Eventually, Lena pointed toward an abandoned railway district.
“There.”
“That station has been closed for twenty years.”
“I know.”
She climbed out before Adrian had fully stopped the car.
He followed her through a broken section of fence and across weed-covered tracks. Rain struck the rusting train cars and produced a hollow metallic roar.
Lena stopped beside an old luggage warehouse. One window had been covered with cardboard. A pale glow escaped through a gap beneath the door.
She knocked three times, paused, and knocked twice more.
A child’s voice came from inside.
“Lena?”
“It’s me.”
“Did you get it?”
“Yes. Open the door.”
A wooden crate scraped across concrete.
The door opened just wide enough for Lena to enter. Adrian stepped forward, and the child inside immediately tried to close it.
“He’s with me,” Lena said.
A boy of about ten stared at Adrian. He held a broken broom handle like a spear.
“Who is he?”
“The man from the restaurant.”
The boy’s face hardened.
“You brought him here?”
“He has the medicine.”
That changed everything.
The boy lowered the broom.
Inside, the warehouse had been divided with old curtains and wooden pallets. Candles burned inside glass jars. A camping stove stood beneath a cracked window.
Near the far wall, a younger boy lay on a mattress made from flattened coats. His breathing came in short, dry bursts.
Two little girls sat beside him. The older one pressed a damp cloth against his forehead. The younger one held his hand.
Adrian stopped walking.
The children did not look surprised to see a stranger. They looked prepared to run.
“This is Toby,” Lena said, kneeling beside the sick boy. “He’s eight.”
She opened the medicine bottle.
Adrian watched as she read the instructions twice before measuring the dose.
“You can read that?” he asked.
Lena looked offended.
“Of course I can read.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“You thought thieves couldn’t read?”
The boy with the broom laughed once.
Adrian ignored him.
“Has a doctor seen Toby?”
“No.”
“How long has he had the fever?”
“Three days.”
“And the cough?”
“Longer.”
Toby opened his eyes.
“You came back,” he whispered.
“I always come back,” Lena said.
She gave him the medicine and a little water.
Adrian walked toward the camping stove. A metal pot contained a thin mixture of water and potatoes.
“Is this all you have been eating?”
The boy with the broom moved between Adrian and the pot.
“It’s enough.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“It has to be.”
Adrian looked around the warehouse.
There were five children in total. Lena was the oldest. Toby was sick. The boy with the broom introduced himself as Jonah. The two girls were Mae and Iris.
None of them was related by blood.
They had lived in the same temporary foster home on the northern edge of Bellhaven. According to Lena, the woman responsible for them had disappeared six weeks earlier after taking the money intended for food and rent.
The children had escaped before social services arrived because Jonah had overheard that they would be separated.
“So you chose this?” Adrian asked.
“We chose each other,” Lena replied.
“That is not the same thing.”
“It is to us.”
Adrian called a private medical service.
Lena tried to stop him.
“They’ll report us.”
“Toby may have pneumonia.”
“They’ll split us up.”
“If he stays here, he could die.”
The word silenced everyone.
Lena looked down at her brother’s pale face.
“They always promise we can stay together,” she whispered. “Then they send us to different places.”
Adrian removed his coat and placed it over the little boy.
“Then I will make a different promise.”
Lena looked at him.
“What promise?”
“That no one makes a decision before Toby is safe.”
“You can’t control everything.”
Adrian met her eyes.
“No. But I can control more than most people.”
The doctors arrived twenty minutes later.
Toby was taken to St. Anne’s Hospital with a severe lung infection. Lena rode in the ambulance. Adrian drove the other children behind them.
By sunrise, Toby was receiving antibiotics and oxygen.
Lena sat outside his room, still wearing her wet coat. Adrian returned from the reception desk carrying five cups of hot chocolate and a tray of sandwiches.
Jonah accepted a sandwich immediately.
Lena did not.
“What do you want?” she asked.
Adrian placed a cup beside her.
“Right now, I want you to eat.”
“No one does this for nothing.”
“I haven’t decided what I want.”
“That means it will cost more later.”
Adrian sat across from her.
“Who taught you to think like that?”
“Everyone.”
He had no reply.
During the next two days, Adrian made calls.
He contacted lawyers, child welfare officials, doctors, and the director of a small residential school outside the city. He donated enough money to repair an unused house on the school grounds but insisted that the children be allowed to live there together under the care of the same guardians.