The Perfect Christmas - The Gambit - Chapter 4

written by Paul Warnock

​

Raleigh was the capitol city, and it was a big city even
back in 1966.  When they were loading the bus at the
orphanage for the trip to Raleigh, Mikie, Lizzie, and
Jody waited in line so they could be first in order to be
sure of getting the back seat.  The other children were
talking, playing, and joking with each other, and didn’t
pay any attention to Mikie and his sisters.  All three of
them sat on the same seat in the very back.  When Miss
Flossy came to do her head count, she didn’t make the
children be quiet.  She just started counting, and she
missed the O’Rourke’s who were ducked behind the
seat in front of them.  So Miss Flossy was three short.  
She should have coordinated her head count with the
housemother and volunteers who were staying behind
with the other children, but she didn’t.

The way Mikie planned it was when the bus got to
Raleigh, he, Lizzie, and Jody would just stay on the bus
while everyone else went inside the church for the
Christmas program.  Mike had saved as much money as
he could.  They also packed as much food as they could,
which wasn’t much as it would be too conspicuous to
have a large bag.  Mikie figured they had at most a two-
day food supply.  They would have to depend on
drinking water from fountains in the public parks.  
Mikie had found a map of Raleigh in the orphanage
library.  He memorized the part of the map he needed,
specifically how to get to Moore Square Park
downtown and how to get out to Pullen Park where he
planned to spend the night on Friday.  His objective
was to get to this new shopping center called Cameron
Village on early Saturday morning, not too far from
Pullen Park.  He had read about the new shopping
center in the newspapers back at the orphanage.  All
their places were within walking distance.  They would
turn themselves in to the police or maybe the Salvation
Army Saturday evening if nothing became of his plans
at Cameron Village.  The Salvation Army would be
better.  They feed homeless people there.  And they
were certainly homeless to be sure.

Raleigh had all their Christmas decorations displayed,
which were much more elaborate back then as
compared to some of the pitiful displays most cities
have today.  When the bus stopped for food in Raleigh
before going to the church, Mikie saw his opportunity.  
It was tempting to go in and eat with the others, but he
told his sister to hide as everyone else exited for food.  
After everyone was gone, they just casually opened the
door to the bus, which was not locked.  Then they just
started walking away from the bus and the restaurant
in the other direction so none of the other children
would see them.  This worked very well because after
about twenty minutes of walking, they were in Moore
Square.  Lizzie and Jody wanted to go over and look at
the Capitol building and even go into some of the
museums, but Mikie said that was too risky.  They
would never have an opportunity like this again.  So
after eating some of their food and drinking from the
public water fountains, they headed on over to Pullen
Park as it was starting to get dark.  It took about thirty
more minutes to get to Pullen Park, and when they got
there they found some nice picnic shelters with roofs
that looked ideal for spending the night.  Mikie told his
sisters they would have to keep out of sight as the park
ranger would be patrolling most likely in a truck.  The
picnic shelters had short cinderblock half-walls with
two opening to the outside.  They could hide under the
tables and away from the outside openings.

It was a little bit cooler at night, but the children had
worn the warmest clothes they had.  It would be nice to
have some blankets, a pillow, and particularly
something soft to lie on.  There were a few old
cardboard boxes that someone had left behind, but
they decided to use them for extra concealment rather
than to sleep on them.  The children huddled together
for extra warmth.  It was a cold, clear winter night.  
When the daylight woke them up the next morning,
they realized they hadn’t brought anything with them
to comb their hair.  They used their hands to arrange
each other’s hair as best they could.  Mikie didn’t have
a watch, so he tried to gauge the time by the position of
the sun in the sky.  This was something his father had
taught him many years ago.  He knew it was noon
when the sun was overhead.  He had practiced
estimating the time by the sun in the several weeks
before this escapade while they were still back at the
orphanage.  After they ate a breakfast consisting
mostly of nabs (cheese crackers with peanut butter),
they headed on over to Cameron Village about ten
blocks away.  Mikie had estimated the time at 9 AM,
but a bank clock near Cameron Village told them it was
9:30.



To be continued....