Cereal

When we finally found an entrance back to the surface, Torie had already long stopped chattering and we were just walking along in silence.  Having someone else with me kept away the hallucinations and panic attacks that had plagued me the last time I was in the tunnels.  Torie had stopped sniffling too but hadn’t let go of my hand once.  Pushing aside the metal cover, I looked around and realized that we were indoors.  More specifically, we were in the girls bathroom of the orphanage.  
First helping Torie up and out of the tunnel, I then pulled myself out onto the cold yet reassuring tile floor.  As my eyes complained about being faced with bright fluorescents, my stomach complained about it’s emptiness.  Thinking that there was no way Torie couldn’t be hungry by now either, I reached for his hand again and started for the kitchen.  Torie said nothing but just the fact that his hand wasn’t grasping mine quite as tightly as before told me that he was already feeling more relaxed.  Reaching the kitchen, I prepared two bowls of my favorite cereal- Honey Nut Cheerios.  From the way that Torie’s eyes widened as he saw the box, it seemed like he was a fan of cheerios too.  Just as we were finishing up, I saw Annie rush past the kitchen door obviously looking for someone.  Five seconds later, she reappeared in the doorway.
“Christophe!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where have you been? Are you OK? How’d you get here? Who is that kid?” and eventually getting back to “Where have you been???”
Trying to figure out how to explain the events of the past few days, I ended up just going with “I’ve been in the hospital. But i’m okay now don’t worry.”
“Oh.  Well I guess thats good then.  Sorry to freak out on you but you should probably know that child services came to talk to you a couple hours and insisted on staying until you got back. I told them that I didn’t know where you were but they still wouldn’t leave.  Do you want me to try again”
I sighed.  Child services was known for their horrible timing.  But then again, it’s not like they’re asking to be forced out of their beds at unconventional hours to take care of kids in need either.
“No, I guess I might as well go talk to them now.  This is Torie.  Torie this is Annie, she’s super nice and I’ll be right back.”
Torie nodded, still crunching away at a spoonful of cheerios.  
Walking into the main room, I greeted child services woman that sat awkwardly waiting on one of the beanbags scattered on the floor.  I allowed myself an inner chuckle knowing that Annie probably purposely didn’t tell the poor woman that right down the hall we had a waiting room with magazines and comfortable chairs for when prospective parents came to meet some of the kids.  Looking away to give the woman a chance to maneuver her way into a standing position, I caught Annie smirking in the corner of my eye.  My guess was that Annie had already tried a couple of times to get the woman to leave.
“Hi, my name is Adelind Garber from child services.  Are you Christophe Moreau?”
Extending my hand I responded,
“Yes, I am.  What may I help you with? This late at night I can only assume you’ve got a kid in trouble.”
“Well actually, you’re right.  But there’s something else too.  Is there somewhere we can talk?”
I led her into the waiting room down the hall.  I saw her give Annie a resentful sideways glance upon realizing that she could have avoided the sore back that came with sitting in a beanbag for more than an hour. Sitting down, Adelind pulled a manilla file out of her briefcase.  Opening it, she introduced the child whose whole life apparently filled up only a couple of pages.  Not even front and back.  
“Christophe, this is Torie.”
Glancing closer at the picture paperclipped to the inside of the file, I recognized the dark-skinned, blue-eyed boy that now sat in the kitchen happily munching on cereal.  
“Oh Torie, I know him.  I found him today after he ran away from the hospital.  Are his parents looking for him?”
“Well thats the thing,” Adelind said.  “Torie’s mom, Rosie, died early this afternoon...and you’re his dad.”
In a flash, I realized where I had recognized Torie from- that dream of that little kid holding onto Rosie’s hand.  Thinking back even further, I knew that the baby that must have been wrapped up inside the white bundle had also Torie.  All this seemed to happen in a second.  The next second, I was sprinting back to the kitchen.  It wasn’t a dream.  Torie was still there, now slurping the sweetened milk from his cereal bowl.  Looking up, his eyebrows furrowed at the sight of me panting in the doorway.
“Torie. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
He put the cereal bowl down in confusion.
“Torie. I’m your dad and I want you to know that I will never ever leave you. You got that?”
His eyes widened and his mouth opened but no words came out.  So, I did the best that I could do.  I put my arms around my son and hugged him.  I knew that one hug would never be able to make up for the years that I had missed of his life but still, I hugged him because at least now, I knew that the little lost boy and the tired lost man would never be alone again.