Chapter 34. The Ghosts of the Orphanage.
Hello everyone. It is me again. How are you all doing today?
I hope you are ready for another gripping turn in the story. Chapter 34 is an emotional journey filled with questions about Natalia's past.
Natalia has been thinking about the mysterious letter. She cannot stop wondering whether there is more to her past than she has ever known.
After months of uncertainty, she finally makes an impulsive decision. She will return to the place where her story began.
For months, Natalia has been struggling with sadness and frustration. She feels trapped by the circumstances of her life. But somewhere inside her, a small spark of determination remains.
She refuses to give up her piano.
Jazz captured her heart years ago. Although the authorities have banned it from public performances, Natalia believes the music is still being played in secret.
She dreams that if she practices hard enough, she may someday find a place in that hidden musical world. In the meantime, she can earn some money by giving piano lessons.
There are always other paths, she tells herself. She simply has to keep going.
But the letter continues to occupy her thoughts.
She wonders if there were other letters. Perhaps someone tried to find her more than once.
After 1945, Romania was largely cut off from the West. Communication became extremely difficult. If someone had been trying to contact her, the connection might have ended there.
But Natalia cannot stop wondering.
She remembers all the times she wanted to ask her uncle Stefan about her adoption. Now she regrets never asking him.
Still, she doubts that Stefan would have told her anything. He was deeply loyal to her parents. Whatever secrets he knew, he would probably have kept them forever.
Natalia realizes that there is only one place left where she might find answers.
She has to return to the orphanage.
Later that afternoon, Natalia boards a trolley.
She can hardly believe what she is doing. She has no real plan. She does not even know what she expects to find.
She stands inside the trolley and holds tightly to a metal pole. Outside, the city passes by. She sees dry parks and old buildings darkened by years of smoke and dirt.
Thirteen years have passed since she last entered the orphanage.
Thirteen years.
Her life has changed completely since then.
Once, shortly after the war, Natalia passed the orphanage while riding through the city with her mother.
The building was damaged and surrounded by metal scaffolding.
Her mother looked toward it and quietly asked Natalia if she remembered the place.
Of course Natalia remembered.
She remembered the children.
She remembered their dirty clothes and their sad faces. She remembered the courtyard and the thin soup they were given every day.
But Natalia did not want to talk about those memories.
She simply acted as if the place meant nothing to her.
After that day, she and her mother never discussed the orphanage again.
Now Natalia is returning by herself.
She gets off the trolley before reaching the closest stop. She wants to walk the rest of the way.
She needs time to think.
As she walks, one question returns again and again.
Why did the people who gave her life choose to live without her?
For years, Natalia created explanations for herself.
Perhaps her biological parents were young. Perhaps they were poor. Perhaps they could not afford to raise a child.
Maybe they struggled for a long time before finally giving her away.
Those explanations once made it easier for Natalia to forget about them.
Then the letter appeared.
Everything changed.
Now Natalia is searching for the ghosts of her own past.
She reaches the intersection and turns onto the familiar street.
Her heart begins to beat faster.
People walk quickly around her, but Natalia moves slowly.
Eventually she reaches the end of the block.
The building is still there.
Natalia stops and looks at it.
To her surprise, it looks almost exactly as she remembers.
The metal scaffolding is gone. The old sign for Saint Paul's Orphanage has disappeared.
But the building itself remains.
Natalia carefully enters through the wooden gate.
The courtyard is empty.
There are no children.
There are no familiar voices.
There is only silence.
Suddenly, Natalia feels foolish for coming.
What did she expect to happen?
Did she really believe someone would simply give her a file containing all the answers about her past?
She turns around and begins walking back toward the gate.
Then a door opens behind her.
A beam of light crosses the courtyard.
A military officer walks toward her.
For a moment, Natalia becomes frightened. She thinks the officer may question her about why she is there.
Instead, he walks past without paying attention to her.
The front gate closes behind him.
Natalia notices that the main entrance to the building is still open.
She waits for several minutes.
Then she quietly enters.
The hallway feels strangely familiar.
The walls are pale green and damaged with age. The floor squeaks beneath her feet. The sharp smell of cleaning chemicals fills the air.
Natalia slowly walks toward the room she remembers as the director's office.
She tries to decide what she will say.
Would Mrs. Tudor still be there?
Would the old woman remember her after all these years?
Natalia reaches the door.
She takes a breath.
Then she opens it.
She immediately realizes that something is wrong.
Mrs. Tudor's old desk is gone.
Instead, there is a large table surrounded by military officers.
Files and documents cover the table.
A tape recorder sits in the center.
Every man in the room turns to look at Natalia.
She quickly apologizes.
She explains that she must have entered the wrong room.
An elderly officer turns toward her.
His uniform is covered with decorations. His white hair and beard shine beneath the artificial light.
He asks Natalia what she is doing there.
Natalia explains that she is looking for Mrs. Tudor, the former director of the orphanage.
The officer appears confused.
He asks what orphanage she is talking about.
Another officer explains that an orphanage existed there before the war. Part of the building was destroyed during the bombing.
The children's dormitory and kitchen were damaged.
The archive room was also destroyed.
Natalia feels her hope disappearing.
She wants to ask what happened to the children.
She wants to know what happened to the teachers and everyone else who once lived and worked there.
Instead, she quietly explains that she was once one of the children at the orphanage.
The general tells her that the building now belongs to the government.
They know nothing about the old orphanage.
He also tells Natalia that she is interrupting an official meeting.
Natalia apologizes again.
Then she runs.
She rushes through the corridor and across the courtyard.
She does not look back.
She continues running down the street until a sharp pain in her side forces her to stop.
Natalia leans against a wall and struggles to catch her breath.
She thinks about the children who once lived there.
Later, she slowly makes her way back toward the bus stop.
She realizes that whatever evidence of her past once existed inside the orphanage is probably gone.
The archives were destroyed.
The people she remembered have disappeared.
The path to her past seems to end there.
Before leaving, Natalia looks back at the building one final time.
She studies it carefully.
She wants to remember exactly what it looks like.
Deep inside, she knows she will never return.
When Natalia arrives home that evening, dinner is waiting.
Her family has roasted chicken.
Fresh chicken is a rare luxury, so the family usually treats such meals as special occasions.
Natalia begins eating.
Then she tells her parents that someone came to the house earlier that day.
Her father immediately asks whether the visitor left a name.
Natalia says the man claimed to be a city inspector.
He said he was conducting a census and wanted to know how many people lived in their home.
Natalia told him that he would have to return when her parents were there.
Her father's expression changes.
He reminds Natalia that she must never answer questions about their family.
Natalia assures him that she did not give the stranger any information.
She simply asked him to leave.
The man said he would return another time.
A tense silence fills the room.
Then Natalia's father changes the subject.
He says that he received his largest order in years that day.
A customer entered his store and purchased ten thousand sheets of premium envelopes.
Natalia's father even helped the man carry the boxes outside and load them into his car.
Despina looks surprised.
She asks Anton who the customer was.
The question remains unanswered.
And that is where the chapter ends.
Natalia went searching for answers about her past, but instead she discovered that many of the records from the orphanage had been destroyed.
At the same time, a mysterious visitor has appeared at her family's home.
The stranger's questions make Natalia's father nervous.
Something may be approaching the family, but Natalia does not yet understand what it is.
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