Running on Empty by Roger Barry Read Free Book Online Page A

different solutions, but if the two can work in unison, so much the better. You understand that, yes?’

    The leaves had long departed the trees lining Rue de la Fontaine as Ella trudged along, a small suitcase in one hand, until she came to a stop opposite Fondation d’Auteuil. She stood for a few moments, before taking a deep breath and crossing, climbing the granite steps and passing through the large mahogany doors. Inside, she was met by a solemn-faced young nun wearing a white starched Cornette who didn’t speak, just took Ella’s suitcase and led the way up a winding staircase.
    ‘ Well girl, this is where you pay for your sins. Nothing is free in this life. Remember that next time, she admonished herself as she struggled up the stairs.

    Amelie stood at the foot of the granite steps as Ella emerged, climbing slowly down. Ella’s eyes were a little puffed and she appeared to have been crying, Amilie noticed.
    ‘Well, that’s that’ she said sternly. ‘It’s for the best Ella, you know that, don’t you?’ she continued in a softer tone. ‘There’s no way we could have managed, not on what I earn. There’s no way I could have supported three mouths’.
    Ella just nodded.
    ‘Well, how did it go? Did they tell you anything?’
    ‘How do you mean?’ asked Ella, ‘anything about what?
    ‘The child?’
    ‘They don’t give out any information about the child. That’s one of the conditions you must agree to on entering. You don’t see your baby, get to hold it, nor are told anything about it. You carry your child for nine months, and then pretend it never existed’ said Ella bitterly, biting her lip and staring into the half distance, while seeing nothing.
    ‘Oh, I see’
    A long pause followed as they walked along the street. Finally Ella spoke again, her voice cracked, full of emotion.
    ‘It was a boy’ she said, ‘a blond haired, blue eyed boy’.
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘Someone told me. Laurice, a black girl who worked as a cleaner in the hospital. She told me. She said the nuns would fire her immediately if they found out she told, but in her eyes it’s wrong to keep such information from the mother if she needs to know. So, she told me’.
    ‘Oh’.
    Another silence as they walked along.
    ‘Anyway’ Amelie continued, ‘I’ve spoken to your old boss at the café. He’s willing to take you back, so that’s good, isn’t it?’
    ‘I won’t be going back’ answered Ella.
    ‘What? Why? What are you going to do? I can understand how you may be upset right now, but give it some time before making a decision, another decision, which you may later regret’
    ‘I’m leaving Paris’ she answered.
    ‘But why, this is your home. This is where you belong’.
    ‘Not any more. You want me to stay in Paris? Do you not understand? If I see a blond haired boy here in Paris being walked in a push chair by his doting mother, what do you imagine is the question I’ll be asking? Is that my son that woman has, that’s what. Can you not understand how that would feel? Have you any idea how that would feel?’
    ‘But, where are you going to go?’
    ‘America’.
    ‘What? You’re not going looking for him are you?’
    Ella gave a loud snort. ‘No, I’m not. America is a pretty big place, you know. It’s as big as Europe, with as many people too. Anyway, he was from the mid-west, and I’m going to the east coast, to New York. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it this last while, and that’s what I’ve decided.’
    ‘Why New York?’
    ‘It’s simple really. There’s plenty of work there at the moment, and it’s the furthest I can get away from Paris. I could go to Australia, I suppose, but the work isn’t as plentiful there, I hear’.
    ‘But, you don’t speak the language very well Ella, have you considered that?’
    ‘I speak it well enough. I spoke it well enough to get me into this mess in the first place, didn’t I?’
    *****
    Michael Fahey stood like the other young