Orphan Excerpt: Adin in the North

 

In wild places, no one is ever truly lost.

ADIN

SPRING ARRIVED PAINSTAKINGLY slowly, but when it was in full swing, the glory left Adin breathless.

Harry Wilson, reading in his young companion an affinity for the natural order, made a suggestion. He needed to see his brother, he claimed, his brother having been the subject of his winter dreaming, often to leave him as speechless and unmoving as the first time it happened with Adin present. He would be away some time and would appreciate it if Adin would stay in the cottage and look after things for him. Just until he returned. Then Adin was a free agent once more, but was welcome to remain as long as he wished.

No hurry, he said. “Will leave only after the spring melt. Roads too dangerous right now.”

He then watched Adin think. He saw the lad study the trees, the surroundings, and smell the air. As spring gradually gave way to the beginnings of summer, Harry knew the boy had fallen as hard for the wild spaces as he had as a much younger man. He knew what the answer would be long before Adin himself knew it with certainty.

“I’ll stay.”

“Good lad.” Harry gripped his shoulder. “Will make sure you have all you need before I go. Unless you wish to come into town with me, spy out the lay of the land there for yourself?”

“If they know I’m alone here, I won’t be here long.”

“Yeah, the do-gooders will want to save your sorry ass,” Harry chortled.

THUS IT WAS that Adin spent the summer alone and unfettered in the wild northern spaces. The beginnings of manhood to come settled into broadening shoulders and developing arm and leg muscles, growing height, as he traipsed the spaces endlessly, discovering new sights with every step.

Harry was right. One found oneself out there.

While he unleashed his physical self during the day, at night his spirit delved nocturnal spaces. His dreams intensified.

At first, while Harry was still around offering insight, his dreams didn’t change much, except for colour. The images were more vivid, and he remembered more detail upon waking. Now, with no one watching, he soared into the unknown.

His wandering became about more than simply seeking Sunflower. In fact, it became about more than mere ‘wandering’. Adin sought to know the realm of the spirit, and therefore flew into spaces both awe-inspiring and terribly dark. By his reasoning, the more he knew, the better equipped he was to aid Sunflower.

On the day he and Sunflower turned fourteen, he finally spoke to her.

An orphaned boy searches for a lost girl.

A woman abandons her new-born at a motel in the back of beyond. Adin grows up unloved, bullied, and no one remembers him. He doesn’t exist.

Until he sees a poster for a missing girl on a lamppost. There is an instant connection to little Sunflower, kidnapped for ransom, only to disappear after the money is paid. He exists because he must find her. Alone, he searches, a journey that takes him into the wild places, meeting along the way some interesting characters.

In dreams he speaks to her, for she is the one who will remember him.

THE ORPHAN