 Being abandoned at three months old forced
Adam to understand loneliness. Not only was Adam quiet and a slow learner growing up in
the orphanage, he was also skinny for the age of six. That made Adam a perfect target in
the orphanage for the rest of the kids. Soon the kids started to beat up Adam. Not because
he didn't fight back, but because Adam would never cry. Determined to make Adam cry, the
kids beat him up regularly. There was one little boy in the orphanage who never picked on
Adam. When the little boy first came to the orphanage, the nuns lost his blanket. The
little boy cried most of the night. He would cry himself to sleep, then wake up hoping his
blanket would be around him. Adam walked over to the boy's bed and offered his blanket.
The little boy didn't answer. Adam figured he was asleep and put the blanket over the
little boy anyway. Adam never heard the little boy cry again. A few years later, Adam
found a secret place to play outside where no one could bother him. Adam would go there
everyday after school to watch and feed lettuce to the lizards on the rocks. One day, Adam
noticed a tiny lizard had a broken leg and wasn't getting enough food. Adam took the
lizard home, put it in a box, and started feeding it. Every night when all the kids were
asleep, Adam would stay awake and tell his lizard a bedtime story to make the lizard feel
better. Later that week, Adam came home to feed his lizard. He opened the box to see his
lizard smashed. It was clear who did it. All the kids in the orphanage were laughing. That
was the only time Adam cried. All Adam remembered was the little boy, who cried for his
blanket years ago, stepping out of the crowd and punching everyone in sight. Adam was the
only kid left standing. From that moment on, Adam and the little boy became friends. His
name was Devin. |