Kids to Go

The alarm clock beeped twice in quick succession.

Adam's hand reached out from under his canopy bed toward his bedside table. He turned it off. He stretched and sat up in bed.

7:00 am.

Not a moment less.

He got off after mumbling a quick morning prayer and rushed to the bathroom to freshen up. He hurriedly got into the shower.

Today was the day.

At 36, which was his current age, he had become the richest CEO of the most famous oil company in the city.

Apart from that, he had other businesses he established and had other people running for him, like his own glass factory for example. Wil-Hunt Enterprise.

He also owned countless malls, boutiques, restaurants, hotels, event centers.... hey! He was a businessperson after all.

His name was common on every tongue and his face plastered on all the trending magazines far and near. He was also displayed in the newspapers and he was always in one press conference or the other.

He had shaken hands with a lot of famous people; actors, engineers, doctors, scientists, other CEOs like himself, even with the mayor of their city.

Adam was a giver of money too. He had donated lots of funds for charity, to orphanages, to a lot of helpless and defenseless people too. He had built great schools and lowered the tuition fee considerably for the students that attended. Their parents were mostly middle-class people as they couldn't afford the costly education in the grand schools around.

Most of the pupils in his schools were on scholarships as they were bright and smart kids.

Adam also helped when they were doing the community service. Everyone had lent a hand to tidy up their environment, but Adam's input was incredibly noticeable.

He supplied lots of materials for the job and hired the best construction workers to restructure some ancient buildings which had brought the town its past glory but were now lying in ruins.

He remodeled their theater and built a public park for all.

In fact, if he ran for mayor, he would get elected to office in a heartbeat. That's right, the people loved Adam Hunt. He was a role model for all. Kids wanted to be like him when they grew up.

The whole world wanted to be friends with him.

But even though he was extremely wealthy, Adam was wise enough to build his private villa in the countryside, where the civilization had barely reached, in order to have his time of solitude when he was at home.

Adam was a private person. His house was some miles away from the big city to prevent frequent visits from journalists, reporters, or simply people who wanted money.

He also did not like the idea of having guards follow him wherever he went or being stationed around his house, so he opted for the safer choice of simplicity.

Not a grand and flashy mansion in the heart of the city where he would be bugged constantly by the people each day and he would always have to be behind securities, but a nice and smaller quiet villa in his private estate, where no ounce of security was needed. The only securities around were placed at the entrance to the estate and they were no more than four or five.

Adam believed in calling the police in case of any emergencies like a normal civilian would.

Indeed, the only person that lived with him was his cook, who also doubled as his housekeeper, Mrs. Mann. She was more like a second motherly figure to him really.

There in his small country house, he could live in peace, far away from the hustle and bustle of the main city. No troublesome reporters or pestering people showing up at his doorstep every day.

Sure, some people recognized him, but the crowd rush was immensely lesser than what it would have been were he to live in the city.

Safe at home, he could watch his soccer match without the fear of being watched secretly with some hidden camera by some rather persistent and nosy journalist who was thirsty for a story update about his life.

He showed up in large gatherings in black shades and a different look most of the time to avoid the ubiquitous press.

He had just three vehicles, a jeep, a car, and a motorbike. He had had the bike since he was a teenager in high school.

To him, keeping a whole fleet of unused cars parked in a garage in one’s house was a waste of hard-earned resources, which could be better invested. Besides, having two vehicles didn't make him any lesser than the other rich folks.

Adam came out and put on his deluxe lounge suit and slipped on his wristwatch. It was the latest product from Dee-Designs, a renowned watchmaking company. He oiled and styled his black hair, then he neatly combed it into a simple style.

After checking himself out in the grand mirror paved in shiny silver that hung in his bedroom, he grabbed his car keys and headed out of the room.

Half-way down the stairs, he could smell breakfast being cooked.

Mrs. Mann is at it again. He thought, extremely pleased as he hurried down the stairs, a smile on his lips. Adam, like most men, loved food a lot, good food.

Most times he overpaid the elderly cook that worked for him out of gratitude for her delicious meals.

Next to his mum's cooking, hers topped the chart.

As he got to the last step, he got a call on his private number. That number was only given to his family members and closest friends. The other number was for his numerous businesses.

He glanced at the name.

Vanessa.

That was his fiancée.

"Morning, Nessie." She had always insisted he called her that, irrespective of how childish he thought it was.

Her voice came from the other end. "Babe!'' she gushed out hurriedly, her voice laced with excitement. ''Did you watch my show yesterday?!''

''Ooh...,'' she squealed, making him lower the phone a bit.

''Uh....,'' he racked his brain for a reply.

The truth was he was so bummed out the previous day after work that he had slept off immediately he landed on the bed, but Vanessa would not want to hear that at all. However, luckily for him, she was not waiting for his response.

''Imagine it! I was crowned 'Miss Ocean Ville'! And the French artist that won the award for painting three years in a row complimented my beauty and mentioned how he wishes to work with me! My manager's sorting out all the boring details now...,'' she gushed.

Adam frowned.

''What? I compliment your beauty all the time,'' he said, sounding offended.

She laughed airily. ''Oh Adam, you don't get it...,'' Her voice waved him off.

''That's not all, the new Pop dé Fian magazine has decided to use me as the model for their front cover! Squee! I'm so excited!'' Vanessa went on and on, so lost in her own world.

Adam turned and gave Mrs. Mann a feathery kiss on her forehead as soon as he sighted her.

"Nessie I'm so proud of you, but I really don't have time on my side," he told her.

"Aww..." He knew she pouted at the other end. "Call me later?" she asked.

"Un-un," he replied her rather absentmindedly.

"Love ya! Smoochies!" Vanessa made a big smooching sound that almost left him nauseated.

"Oh...yeah..." He hesitated slightly before finally adding, "smoochies."

He ended the call and sighed as he said down on a chair at the dining table.

Vanessa Cartwell.

Daughter of the best cardiologist in the country, Dr. James Cartwell, while her mother ran what Adam would call the company that produces gossip magazines about famous people.

They knew a bit too much about everyone and as much as it bothered him whenever he saw his fiancée’s mother, Mrs. Clarissa Cartwell, he just let that uneasy feeling slide down.

He didn't like visiting her parents that much.

Her dad was only interested in the amount of money rolling into Adam's various accounts on a daily basis because, according to him, his 'little Vanny' must not suffer.

It irritated Adam to no end, but then, there were a lot of things about Vanessa and her family that he had learned to overlook.

While her mum, on the other hand, wanted to know everything about how he went about his daily life to the minutest detail. Sometimes she would bring some people over to question him and invite both him and Vanessa to programs that she aired on live TV.

It didn't help that they were always being questioned in the presence of over 3 million gossip fans in those programs.

Adam rarely showed up, always using his business as an excuse to be unavailable absent. He did that for a while but when he noticed how Vanessa got irritated with his behavior each time he was absent from such programs, he resigned himself to fate and started attending the shows just to make her happy.

Vanessa on her own was a model: She worked for the biggest modeling company in their city, Ocean Ville, and she was the star model there as well. She had also starred in a few films and had helped to advertise a lot of products, from the lush soaps that were made to velvet clothes and ruby pieces of jewelry.

"Breakfast is served," Mrs. Mann announced, bringing in a massive tray.

Adam stood up to help her set the table.

"Looks nice," he said once he was seated again.

"Un-un. That's a good ol' pot roast. There's some chips and chili con queso, then we have beef jerky, grilled cheese, and macaroni," Mrs. Mann reeled off the items on her 'menu'.

Adam flapped his napkin neatly and tucked it under his chin.

He helped himself to some pot roast.

Mrs. Mann also ate with him at the table. He would never have her eating anywhere else.

"Adam, you do remember to find a temporary replacement for me, right?" she asked as he raised the beef to his mouth.

Adam lowered his fork.

"Um..." That was right. Mrs. Mann was to start her leave that day. She was going on a three months' leave.

"That would be sorted out, don't worry about it, Mrs. Mann," Adam smiled at her fondly and raised his fork to his mouth again.

That day was an exceptionally huge day for him.

He had an appointment with the board of directors of one of his companies. They were having a meeting with some other company's representatives that wanted to partner up with them.

Adam had been working on an inside project which he called 'The next big thing.'

It was a mystery that he wanted to unveil at the partnership meeting later that day.

The meeting was scheduled for 7:30 am prompt.

He glanced at his watch again.

He had twenty minutes to spare. He grinned and swallowed a bite of his food. The journey to his workplace from his house was five minutes tops; the traffic jam wasn't nearly as terrible as it would have been around 8:00 am upwards. Besides, he was never one known to be late.

In fact, the only time he had ever been late was when he was thirty-three and had been invited to speak in a large convention that would be filled with people of importance.

It was going to be a moment of importance and he had woken up late.

He chuckled at the memory and took another bite of his food.

In fact, that was where he had met Vanessa for the first time.

Three years ago...

He increased the speed of his car and moaned after checking his wristwatch again.

He was fifteen minutes late and counting.

He bit his lower lip as he arrived at the venue.

He went behind the security lines, away from the press and screaming girls.

His manager and some members of his staff quickly found him.

"You're late!" his manager hissed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Adam pushed his cousin aside. "Did you manage to stall them?" he asked as they all started to make their way to the podium.

"I didn't think you'd make it so other solutions were cooked up," Tyson, his cousin-come-manager answered nervously.

"What?!" Adam turned to him in shock.

"You weren't answering my calls or texts! Your phone was switched off! I was in a dilemma here!" Tyson said defensively.

Adam turned away from him, rather annoyed. "Gosh, I really should get a new manager," he muttered under his breath.

"Mr. Adam...?" He turned to look at his employee.

"What?!" he couldn't help snapping at the lady.

"This way to your seat if you please," she said graciously as she led way to a seat in the front row that was unoccupied. His cousin sat next to him.

"Ladies and gentlemen if you would please turn your attention here." A man stood up and said, hitting his fork on his glass cup.

All eyes turned to him.

"Unfortunately," he continued. "Mr. Adam couldn't make it in time so here we have Miss Vanessa Cartwell to end up her speech on Kids. Don't forget the voice might be different but the words are Mr. Adam's," he added.

"What utter nonsense!" Adam turned to his cousin angrily. He hadn't written anything of the sort. He attempted to stand and protest, but Tyson pulled him back discreetly to his seat.

"C'mon Adam, trust me. I know what I'm doing," he coaxed his enraged cousin.

Adam snorted.

The audience cheered loudly as a well-dressed, beautiful lady gracefully stood up. She wore an exquisite long flowing peach gown of the latest design and had on raindrop earrings with a matching diamond chain necklace, both pink in color.

Her blonde hair was pinned up in the most decorative and outstanding way possible. Her rosy pink lips took in a deep breath and her emerald eyes made a quick glance around the audience before resting on Adam.

She gave him a quick, almost apologetic smile but he scoffed back instead.

"The cheek of hers!" He had thought angrily. "Stealing my spot, feeling smug, and smiling about it."

Adam huffed. Now people would think he was in league with whatever she was saying.

There was just one small secret Adam held from the world. The reason he hadn't married yet was...

"Good day ladies and gentlemen." Her soft, melodious voice could be heard around the four corners of the building.

"Nice weather isn't it?"

Some people murmured in agreement. She was blinded by the lights from the cameras of several journalists.

For a while, Adam was thankful it wasn't him up there, but the lady didn't seem to mind.

She laughed. "Kids. I just want to add to my previous sayings that though I don't hate kids, I sure don't want them in my marriage."

Adam turned to her sharply.

Her green eyes remained steady on his black ones.

That statement caused a lot of fuss and raised questions from eager journalists.

"Is this also Mr. Adam's view?" one of the reporters asked.

"Why did you say that Miss Vanessa?" another reporter asked her.

"How do you view adoption?" one reporter shouted from the back, causing a few stares to be thrown his way.

"What should the kids who see you as a role model think?" the second reporter asked again.

"No questions, thank you," Her manager had steered her out of the rapid, bombarding questions from the reporters.

Adam also got up and left.

That was some bombshell.

But...

Truth was, He looked at her limousine as it drove away.

He didn't want kids either.

Adam took another bite of his beef.

He and Vanessa had met up after that talk and had gone out on numerous dates after finding that they had a lot of things in common. They had later started courting.

"Dear me! I forgot to mention that your mother called earlier," Mrs. Mann exclaimed suddenly as she turned to Adam. "She said you should drop by this morning before heading out to work, that there's a family emergency of some sort."

Mrs. Mann dropped her drink of water as she looked at Adam worriedly.

"'I do hope that all is well because she sounded really worried," Mrs. Mann finished.

Adam's fork dropped from his hand.

"What?!"

He shrieked as he looked briefly at Mrs. Mann.

He glanced at the clock. It was 7:15 am by then.

"Oh my gosh!" He hurriedly stood up, left his almost untouched meal at the table, and grabbed his car keys.

"Bye Mrs. Mann!" he yelled as he rushed out through the door, leaving it ajar in his rush to leave.

He could still manage to reach his mother's place and take a U-turn to get to his meeting in time. After all, she did not live too far away from him.

He got into his car and sped off.

"Good gracious me!" Mrs. Mann exclaimed in astonishment as she hastened to close the door gently after peeping at the retreating car as Adam drove speedily out of the estate.

Matt woke up as the great bell chimed.

It was 7:00 am, time for the daily prayers.

He was an orphan in the St. Paul's Orphanage. A fat Nun was in charge of all the kids that were there, but Matt could tell she wasn't too happy with her life as she organized things and handled the children in a rather cruel manner.

Their morning routine was to wake up at seven, pray on your own, freshen up, then head out to sell cookies for charity before returning back to the orphanage for their breakfast. The Nun Willow made it a rule that their food portions would be assigned to them according to the sales they made on the particular day they went out hawking.

No sales meant no food.

Small sales and one got a small portion of food.

Even for those that managed to sell all their cookies, they still got their potions rationed.

They all attended the St Paul Crescent's Academy. It was a public school. Most of the stuff they needed was donated but then only the essential things were given to them, like pens, books, and a few pencils and rulers.

Even they had to manage their bags with a few patches. Their bags were only changed when it was way too old to be carried.

The older kids were rarely ever adopted; it was mostly the kids from the age of three downwards that were always readily adopted.

Matt hurriedly muttered his prayers to Jesus.

Though the prayer time was forced, his prayers were always sincere. And even though he was ten years old, he still believed that his parents would come for him someday.

"Dear Jesus. It's me, Matt. Thanks for letting me eat well yesterday because that nice man tipped me handsomely on my cookies. I'm not sure if I'll sell today though, you know I'm not that good with people. Anyway, that aside, I do hope Will is doing well with his new parents..."

A sad, longing look entered Matt's eyes.

He and Will had been like brothers from different mothers. Matt was the book worm; the one who loved to read, while Will was the sporty kind of guy, but they had hit it off greatly.

The previous year, Will had been adopted by a childless couple. The man that was going to become Will's father was also a sports person and he had loved Will instantly and that had been it.

Matt sighed again. Will had been his one and only friend; the other kids just jeered at him anytime they saw him reading his books. They also used to make fun of him, hence he didn't like them at all. Will had always been the one who stood up for him against the nasty bullies.

But now that he was gone, the bullies were back and meaner than ever.

Matt sighed wistfully again and resumed his prayers, " Jesus, I miss him an awful lot, you know, and I just know that he misses me too. I do hope that we'll meet again someday when I'm of age and I leave this place."

He frowned a bit.

"You know what, Jesus? I don't want to wait until I'm 18 before I leave this place. I want to leave today! This morning, if possible. I'm sick and tired of this place!"

He sobbed. "I hate them all. I just want to go away. Jesus, please let my parents come and pick me up! I don't think I can survive it here anymore...they just taint your image here and—"

A harsh yell brought his prayers to a halt.

"Get off the floor, you nitwits! May the good Lord have mercy on you all!"

That was the annoying Nun. Matt huffed as he got up from his kneeling position. If anyone needs mercy, it's her. He thought.

He joined the other grumbling children as they made their way to get the freshly baked cookies for their morning sale.

They dared not eat any of the cookies as the punishment that followed if one cookie was missing and the money wasn't presented would be extremely severe.

Matt sighed and grabbed a cookie box.

It was time to hustle.

Again.

~~~

"Goodness dear, thought we have a spot for a waiter open, but the owner of this place is extremely choosy and very rude," The woman behind the counter said pitifully.

"In fact," she lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Even I myself will soon resign. It's really hard to put up with the man."

Lucy pursed her lips. She had just clocked seventeen that year and getting that job was all her life depended on. She had nowhere else to go as she had run away from home since she was fourteen years old.

Her family was......well...not what you could write home about.

Her mother had long died, and her dad was an alcoholic. It didn't help that they lived in an awful neighborhood, deep in the slums where ill-bred children were raised and most of the adults that called themselves parents, were irresponsible.

Since most gangsters lived around the neighborhood, the crime rate around that area increased, and not too long after the cops started raiding the place. At first, they were only after the gangsters but when they realized that a lot of children weren't being taken care of, they did a clean sweep of the whole area again.

This time they started carting off kids below eighteen to the various orphanages in better neighborhoods.

This had happened when she was fourteen years old and she had run away from her home.

Lucy, ever since she was small, had always learned to be independent. She hated the very thought of living in an orphanage so, at the first chance she got, she made a run for it, as far away as she could go.

Luckily, she stumbled upon a nice, old lady who had a sweet shop.

She stayed with the woman and helped her a lot with her shop until the business folded up and the woman's spoilt child came to relocate the mother to another place, turning a deaf ear to the mother's plea of taking Lucy with them.

Lucy's brown eyes glanced around again. It was just some minutes past seven. The small breakfast café was just opening, and a few customers were already seated.

"Please ma'am," Lucy insisted. "Can I just at least speak with him?" she begged with a serious heartbeat.

Her getting a job at the establishment was the only way for her to survive. She had planned on sleeping in the shop when they closed and packing up quickly before they opened but she couldn't do all that if she wasn't an employee there.

The previous night that she had spent under the bridge had been a terrible experience for her and she had vowed never to repeat it again.

She had scouted around the small shop in the early hours of the day and had seen that there was a really small, abandoned storage space she could store her things inside.

And the added bonus was that the cash she made could be saved up and used to rent a small flat at least.

"Please ma'am..." Lucy continued to beg her desperately.

She reasons that she would also get a few, free, well-cooked meals if she was lucky enough to land the job.

The lady sighed in resignation. "Look honey, our boss comes in at 7:20 am, maybe you could say a few words to him then," she said.

Lucy's eyes lit up.

"Thank you! Thank you so much ma'am!" she replied with glee. The woman just shook her head pitifully and pointed at a nearby table where Lucy could await the arrival of her boss.

Lucy tapped her hands softly on the table a bit eagerly.

She was running through her mind all that she would say to the boss when she saw him. But she wasn't going to add the part-time sleeping in the night part though.

He sounded like a sour-faced person from his employee's description and mentioning it might make him go nuts.

She sighed.

How I wish I had a parent to look after me like all those fortunate kids. She thought inwardly.

~~~

"I beg your pardon sir," Reece said in a polite voice as he ran into a man.

The man huffed as he dusted himself. "Watch where you're going kid!" he said in an annoyed tone and continued walking on the busy street.

He hated the fact that a street urchin had slammed right into him just when he got his new outfits.

He searched around for his wallet.

It was gone!

He turned around swiftly and shooters, "Hey! Stop! Thief!" He could see Reece making a quick getaway. He lost the black-haired boy in the sea of rushing people.

Reece chuckled as he made his way away from the man.

He knew the streets like the back of his palms. He leaned against an uncompleted building and checked through the man's wallet.

Here in the street, it was either steal or starve.

He scoffed as he closed the wallet. The money's not as much as I've hoped but.... the day's just starting anyway. He thought to himself and slid the wallet into his back pocket.

He was out on the street again looking for new prey.

"Hey! Stop!"

A young teenage girl's screams made him turn in her direction. Another street person like him was getting away with her purse.

"Please stop him! That's all the money I've got!" she sobbed as she ran up to Reece.

Reece followed the guy.

He knew where he was headed, and in no time, he cornered him.

"Give it back, man," Reece said coolly. The guy looked a year younger than him. Reece stretched out his arm to collect the purse.

"No way....I... I need the money," the younger-looking guy stammered.

"Then go beg on the roadside or something!" Reece said a bit distastefully.

"Please..." fresh tears spilled from the kid's eyes.

Reece sighed, a bit annoyed. Who'd have known he'd just be a little wimp. He thought.

"I'm hungry," the younger-looking guy stated. "I've not eaten for three days now...I'm desperate..." He sobbed some more.

"Fine, fine," Reece rolled his eyes. "Here, you can have this, just give that back." He gave him all the cash he had got from the wallet he had snatched earlier from the man.

"Really?" The guy's eyes brightened up. "Thanks a lot, man!" He quickly snatched the money and tossed the girl's purse at Reece.

"I'll not forget your help!" He promised as he ran off.

Reece rolled his eyes again and started to look for the girl. He finally found her seated on a small, general bench all red-eyed. Some people had circled her, offering their murmurs of sympathy.

Someone had called a nearby cop.

Reece hesitated when he saw the familiar face of the police officer.

Reece took in a deep breath before he approached the girl.

"Little dudette is this yours?" He managed to beam a smile at her when all he felt was nervousness due to the nearness of the cop.

Her eyes went wide immediately.

"Yes! Yes! Thanks so much!" she said readily as a smile broke out on her puffy face.

A hand was placed on his shoulder. He froze and looked up. It was a police officer.

Reece chuckled nervously.

"I... I was just returning this..."

"That's the thief!" someone hollered.

"Look how guilty he looks..." another snickered.

"Forget guilt! Look at the rags he's wearing! He's obviously hungry!" a third person interjected.

People nearby started saying to one another. Reece shook his head in a hurry.

"Honestly, I wasn't..." he started to say to the policeman.

"You don't mind me searching you now, do you, Reece?" The cop asked as he narrowed his eyes at him.

"You don't need to search him!" The girl defended as she stared at the policeman. "All my stuff is complete."

The policeman still carried on the search anyway. He was used to Reece stealing around. This wasn't the first time he would have done such. In fact, all the officers who patrolled around that area knew him well.

The policeman found the other man's wallet on Reece.

"Oh bother!" Reece scowled.

"This isn't yours," The cop stated, starring at Reece as he raised the empty wallet up to him.

"Would you believe if I said he gave that to me?" Reece asked hopefully.

The police gave him a hard look.

"You've spent all the money in here too," he observed as he looked at Reece knowingly.

"Alright, your hands out, let's go." The police cuffed Reece and started leading him to the nearby station.

"It's okay," Reece told the girl who was looking worriedly at him as he got a mild shove from the policeman.

Reece sighed again.

This is why I hate doing anything nice. He thought as he got jeered at by his fellow street mates.

"C'mon Reece, you're better than that!" A dark-skinned boy said in a sneering tone.

"Stealing is bad." The guy went on.

"Beat it, Tobi!" Reece snarled as the officer kept him in check. Tobi cheekily disappeared into the other street.

"Like he doesn't steal," Reece scoffed.

"He just got out yesterday," the cop added.

"C'mon officer...I'm your favorite kid, you know? I promise on my grandma I didn't steal,” Reece said.

"Move it, Reece. You know the procedure," the police replied.

Reece shrugged as the police station came into view. "Eh, my grandma's dead anyway."

"I bet she'll be real disappointed in you," the cop said.

Reece shrugged again. "Whatever...I don't care. I never met the old dudette anyway."

"It's lady, not dudette,” the officer corrected.

"Sure thing ol' dude, whatever you say," Reece said, his tone laced with humor.

The officer chuckled inwardly. Reece was just so...Reece.