She nodded.“ Yes, except for the stuffed animals. They’ re allowed to keep those in their rooms. This is where the rest of the things are kept.”
I guess she was used to it. To me, though, the sparseness of the room made the whole thing depressing. I couldn’ t imagine growing up in a place like this.
Jamie and I finally walked into the room, and one of the kids turned around at the sound of our steps. He was about eight or so, with red hair and freckles, his two front teeth missing.
“ Jamie!” he shouted happily when he saw her, and all of a sudden all the other heads turned. The kids ranged in age from about five to twelve, more boys than girls. After twelve they had to be sent to live with foster parents, I later learned.
“ Hey, Roger,” Jamie said in response,“ how are you?”
With that, Roger and some of the others began to crowd around us. A few of the other kids ignored us and moved closer to the television now that there were free seats in the front row. Jamie introduced me to one of the older kids who’ d come up and asked if I was her boyfriend. By his tone, I think that he had the same opinion of Jamie that most of the kids in our high school had.
“ He’ s just a friend,” she said.“ But he’ s very nice.”
Over the next hour, we visited with the children. I got a lot of questions about where I lived and whether my house was big or what kind of car I owned, and when we finally had to leave, Jamie promised that she’ d be back soon. I noticed that she didn’ t promise I would be with her.
While we were walking back to the car, I said,“ They’ re a nice bunch of kids.” I shrugged awkwardly.“ I’ m glad that you want to help them.”
Jamie turned to me and smiled. She knew there wasn’ t much to add after that, but I could tell she was still wondering what she was going to do for them that Christmas.