Betrayed by Jeanette Windle Read Free Book Online Page A

cynicism.
     
    Once team members had been dismissed, Evelyn had given Vicki a tour, beginning with the clinic and offices housed in the original colonial mansion, then the concrete block next door.
     
    This was no less crowded than that Mexican orphanage, , but the children here looked well fed, their black hair shining with health, their chatter as cheerful as the yellow T-shirts they too wore as uniforms. Though Vicki saw no toys or individual possessions, there was plenty of sports equipment. Surplus land between the building and property wall had been paved over for a playing field with basketball hoops and portable soccer goals on all four sides. All were in use as Vicki and Evelyn walked by.
     
    Evelyn led Vicki upstairs to one of the dormitory wards. The girls who slept there had maneuvered the two rows of bunk beds together to make two opposing platforms, blankets forming walls around the sides and ends.
     
    “We’re Cristóbal Colón on the Santa Maria ,” a pigtailed ringleader announced proudly from one set of bunks. “And they’re the English pirates stealing our gold. The boys said girls couldn’t fight to save their ships. But we can, can’t we?"
     
    “Of course you can,” Evelyn assured her as she and Vicki moved between the battling quarterdecks.
     
    Vicki found herself blinking back sudden moisture at the normality of the scene. “I remember playing just like that when I was a little girl.”
     
    “Yes, children really are the same the world over,” Evelyn responded placidly. “It would be nice to give them an American standard of space and living conditions. But then, how many more would have nothing at all? As it is, we turn away dozens for every one we can squeeze in. Besides, this is the country they have to live in, and it’s a poor one. Plenty of people outside these walls are living ten into a room or a thatched hut.”
     
    “Do you ever try to get them into foster homes?” Vicki asked.
     
    Evelyn shook her head. “In Guatemala that would just mean becoming unpaid servants. Occasionally an expat will adopt, usually the babies, though the laws here make it a difficult process. Nor do we kick them out, like so many of the state homes do, as soon as they’re old enough for manual labor. Our children stay until they’re out of school and able to hold a job. And why shouldn’t they? This is no holding station; it’s their home. The other children, the staff here, become their family over the years. A very big family but family nonetheless.”
     
    Family.
     
    The word echoed now in Vicki’s mind as she brushed gentle fingers over baby Maritza’s soft, dark head. Was that the difference that set this place apart from any Vicki had surveyed to date?
     
    Don’t jump ahead. There’s plenty I haven’t checked out yet. How many other good impressions have turned out to be rotten underneath?
     
    Satisfied her two charges were comfortable, Vicki gave the night attendant a smile as she left the ward. She dug into a pocket for her room key and headed down the hall to where several smaller dormitories provided quarters for live-in nursing staff and visiting volunteer teams.
     
    Vicki dropped the stack of reports she’d acquired on a nightstand and let her purse slide from her shoulder. Someone had already deposited her duffel bag on one of two single beds. The room was as austere as the rest of the building. High walls and ceiling whitewashed a pale green. Mosquito nets hanging down over the beds. A single lightbulb dangling on a wire. A door leading to the room’s one luxury, a private bathroom.
     
    Tired though she was, Vicki was too keyed up to sleep. Crossing the room, she pushed the heavy wooden shutters open and wrapped her arms around herself as she leaned out. Her room was high enough to afford an excellent view of the city, and not far away she saw the red flickering glow of the fires that smoldered endlessly beneath the surface of Guatemala City’s municipal