Tessa and Mitchell sat on a green park bench.

The third and last picnic of the year began at 10:30 on a beautiful spring morning. The children at the orphanage wore their Sunday best clothes.  The media covered the event.  Every child hoped to find a family during this modern version of the “Orphan Train”.  
  
Tessa had a different mind frame, “If someone wants me I’m not going without you and Cassie.”

Mitchell came to the children’s home first. At just 10 years old, he had been found on the streets of San Antonio. He stole a banana from the local grocery. At first, the manager was mean to him, but Mitchell’s charm and smile could steal any heart. “I’m sorry sir, it’s for my Mother. She is sick. I need to get something she can keep on her stomach.”

He called the police anyway.

They found his mother about two blocks away, behind an abandoned building, newly dead with a needle still stuck in her arm. Now, twelve years old he still resided at “Lady of the Lake Children’s Home.”

Tessa, her sister, and brother came about 3 months later.  Their father had given up. He had some sort of a mental problem, one Tessa didn’t understand.  Mama died from tuberculosis.  From that day on Daddy seemed sicker and sicker.   He would sometimes stand in the corner and talk to himself or other voices that she could not hear. One day, he packed all three of them in the car, walked into the orphanage, signed some papers and left.

Baby John, barely one-year-old, had been adopted after the first “Children’s Picnic”. Tessa cried every night for the next two months. When the tears stopped anger seeped in. 

Tessa and Mitchell were as different as the sun and the moon. Mitchell was half black, half something else. He was lightly colored and truly handsome. He loved to talk.

Tessa was a green-eyed blond.  Beautiful, except for the sadness in her eyes, she developed a smart mind but quiet nature.  

Mitchell introduced himself the day all three of them came to the orphanage.  Now he protected her.  She considered him her best friend.  

Cassie, Tessa’s sister at five years old, had the same green eyes but people looked away from her.  She had a large birthmark on her face. So far, no adoptive couple looked past the facial flaw and chose her to live with them.

On the playground at the home, they spent hours pretending they were family. Tessa the Mom, Mitchell the Dad, Cassie their little princess of a daughter. They made the swing set their home. The slide was their bedroom, the twirling merry go round their car, the jungle gym their kitchen.

They laughed and played as normal children. They began to love each other a little more each day.

Mitchell looked at Tessa and smiled.

“Tessa, if someone will take you, you must go. You can convince them to take Cassie too.” 
Despite the look, Tessa gave him, he kept talking.  “Don’t be so hard to love.”

A couple approached their bench.

“Hello,” the woman said. She looked to be in her late twenties, early thirties. Her husband was dressed nicely and had a kindness about him.

“Would you like to walk with us to the lake and help us feed the ducks?”

Tessa wore a flowered hand me down dress. It was pretty except for the small stain on the front the previous child had left on it.

“We sure would,” Mitchell jumped up. “Come on Tessa the ducks are awaiting.”

Mitchell kept the conversation going as they threw stale bread to the hungry ducks. He imitated a car salesman, only he was building up Tessa.

“She’s really smart. Already reading above grade level. I have to ask her for help all the time. Now she does have a sweet little sister, just as pretty as she is. Just think, maybe you could get two for one. Both of them mind real good and they do all their chores.”

Some couples might have been offended by the youngster, but this couple laughed and joked right along with him. He sure had a personality. Even Tessa started to laugh at some of his antics. They played there for at least an hour until it was time for the picnic to be over.

“We have to go now,” the young couple said, ” It was so nice to meet you.” Then they left.

Tessa and Mitchell went back to the bench.

“See,” Mitchell said, “That wasn’t so bad, was it. They were nice and they seemed to really like you.”

Tessa nodded yes, with tears in her eyes she spoke softly, “but I don’t want to leave you, Mitchell, I love you. I would miss you.”

Mitchell gave her a brotherly hug and smiled.

“You see this bench. One day when we are all grown up, you and I will come back and sit right here. The world will seem smaller then and we will seem bigger. I will tell you jokes and make you laugh and you will tell me all about your life, and how you went to school, and Cassie will grow up with a family. You will see. I’m good at stories, and this one is not finished.”

Sure enough the next week the couple came to the home and asked to see Tessa. They also met her little sister. They didn’t look away when they saw the birthmark. In fact, the man told Cassie what a pretty little girl she was. About two months later, they became a family.

The day they left Mitchell hid his tears. Tessa didn’t. She hugged him hard and told him she loved him.

Mitchell stayed there for another year. A Baptist Minister and his wife finally took him in. In a strict but loving household, Mitchell thrived.  He used his gift of gab to speak at church when his new father asked him too.

Social media helped them find each other again. Tessa contacted Mitchell. The private message was short, “Meet me at the bench on Saturday.”

Now in their twenties, Tessa attended College. Mitchell landed an internship with a local radio station. They recognized each other immediately.

Their first words were timid but the walls between them fell quickly. 

Mitchell started reminiscing. “Remember the time we stole extra cupcakes from the kitchen.  The nuns stopped us in the hallway and I kept denying it even though I had blue frosting all over my face.”

Tessa started giggling.  “I had two cupcakes under my shirt.  I pretended to have a tummy ache.  You got the nuns away from me as I ran down the hall to the bathroom.  Cassie followed me.  We ate them in the bathroom and enjoyed them so much.” 

The laughter started to die down. 

“I never forgot about you.” Tessa seemed serious now. “I have thought of you so often. You were such a gift to me. I was so hurt and angry. I might have never let anyone love me if you hadn’t talked me into it.”

“You were so special to me too.” Mitchell was actually acting shy, “I didn’t let you see but I cried my heart out after you left. I so wished I could be there for you and be a part of your life.”

“You still are. You will always be with me.”  

Tessa’s face brightened.  

“Look, you were right.  We’re here. You made me laugh.  The bench and the world seem smaller.  I am in school. Cassie got to grow up with a family.”

They finished the next sentence in unison, “And the story isn’t finished.”  

The laughter that followed led to a comforting hug. When they separated Tessa still held on to Mitchell’s hand. 

She spoke sincerely. 

“I have a favor to ask.” 

“Be happy to oblige,” Mitchell said in his car salesman voice.

“Will you help me find Baby John?”

Mitchell smiled and nodded yes.

The bench once felt large, overwhelming, huge compared to the smallness of their youth.  Now, it was a small piece of furniture that needed to be repainted in a city park most people had forgotten. Like most of life, the big becomes small, and the paint needs to be refurbished. They promised to see each other soon.