Epilogue

The ballroom was richly decorated. People mingled as I stood in the back and looked out over the crowd. Jaleel stood next to me and he looked like he might throw up from nerves.

“I can’t believe you did all this, Kage,” he said.

“Alexander did most of it, Katiya too,” I said and smiled as I saw her.

“I’m really happy that I’m not the one making this speech,” he said and grinned at me. “Go big, Kage, you got this.”

I took a deep breath and walked out onto the stage. The murmuring crowd fell silent and Katiya winked at me. I had come a long way from that broken down five-year-old boy sitting on the swing, waiting for his mother to come back.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our first annual gala in support of the youths living in the foster system in New York. I’m Kage Hawthorne, and tonight we need your support and dedication to make our new big brother and sister project a reality.

Our aim is to provide a big brother or sister for every foster child, someone they can relate to, and someone that will listen. This project is close to my heart and to so many others out there. It’s easy for a child to get lost in the system and tonight I want to tell you a story of a little boy that the system forgot about.

He was five years old when his mother took him to the park for a picnic. They had a grand time and she bought him a red balloon and pushed him on the swings. “I’ll be right back,” she said to her son, but she never came back.

He waited on that swing for her for hours, holding on to his red balloon. Eventually the sun set and it started to get dark out. The park was empty by this time and a beat cop found him still sitting on that swing and took him to the police station.

Eventually that boy ended up in a group home before being fostered for the first time. His new foster father had a little problem of his own though, he liked little boys a bit too much and he started molesting that boy on a daily basis.

When he was eight, an older foster brother stabbed him with a knife but he was lucky as it got stuck in his ribs and didn’t penetrate any of his organs, but again there was nobody there to protect him from that violence.

At the age of ten that boy was pushed down the stairs in the foster home where he lived and broke his collarbone and wrist. From eleven to thirteen he was abused, assaulted and burned with cigarettes. When he was fourteen he was sent to yet another foster home and this time the foster mom locked him in a shed for a week with no food because he couldn’t satisfy her sexually.

It didn’t stop there, she continued to sexually assault him for the next year and in his last foster home he was beaten yet again but at least this time he got a meal every day, still fighting to survive in a system that didn’t care, that didn’t have the time or resources to care.

So when he was finally adopted at the age of sixteen he thought that the man sitting across from him must be another freak. This man changed that boy’s life. He gave him purpose, family and a new life, where trust and love became abundant.

You might wonder why this boy never spoke up. He did at first but it never got better. Children lose their voices when faced with the worst of the worst. Our foster system has a problem, child services are overworked and underpaid. We need to be that voice.

That boy eventually grew up and he built a new life but the horrors of his past remained with him and it haunted him for years, ruining any chance at a normal life. I know the flaws of the system because I was that little boy. A great man once told me that every child has greatness inside of them but they all need a guiding hand in helping that greatness shine.

Tonight I ask that you open your hearts and your wallets and be that light. I will open the floor and pledge five hundred thousand dollars because I can’t let this be another child’s story too. Thank you all for being here,” I said as the crowd erupted into applause and there weren’t many dry eyes in the room.

Alexander had looked at me throughout that speech with tears in his eyes as he had realized in the beginning that I was talking about myself. My brothers had cried too and Luke had his hands over his face.

I hadn’t planned on telling my story when Jaleel had asked me to speak but there was no better way to get these people to understand the realities of what children went through if they didn’t know the truth. I could speak about the truth, having lived it.

I had looked straight at Katiya the entire time I spoke those words, my hidden truth, now finally out in the open for everyone to know. I didn’t feel ashamed anymore, somewhere along the way I had stopped being a victim.

“I’ve never been as proud of you as I am right now,” Alexander said as he gripped me in a tight hug.

“Thanks Dad,” I said as tears glistened in his eyes.

Castiel hugged me the longest and tightest. “There can be no darkness without light and tonight you broke that darkness. I love you, Kage. You’re free now.”

I recognized a lot of faces as people shook hands with me, donated more money, made future pledges and I kept looking at Katiya where she stood in the back. Endri was currently holding Kalen in his arms and I made my way to where Katiya stood in the back.

“That’s the real me, Katiya, the truth of my past,” I said.

“I have to tell you something,” she said as I took her hand not caring that everyone could see us.

“What’s that?” I asked her.

“I quit,” she said and kissed me.

The End.