Some fiction should be true

I write in my journal, "I am unwanted, alone, and unloved; an orphan.

My parents may be dead or they may have simply not wanted me. I do not know. I never knew them. I do not even know their names. I am unwanted.

I live in the orphanage with the other orphans. There are so many of us here. So many. All of us different but with the same blank stare and sad drooping mouth. All of us are unwanted. All of us are alone.

Nobody cares about us. We don't even care about each other. I even stopped caring about myself just so I could fit in; nobody cares about me so why should I? No one wants to adopt us. We're unlovable. We're unloved."

I stop writing and look up from my journal. There he is again. The strange man in the expensive suit. He stops by every day. I used to wonder if he was going to adopt one of us, but then again, no one ever does. He just comes and watches and leaves and comes again.

I put my pencil down and sigh. Even though he tries not to stand out, I feel as though the man in the suit is important. I just don't know if he's good important or bad important. Thinking about it makes my stomach dance with my heart till I feel sick inside. If I just knew he was bad I wouldn't feel this way. It would just be one more thing to deal with. It would be just one more weight upon my shoulders.

I sigh again and get up from my cot where I had been writing. Today, I decide, I am going to see what the man in the suit wants. So I walk across the orphanage commons area towards the man as my stomach and heart perform a do-si-do. I pass some of my fellow orphans, all occupying their time to try and forget that they are unloved. At last, I approach the man in the suit.

The man in the suit looks like he's 50 years old. He has dark eyes with wrinkles starting to form beside them. It gives him a wizened, kindly appearance. Finding my voice, I ask him, "Sir? Why are you here?"

"I'm here for you, Andrew."

My heart falls out of step and stumbles on my stomach's toes. He knows my name! The man in the suit whom I have never spoken to before knows my name! How? Why? "Sir? Do I know you?"

"No, but I know you."

I am frightened, but oddly intrigued. I ask him, "What do you mean, you're here for me?"

"I'm here to adopt you. And not just you, but all of you." The man in the suit gets down on his knees to be at my height and stretches out his arms towards me. "Will you be my child?"

I hesitate for only a moment, and then I leap into his arms. The man in the suit smiles as I hug him tight. I am loved. "Sir? Am I leaving now? Am I leaving the orphanage to go home with you?"

The man in the suit releases me from his embrace and stands. I gaze up at his smiling face as he answers me with words I will not soon forget, "Not yet. I want all of you to come home with me. You have to tell them Andrew. You have to tell the other orphans that they can come home with me too."

"But, what if they don't believe me?"

"Some won't. Some will hate you for telling them."

"But, what if they don't want to come?"

"It's their choice Andrew. But you have to ask them. You have to let them know that they can come home with me. You have to let them know that I love them."

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I awoke in a cold sweat, the man in the suit's words lingering on, "You have to let them know that I love them."