0.5

HEADMASTRESS ESPERANZA wasn’t too keen on interruptions to her small window of reading time. A sparse hour where the kids were all put to bed and the maids hadn’t started tidying up. She could be in her lonesome. Sat comfortably on her chair in the front room with her ginseng tea in one hand and her novel in the other. But tonight however, she wasn’t afforded this tranquil evening. No. She was brought out of the immersion of the words on the page by the harmonious ringing of the gate’s bell. A little jingle that’s annoyance reached its peak right at this moment.

Esperanza placed her tea on a coaster, folded the page that she had just read, and grabbed her coat off the stand in the foyer. 

She groaned under her breath when her wrinkly cheeks felt the chill of outside. She exhaled and inhaled sharply, as if her aged lungs were on the verge of failing, her white breath painting pictures in the sky. Esperanza descended the hilled meadow that surrounded Roseline. Roseline stood ever so mighty in the night, her white box and white pillars and balcony casting shadows from the moon. Crickets spoke to each other the loudest in the shadows. They could finally be heard over the bustling children that step over them all day. The Headmastress didn’t see not one difference between them. Except, the crickets weren’t constantly vying for her attention, just as this inconsiderate stranger was doing now. 

When Esperanza made it to the gate, she quickly scanned the area behind the bars.

“Hola?” 

Nothing. 

Esperanza took the key around her neck and unlocked the gate. She stepped out of it and looked once more.

Again, nothing. 

It was strange, but, maybe a bird had accidentally grazed its feathers along the ringer. Maybe their system was faulty and she should have someone check it out. Esperanza made a mental note and declared it tomorrow’s problem. 

Then, just as she turned to leave, she saw something in her peripheral.

She focused her gaze to the right, to the ground, and crouched down by what seemed to be a basket. Did someone leave this here on purpose?

Esperanza lifted the veil over the basket. It was the first time the two locked eyes. 

The Headmastress, a woman in her 40’s with a grimace stuck on her face at all times…and the small supple frame of a boy. Gazing upon his fat cheeks and vibrant brown eyes softened her heart a bit. Her first instinct being to worry about how cold the child must be, and how long he had been out there for.

The baby was wrapped in a thick, light blue blanket. 

There was something embroidered in its fabric, cursive words that Esperanza had to squint to make out. 

The Marcuzio. 

*�"�"�"�"�"�"*

Esperanza’s heaviest burden in life was her own perfectionistic tendencies. She found herself running around Roseline all day, redoing the work of the maids and the cooks and constantly picking up after the children. It was common for the staff to joke about the headmastress’ over compulsive disorder, hushing up quickly when she would walk by and calmly remind them that they could be fired at any time. 

Esperanza found herself with blades of grass hugging her knees as she picked the children’s toys from the ground, collecting them in a box near the stone path. She could get so caught up in her work, so focused and determined on completing a goal. She hadn’t gotten off the ground long enough to notice that while she was busy searching for more toys to put in the box, one of the children would take one out again, play with it for a second, and forget about it in the grass the next. She was also too focused to notice the riff-raf the kids would get into unless it was brought to her attention.

“Con Permisso!” Said a little girl who ran up to her. She tugged on Esperanza’s sleeve. “Señora?”

“Que paso, Rica?” 

“F-Felix got over the fence again!” 

Rica held her hand, leading her to the part of the brick wall that had been breached, a little hand still holding on from the other side.

“Ay! Felicio! Get down from there now!” The Headmastress demanded.

“I can’t! I’m stuck!” 

“Why were you up there in the first place!” 

“I saw a bird!” He said, innocence riddled in his tone. “It looked like it needed help�"” 

“Fix your voice!”

Suddenly, Felix’s voice deepened an octave. “Lo siento, Señora. Please help.”

Esperanza hurried over to the gate, unlocking it and running over to where Felix was hanging. 

His upper body strength was impressive, especially for such a skinny frame. He held on easily, dangling from the six foot wall. Pulling himself back up when he felt like he was slipping. 

Esperanza believed that if he really wanted to, he could fall and land on his feet.

The Headmastress held out her arms. “Aqui.” 

Once his feet were planted on the ground once more, Esperanza couldn’t wait to pinch his ear. Felix had a delayed reaction, feigning pain, wincing dramatically. She knew that his punishment had to be something more. 

She bent down to his height.

“Felicio?”

“Yes, miss?” 

“Are you deaf?” 

“No, my hearing es muy bueno.” He smirks at himself. 

“If you aren’t deaf than you must be estupido!” She flicks him on the forehead, this time, garnering no reaction at all. “How many times? How many times have I told you to stay in the walls?” 

“This time wasn’t like the other times! I was just trying to help!”

She shakes her head. “You are not above the rules! Being my son doesn’t give you the right to disobey me.”

“I never said that!”

“You think you’re better than everyone else?”

“I never said that!” He raises his voice at her, taking the woman aback for a moment. 

She stood there silent, looking down at him from above. Her silence brought a jitter to his spine. A bead of sweat to his forehead. A tightness to his chest.

This time his punishment was more than just a pinch to the ear. She was actually going to give him a consequence. 

*�"�"�"�"�"�"*

Felix spent the entire rest of the day by the Headmastress’ side, assisting her with her never-ending list of chores. With Esperanza, he couldn’t pretend that things were too heavy for him or that his body was tired. She knew better than that. She knew the real strength that he possessed. 

They found themselves in the kitchen, Esperanza organizing the dishes in the cabinet while Felix did the silverware in the drawer. The only bright side to this tasks was that he could be inside, listening to the droning of the air conditioner and basking in its sweet sweet air. He’d always had sensitive skin, blisters forming across his arms and legs if he stayed underneath the suns harsh gaze for too long. Esperanza liked to scare him, say that God was giving him a taste of what hell would feel like once he got there, before ultimately icing his wounds. 

“Miss?” He lifted one of the forks, it’s middle tines pulled back.

“Yes, what is it?” 

“Are you really my mom?” 

“Well, of course I am.”

“Everyone here was left by their moms. Am I like that too? Do I have a real mom?”

“What nonsense do you talk? What do you mean, ‘real mom’? I am your real mom.” 

“You didn’t birth me.”

This statement stunned Esperanza, her demeanor going from defensive to gloomy. Felix picked up on it immediately. He put down the fork and walked over to her. 

“Did I say something wrong, Señora?” 

She shook her head.

“I have something to show you.”

There was one door in the house that all of the children�"and most of the staff�"avoided. The door to the basement. Esperanza opened the door without a fear in the world, walking down the stairs with Felix following closely behind her. She pulled the string dangling above her head and turned on the basements only light. Even with the lack of illumination, the room wasn’t as scary as Felix once thought. It was just dusty, and small, and neglected. 

Esperanza crouched above a basket, as she did once before. 

“I never saw who left you with us. It was like you got there all on your own.”

She handed him the blanket inside of the basket.

“You were wrapped in this and, Felicio, you were the calmest baby.”

Felix pointed to the golden words. “What does this say?” 

“It reads, The Marcuzio.”

Felix furrowed his brows, his mind beginning to race. Who could his parents be? Why did they leave him here? Could the Marcuzio be a person�"or a thing�"or a place? Did Esperanza have all the answers�"

“Don’t ask me what it is. I just found you with it.”

She did not. Esperanza did not have all the answers. But what if he could…find out for himself?

*�"�"�"�"�"�"*

Felix, banishing Esperanza’s wishes to the back of his mind, did what he’d done numerous times before. He climbed the wall. He climbed the wall and instead of hanging where someone could see him, he let go. 

Felix figured that wherever or whoever the Marcuzio is must be close. Why else would get dropped off at Roseline specifically. With the amount of unclaimed kids, they were far from the only orphanage in the area. 

He trudged through the vast grasslands separating Roseline from the town nearby. Enjoying the freedom of being outside the walls. Of getting to run across different soil for a change. Of having more and more land to explore. The sun had began to set, and the breeze settled on his skin, cooling off the effects of its rays. He saw it as a sign. God wanted him to keep going. To find out where he came from. 

Eventually, once he got close enough, he saw it. 

A billboard. An actual sign.

The Marcuzio, it read. In the exact same font as his blanket.

Felix advanced towards the sign, entering the city, his first time being among people that weren’t confined to the same hell he was. Adults that weren’t his caretakers. Kids who weren’t abandoned. 

Sandwiched between two buildings sat the owner of the sign he saw. The lights on the front of it seemed to move across the bulbs, a yellow and red circle rotating around the word open. Out front was a security guard, a big man in a black suit, who people showed little cards to. Sometimes when they would show their cards the man would shake his head and not let them in, other times he’d nod, and unlock the red rope gate to admit them. What was the difference between them? Felix couldn’t figure it out. 

He had to know more.

“Excuse me sir!” Felix ran up to the guard at the door. 

“Hola Chico, what do you need?”

“What is this place?” 

“This place is for grown ups.”

“What do they do inside?”

“They go in with money and sometimes they walk out with more, sometimes they walk out with less.” 

“What makes them get more or get less?”

“Gambling.”

“Gambling?”

“Si. At The Marcuzio, grown ups gamble.”

“That means its a c-ca-c�"”

“A casino.”