Cyclic Rescue

 

            Roger swiped his timecard through the time clock just before entering the locker room to change into his work clothes. He quickly changed, retrieved his protective gear from his locker and joined his partner of the last five years in the garbage truck, to begin their route through the nearly empty and most desperate section of the inner city. They had traveled six blocks, picking up over a dozen trash cans at each corner before backing into an alley.

              Roger heaved the filthy blue dumpster away from the brick wall, attached it to the hooks on the back of the truck, and like he always did, flipped open the two lids to scan inside, always terrified of finding a homeless person or a corpse inside, which was thankfully a rare occurrence. He banged on the side of the truck and motioned for his partner to take a second look through the dumpster, as a small movement caught his attention.

              “Please let that be an animal,” he grumbled. Not one to take any sort of risk, he pulled himself up and into the dumpster, to find a newborn wrapped in soiled garments and covered in bodily fluids. “Damn, this is not good,” he said. “John, place a call into the office and I’ll call the police. There is a baby in here. This is really messed up.”

              The two men leaned against the side of their truck and waited for the police and aid car to arrive, both feeling sick and disappointed in the state of mankind. Thirty minutes passed and the aid car arrived first, shortly followed by the police, who requested a detailed explanation of the events that morning. Roger explained everything that happened, knowing that he needed to be articulate and careful, and he knew better than to touch anything on or around the child. The two police officers thanked them for the details, left the alley, and Roger and John watched as the child was retrieved from the dumpster and taken, presumably to the hospital.

              After three days passed, Roger called the police department with hopes of learning something about the child, if it was healthy, if it survived and if it had been placed into a loving home. He was transferred to the human services department and was given very little information about the child or his location. He hung up the phone, found his wife in the kitchen and shared the few details he received from his phone call.

              “Hey, honey, I just spoke to someone in the human services department, and they said that the child was a little boy and had a brief note tucked inside of its clothing written in Russian,” he said.

              “That is the saddest story you have ever told me,” she said. “Hopefully someone adopts the little guy and gives him a loving home. I just cannot imagine abandoning my own child in a dumpster. Someone must have been in a very bad situation.”

              Six months passed and Roger received a phone call, informing him that the child had been adopted by a wealthy and powerful family. His immediate response was that of joy and thankfulness, knowing that every person deserves to be loved and protected. He called his wife and told her all that he had learned, wishing he could know more and do more to help the little guy.

              Little Alec became part of the Worthington family and after five years was joined by a younger brother, another child who had been abandoned in a way similar to Alec. Two years after this, a third brother was adopted, and two years after this a fourth brother was adopted, giving Alec a robust, loving family to call his own. On his eleventh birthday, Alec stood in the entry way of their home, looking at a photo of his entire family, wondering why his eyes were somewhat slanted, wondering why his skin was somewhat yellow and his hair was perfectly black and straight.

              Everyone else in the family had the same basic look, and he understood that he was different than everyone else in the photo. Alec graduated from university with a degree in human services to be followed after the next several years by his four brothers earning their degrees as well, to step into leadership roles with their father at the family company. After five years of learning as much as he could about the company, Alec stepped into the role of CEO as his father had begun to grow old.

              Another decade passed and Alec began to wonder about his own future, if he should be doing more to help people, and hopefully rescue more children in the same way that he and his brothers had been rescued. Struggling to learn more about his identity, he took a DNA test to find out about his origins, which revealed his family line came from a region along the Russian and Chinese border. He shared his findings with his brothers and confessed that he was determined to step down from his role as CEO, move to the region of his original family line and do something great.

              His next oldest brothers stepped into the CEO role, which gave Alec the freedom to sell nearly all of his possessions and contact a real estate agent in that part of Russia. It was then that he learned that the cost of living was considerably lower than his currently city in the United States. He packed as many clothes as he thought he may need, bought a home surrounded by a great deal of property, and bought a plane ticket to make the trip to his land of origin.

              After arriving at the airport, he hired a driver to bring him to his property, to find that his newly purchased home was completely encircled by a wrought iron fence, providing safety and beauty for what appeared to be a carefully tended garden filling all three acres of his new home. He punched in the code at the main gate to walk into a fully furnished home to find a handwritten letter from the local priest, inviting him to Church four days hence.

              He placed a phone call to Father Dmitri, inviting him over to learn about the community, the city, the people there and the needs that were more prominent for the people of Kultuk. As Sunday morning arrived, Alec found himself embraced and loved as part of the community. He made multiple connections with many people in the Church and around the neighborhood. The purchase price of the home barely put a dent in the amount of money he earned from the sale of his home back in the United States, allowing him to build an additional wing that would provide safety, warmth, and healthy food for the dozens of homeless children in the community.

              His grasp of the Russian language grew quickly, as he immersed himself in and around the city and shops. His passion for doing good, for helping others, and for paying back the good that had been given to him from the day he was found in the dumpster in the alley. Within six months the addition to his home was complete, allowing him to hire on nurses, maids, and cooks, all of which provided love and stability to the first six children he adopted.

              After two years of living as a bachelor among employees and an ever-growing cache of children, he met a young woman at Church. He and she began to grow closer together, until he became like one of the family, eventually asking her to marry him and create more opportunities to help more children. He and Elena watched their household grow as children arrived, grew up, became adults and were replaced by more and more children over the years.

              As the years slowly crept by, Alex could feel himself growing older, knowing that he only had so many years to continue this work of helping children in the same way that he had been helped. On the day after his sixtieth birthday, while out on a walk, he was approached by a small, twisted barefoot old man, who appeared to be a monk. The two of them engaged in conversation, each sharing the details of their lives, learning that they were essentially doing the same work. The older man was somewhat difficult to understand, as his speech was a jumbled mix of Russian, Chinese, and bits of English.

              Before they parted way, Alec invited Father John over for dinner to meet his wife and the many children who were always excited to meet someone new. Alec could see the joy and excitement in John’s face as the children came and went, gave him hugs, and asked him questions. Before darkness fell, Alec joined John on a walk back to his home, which was a much smaller and poorer version of his own, which encouraged him to pay for the many needs of John and the orphans under his care.

              It was through his relationship with John that Alec met many new people, one of whom he drew especially close to, trusting that this young man would take over the responsibilities of the orphanage that he had begun in the small town of Kultuk. Alec and Elena hired a lawyer to take care of the paperwork for transferring responsibility to the young man so they could return to their family back in the United States. Alec was excited and thrilled at introducing his wife to the many members of his extended family. His brothers, his sister-in-law’s and many, many nieces and nephews.

              They arrived at the airport in New York City, rented a car and drove to his youngest brother’s home to stay for a few nights until they could find a home to purchase and furnish as they grew old together, looking forward to an exciting new life among family members. On the first day of each month, Alec placed a phone call to the orphanage he had entrusted to the young man in Kultuk, confirming that the work was continuing and helping as many children as possible. On a quarterly basis, he would send extra financial support to ensure that all of the needs were addressed.