’ Orphanage for children. As one of countless others before me, I was brought in and raised by the sisters who ran the institution. I didn’t know life beyond the walls of the orphanage.
As time went on, my longing for my parents to come and fetch me grew weaker. Day after day, birthday after birthday, I wished for my parents to burst through the grand doors and bring me home. But of course, my wish, just like every other orphan, never came true. But the Christmas season of ’53 changed all that.
From December 20th to January 10th, foster parents have the opportunity to take in a child for the Christmas holidays. Being one of the older children of the orphanage when the program began in 1952, I was never chosen. There were normally young couples, one-child families or elder couples who took part in the program but there was somebody who didn’t look quite right in this picture. An olive-skinned man, with dark hair, walked about the play room looking, more like scanning, for a child. Being an orphan, I am forced to be open-minded and allowing to let anyone into my life but there was something off-putting about this man who was pacing the tiled floor. He, then, stopped behind Bessie, a 7-year-old orange-haired, freckled-faced, cheerful girl who was painting a picture.
The man tried to be friendly with her by sitting beside her, admiring her portrait, making jokes, introducing himself to her. Once she had finished the painted portrayal of a pig, she turned to him and it would seem that the father-adopted-daughter relationship hit off, almost instantly. No longer than five minutes later, Bessie took the hand of the man and the two headed for the exit. As I was listening to ‘Maybelline’ by this new young singer named Chuck Berry, I watched Bessie and the man cross the room. Just before they left, Sister Florence asked the man to fill out paperwork for taking custody over the child for the holidays.
As Bessie knew she was about to sub-adopted, she rushed around to all her ‘friends’ around the orphanage to say goodbye. The sad truth about being an orphan is that we mustn’t make friends or become too close with fellow children because one day or other, they’ll be gone and we’ll be on our own, again. Of course, I choked up when Bessie said goodbye to me because I remembered the day, when she arrived at the orphanage when she was only two years old. I knew that she’ll only be gone for 30 days but it was still a vast improvement from everybody else in this institution.
Dina Husseini: I loved this story. It was so great that I did not expect it to be this awesome. I swear to you this deserves more than just 5 stars. Beyond amazing. Kept me wanting more and I felt exactly like Emma felt while reading. Although in the beginning I did not expect anything to happen. Then, when som...
BFIrving: A first rate story and well crafted, the blend of horror and action worked very well indeed and had me turning page after page. When not actually reading it, I found myself thinking about it which is always a good sign.There are quite a few grammatical and spell-checker errors but nothing anothe...
Emperor2000: I joined Inkitt and downloaded this book following a friend who has been on here sometime recommending it. After they spoke about it a bit, I thought why not give it a go. Initially I only expected to read a few chapters, as I have little time to spend reading (not as much as I like). However I c...
Althea Kerr: This is a tale that is all too familiar to South African readers having lived through a war era on our borders and beyond. It is obviously autobiographical as the mind under duress is so detailed and real. It has fantastic suspense if a bit disjointed - perhaps that is the fear and loneliness com...
Jason Phang: I'm pretty new to Inkitt (this is only my 4th book) and I must say I've been thoroughly impressed by the quality of the authors here. Remnants of Chaos is an excellently written book that hooks the reader, and doesn't let go. There are some grammatical and typographical errors, but nothing too se...