The Story of Dana Corbett

A girl, who lived in an orphanage in a small town – and it was very cold, above the town there was a barbed white mist. Outwardly, the city was endlessly depressed: roads in the bumps, houses made of grey concrete of varying degrees of wear and tear, between them there were stunted trees, and everything was worthless. Here are drifts, here is a fence, here is an orphanage. It’s freezing – but on the porch smoking teenagers in the same T-shirts, looking squinting, spitting. In the hall of the orphanage, as it should be, angry guard – yelling at the children, shouting at visitors. But she is not yelling at the teenagers, she is afraid. Boredom.

I went up to the psychologist’s office; three women were waiting for me there. The youngest is a very nice and smiling girl, a psychologist. She is older and more strict – a tutor. And the oldest is a social pedagogue.

We discussed the weather in detail, and then I asked to tell about the girl.

• Well, she is not stupid at all, – started the girl psychologist. – She is tricky and self-loving. She has a good imagination. Imagines herself a princess, likes to be naughty. But that’s almost an ordinary girl. Sweet, sociable.
• Not without abilities, but lazy, – added the tutor. – You are always welcome to play, but if she is bored and needs to be patient – she will whine, she will quit her job. But she accepts criticism, reacts to comments.  
• If it wasn’t for her grandmother, we would have arranged it long ago, – continued the social pedagogue with a squeaky voice, – but her grandmother interferes as much as she can. Here is a girl who has been sitting here for so many years. And when she was three years old, we could find her a family. What is it like! “The girl already has a family! Her family is me! Well, well.
• She is not healthy, probably, there are problems with it? – I asked.
• What do you mean by that? 
• Well… I was told that she lies there all the time, crying. She doesn’t see well, she doesn’t walk well.
• Why is that?
• I don’t know, I got confused. – That’s what they said in the database.
• Yes? No, well, there are some problems with vision, but this is the first time I hear about the fact that she walks badly and cries all the time,” said the social pedagogue.
• Very active girl, lively, she participates in all games, runs, jumps, climbes. Well, yes, she likes to be sullen, but it is the character, – said the teacher. – But she has no special health problems, she is not taking any medication now. Only she has to wear glasses, but she does not wear them either, she constantly loses them. So we fight, we make her fight. She does not like them.

I was terribly surprised.

• But in the database, the girl has quite a terrible list of diagnoses,” I said.
• Yes? Well, let’s call a doctor, maybe I don’t know something.

The doctor came up and began to comment on each item on the list of diagnoses so that there was nothing left of him.

• In general, she has nothing special, – said the doctor. – Well, yes, her eyes are weak. And all the rest is her grandmother.
• Her grandmother?
• Well, yes. She takes her to visit and then tells that the girl vomits all day long, she has darkness in front of her eyes, she falls without feelings and she has foam from her mouth. And what should we do? We write it all down, show the girl to the doctors, and look for problems. But we do not see any problems ourselves. We do not vomit her and she has never fallen without feelings. My grandmother assures me that the girl is seriously ill, but to me it is something with her head, and the child has nothing to do with it. Really, for so many years we would not have noticed if there was something?

The letter described in detail, very emotionally and surprisingly competently, how the orphanage infringes on a poor girl’s rights, not considering the grave condition of her health.
While the doctor was talking, the psychologist, teacher, and social worker were nodding and giving in.

• And why does she go to school for the blind? – I asked suspiciously.
• So her grandmother wrote her down there! She convinced all doctors that the child does not see anything. How can it not see, if she runs without glasses at us? But what can we do? If my grandmother and I argue, she writes letters to the prosecutor’s office and complains that we are violating the child’s rights to receive medical care. Can I show you her letters?
• Show it to me! – I said.

The ladies amicably began to dig through their files and put a pile of letters in front of me. I read one of them. And in fact, in the letter in detail, very emotionally and surprisingly competently described how the orphanage infringes on a poor girl’s rights, not considering the difficult state of her health.

• At the age of three the girl came to us from the orphanage – and since then we have tolerated this crazy grandmother,” said the doctor. And she repeated the words of the social pedagogue: “A child could immediately be placed in a family! Sweet girl, smart, charming, you will see for yourself. But what it is! She sits and sits – because of this grandmother, the child has been in the system for many years.

• Well, maybe you are friends with someone here?
• I had one girlfriend, Jill, but they took her away. She was a good girl, funny and they took her away quickly. That’s how it works. All normal children are quickly taken away, and there are stupid children who fight all the time. How to be friends with them?
• Well, wait, you have been living here for a long time. And you are not stupid at all.
• It is because of my grandmother,” the girl said, “I want to have a mother and family. And my grandmother thinks that I already have a mother and family. So, my grandmother thinks that I am in an orphanage and she is my mother somewhere. But if she is not with me, she is not really there. One aunt came here to meet me – I was so happy! Take me, I say. You are welcome! And grandmother is like this: where are you going, and what about us?! Well, that’s it, the aunt has left, and I stayed.
• Well, what do you want to hear? Have you spent so many years in the orphanage – and it’s okay? – said the girl psychologist
  I listened to all this with growing amazement. None of my adopted children expressed their thoughts in such a way.   
• Do you often see your grandmother? – I asked.
• Well, yes,” said the girl, “She comes in. Wants – comes in, does not want – does not come in, sometimes takes me to myself. But I live here.
• Is she good?

• Yes. It’s good.
• Then you’ll probably miss your grandmother if you leave.
• Probably,” said the girl, “But I would rather go away and miss you than stay here all my life.
• And what will my grandmother say? – I asked.
• She will be upset! – the girl answered directly.

It seems that I was going to not make quick decisions, but to get into the situation as much as possible, but by that moment I had already completely decided.

• Would you come with me? – I asked.
• Of course,” replied the girl, “You look kind, you look like my mother. She is very kind, but I have not seen her for a long time. She stopped coming.

To clear my conscience, I went once again to the girl psychologist and asked her how the situation with the gavel was.

• Yes,” said the girl psychologist, “she is capricious. I don’t want a cake, I want ice cream, everything is idiotic and carry me through a puddle of hands.
• And yell loudly? – I asked.
• No, what do you mean, shouting? She is angry, she is whining, she can cry.
• Loudly?
• No, usually. Like everyone else. Even quieter than all, she has a quiet voice. You talked to her.
• Does she often get angry?
• If she is offended, she is angry. Like everyone else, the girl psychologist repeated with some perplexity. And she added: – You ask strangely, sorry.
• I have a foster girl who yells like cut when she does not like something,” I explained.
• Little girl?
• Not really, an older girl.
• And what does the psychiatrist say? – asked the girl psychologist.
• Do you think a psychiatrist is needed here?
• Yes. Of course.
• But isn’t it a common story for foster children?
• No,” said the girl psychologist. – Children are different.

I imagined how I pick up a girl, we leave the orphanage twenty meters away and the girl falls without feelings with foam from her mouth.
And, she repeated about the same thing that the girl said before:

• Of course, normal children are easier to arrange, they are taken into families more quickly, and we have children with problems hanging out, but normal children, phew, phew, most of them.
• Do you think that the girl will be all right? Well, honestly?
• Well, what do you want to hear? Have you spent so many years in an orphanage and it’s okay? – said the girl psychologist. – Alas, it does not happen like that. Even if you are lucky, she will show you a lot of bad things, will check the boundaries, will doubt you. We have had cases when they take a child and return it in two hours. We didn’t have time to leave, but he had already made a scandal, attacked his new parents with fists and put a mat on them. The child is scared and the parents can’t stand it. Fists are not about a girl, but she will manipulate, intrigue, and cunning. What is good is that she is not stupid. And she has the ability – to draw, to music. She has imagination, she always composes something, her games are interesting. But she is very much on her mind. And she is very good at math. 

All this sounded like the truth. But then I doubted absolutely everything. I suspected that the girl’s diagnoses, which I was introduced to in advance, were not inflated at all. But the orphanage staff is now, for some reason, interested in getting her into a family, and they amicably deceive me. Maybe, my grandmother’s girl really tired them with her prosecutor’s checks. Maybe the girl has a serious conflict with other children or caregivers. Or, maybe the girl’s health condition is such that she faces transfer from an ordinary orphanage to a worse place and the administration wants to avoid it. I imagined how I would take a girl; we move twenty meters away from the orphanage and the girl falls without feelings with foam from her mouth. And when she comes to her senses, she starts to cry and never calms down again. Of course, I want to believe the staff of the orphanage, but I also believed them. And what happened to it? So, I was preparing for the worst. However, I was going to take the girl away – and as soon as possible. 

At the same time, I had no permission to take the girl away from me; I had permission to take her as a guest. And, what guests, if not even hundreds but thousands of kilometers between our cities? After learning about my problems with documents, the orphanage administration said that the flight to visit for a long time is out of the question. I had to invent something.

The care there was very polite with me. They wanted to have a girl in the family: according to the officials, her grandmother had also beaten them up. As for me, it is not that I fell to my knees before the guardianship in the literal sense, but mentally I did not get up from my knees for a couple of days begging to enter my position. I told that I have been watching the girl for many years, all these years I think about her and worry about her, endlessly repent that I did not fly to them long ago. Ugh-ugh, the guardianship usually employs sentimental ladies, and such stories do not leave them indifferent.

She was already ripe for throwing on my neck and climbing on my lap, but she still called me by my name and you, and I liked it.
We thought, thought and invented. We studied the law and found that it mentions the format of temporary guardianship, for six months, when a child is first given to a family, and then the guardian collects the necessary documents. This format is usually used in cases when a child’s parents died suddenly and are immediately taken away by relatives or friends. But the law does not specify the circumstances under which temporary guardianship is formalized, it simply says that it is “possible in the interests of the child.

• And if your city will not allow to issue a permanent guardianship in six months? – asked the guardianship of a small Siberian town. – So what will we do? Will the girl come back to us again?
• I will not give her back,” I said. – Honestly, I will cling to her and will not give her back, I will connect any funds.

Custody of a small Siberian town has gathered its commission, they have been meeting for about five minutes. And they decided: Okay, you convinced us, take your precious girl and God give you good luck.

With all my fears, I was completely happy

I did not want to rush anyone, because the officials had to make something unusual, and I already strained them. We saw a girl a couple more times and then I came back home. I promised to fly for her in a few days – and I flew when the documents were ready. The guardianship was not pumped up; everything was arranged in a proper way.

The girl was awfully glad. She had already ripened to throw herself on my neck and climb on my knees, but she still called me by my name and you, and I liked it.

I never got acquainted with her grandmother then, she didn’t come to the orphanage at the appointed time. I was afraid of this meeting and decided that it was for the best, we will call her later.

The girl and I moved away from the orphanage twenty meters, one hundred meters, one kilometer – she was still as quiet, nice and polite. She did not scandalize, did not fight, did not scream, and certainly did not fall without feelings. It is true that in the hotel the girl immediately killed my tablet, trying to crack it while I was in the bathroom, and it was extremely unfortunate: the tablet contained a lot of documents and photos. But the clarification of all the circumstances of this criminal act even brought us closer.

And in the morning of the next day we flew home.