All the Lonely People - By Angela
Part 22
"Ryan! RYAN! Damnit!" Danny called after him. "Oh, geez, I am sorry. I-I just," he shook his head in defeat.
"No, no, it's ok," Angela said, still shocked. "I mean, I think it's ok..." she mumbled.
"What was...that?" Jack ventured, also shocked. He exchanged a look with Angela. Clara adjusted her steak. Danny paced up and down the living room.
"Danny, could you please explain what's going on? How do you know...my mother?"
"She never told you?" Danny looked at Angela, surprised.
Angela shrugged slightly and looked at her shoes. "She didn't really have the chance," Angela whispered. Danny looked at her confused. "My mother died. Fifteen years ago."
"Oh. Oh God. Oh, it all makes sense now," Danny breathed, his eyes lighting up.
Angela frantically searched Danny's face, confused and upset. "What? What? What is going on? What makes sense?!?! WHAT IS IT!?!?!" Angela's voice rose with each outburst. "TELL ME!!!" she roared, grabbing Danny by the shirt.
"Angie! Ange!" Jack carefully loosened Angela's death grip on Danny, pulling her away from him. "It's ok," he said soothingly, trying to calm her down..
"Just-please." Angela said quietly. Danny sat down in a chair and motioned for Angela and Jack to sit across from him on the sofa. "Do you know what the orphan trains are?" Danny asked. Angela nodded, adjusting her skirt. "When I was nine years old, Ryan and I were sent to Iowa on one of the orphan trains. Your mother helped organize it. She arranged everything for us and promised that we would be given to a nice family. But things didn't work out as they were supposed to. There was a...miscommunication.
"When we arrived in Iowa, there was no one there waiting to take us to our new home. There didn't seem to be any records of us at all. The woman there sent us back to Boston and it was back to the orphanage for us," Danny sighed and smiled slightly. "Your mother was livid, she was so upset," he chuckled then his face grew serious, "she was going to adopt us herself. She would take us out and spend lots of time with us... She told us we could call her Mom and that we would have a little sister and an older brother...it really seemed like we would be getting a real home. It seemed like maybe, just maybe, we would be one of the lucky ones who did get adopted by a family, instead of being forgotten at an orphanage. But then, suddenly..." Danny trailed off and shook his head.
"We never heard from her again. We knew something was going on but no one told us anything. So we just assumed that she must have changed her mind. That she didn't want us anymore. I blamed myself. I worried that I had done something wrong to upset her, something that had made her not want me. Ryan blamed your mother. He was so angry; it was like there was this rage pent up inside him. He still carries around with him. I don't know what to do with him," Danny threw up his hands in defeat and leaned back in the chair, a faraway look on his face.
