A restaurant owner noticed something rustling in his trash and thought that he had raccoons visiting every night. But when he put out a camera to catch the animal making the mess in action, he found something very different instead. Sam was tired and ready to head home for the day. He glanced around his empty restaurant, double-checking that all the cleaning had been done and that everything was ready for the next morning. Satisfied, he grabbed the garbage bags and headed out to toss them in the dumpster.
He frowned at what he saw there. The dumpster was hanging open, some of its contents scattered across the alleyway and starting to smell. A lot of the trash was older leftover food, after all, and it didn’t keep well on the ground of an alley in the early summer. With a long-suffering sigh, Sam tossed the new bags into the dumpster and started cleaning up the mess. He was tired but didn’t want the smell to get worse.
“There must be raccoons in the area,” he thought, “so he better do something to keep this from happening again.” He finished cleaning and decided to just make sure that the lid was closed properly, assuming that he’d forgotten the night before. The basic latch was enough to keep most animals out, so Sam figured that the raccoon should move on and he wouldn’t need to call an exterminator. The next day when Sam went to work, he checked the dumpster first. He found it open again, the bags from last night torn and scattered across the ground.
Over the course of the day as Sam worked with customers and cooked, he tried to think of a solution. He really didn’t feel like cleaning up after these pests every day. Maybe it would be best to see the thieves in action first, to make sure that it was actually raccoons and to maybe even see how many. That evening, Sam turned his back security camera towards the dumpster. He could check the footage in the morning and decide on what to do then.
Sure enough, the same kind of mess was waiting for him when he got back the next morning. So he went to look at the footage. After a few minutes of scrubbing through it, he saw movement and froze. It wasn’t raccoons. Instead, two kids no older than 12 approached the dumpster.
Sam watched as they struggled to get it open, dragged out the newest bag of food scraps, and rustled through it for the best pieces. After a few more minutes with food gathered in their shirts, the kids vanished back into the night. Sam sat and stared. Kids. They were kids rustling for food in his garbage.
He had to help them, but how? Well, first of all, the kids were obviously hungry, and he owned a restaurant. Sam stewed about it all day. Once the employees of the restaurant headed home for the day, Sam finished cleaning and cooked up a couple of extra meals. He packed them in takeout containers, added a note, and left them in an insulated bag on top of the dumpster.
The bag would hopefully keep the food warm and safe from actual raccoons, and the note simply let the kids know that they could come in for a meal whenever they wanted when the restaurant was open. Sam checked over his offering one more time, then headed home himself. He made sure to hug his daughter extra tight when he told her good night. The bag was waiting for him the next day, but it was empty, and the note was gone. He took it inside with him and checked the footage.
Sure enough, he saw him. One boy and one girl approached the dumpster and spotted the bag. The girl pointed, the boy got on his tiptoes to reach it. They huddled together over their note for a moment, then they looked at each other with smiles blooming across their faces. The boy put the note in his pocket, and they both carefully drew the containers from the bag before leaving the bag on top of the dumpster.
Sam sat back a moment after they’d vanished from the camera’s view. Good. They’d found the food, at least. But some instinct was still bothering him. If the kids were bringing the food back somewhere else, could there be another one?
He shook his head and stood to get ready for the day. Maybe they’d come in during operating hours, and he could talk to them. A few hours later, one of the waiters knocked on Sam’s office door. “Yes?” Sam looked up from his computer.
“There’s a kid here. He says that you invited him.” The waiter held up a familiar crinkled note. “He brought this.” Sam stood to take the note and check.
It was the note he’d left for the kids. “I got this. Where is he?” “Out front. I sat him down at table three.
“Thank you.” Sam left his office and found the front of the restaurant moderately busy with a dying-out morning rush. He spotted the kid fidgeting with a napkin at table three and headed over with a note in hand. “Here for a meal?” Sam guessed, keeping a soft smile on his face as he hoped that he wouldn’t scare the poor kid.
The kid looked up, startled, but nodded. “Just for you, or did you come to get food for the others too?” The kid nodded again. “Yes, please.” Sam grabbed a menu from the next table over and offered it.
“Do you know what you all would like?” “Um, more of what you gave us yesterday, please.” Sam smiled. He’d thrown together a couple of the meals that his daughter usually got. They were picky-eater-friendly, so he’d hoped that the kids would like them too.
“Or how many?” “Three, but my brother’s really small.” “Alright. Do you want me to put those in takeout containers then?” He nodded.
“And, uh, can you tell me you and your siblings’ names so I can write them on the containers?” The kid hesitated, and Sam wondered what these kids had dealt with to make this one so hesitant to trust. But the boy eventually spoke. “I’m Jamie. My sister’s Mary, and my brother’s Tommy.
“Thank you, Jamie. I’ll get that food for you, okay?” Sam left to do just that, dropping by his front manager to let her know what was going on, then slipping back into the kitchen to get the meals made. When he came out a couple of minutes later, he saw Jamie’s face brighten at the sight. Sam put the boxes down on the table to pack them into another bag.
“Here,” he said. “Keep them in the bag. It should keep them warm for you. Is there any other way I can help you right now? Do you need me to call anyone?
Jamie shook his head quickly. “Hey, it’s okay,” Sam interjected. “See you then, okay, kiddo?” Jamie nodded and gathered the bag in his arms. “My name’s Sam,” Sam held out his hand, and Jamie shook it.
“It’s nice to meet you, Jamie. Thank you, Mr. Sam.” Sam watched the kid leave, resisting the urge to scoop him up and get him somewhere safe right away. He needed more information first, and for that, he needed a little trust.
That night, Sam waited outside with the meals until the kids showed up. He let them look inside the boxes to see what he’d brought as he also pulled a few water bottles out of his coat pockets. “I got you water too, and since it’s so much to carry, I’ll just carry it for you. Is that all right?” Sam watched as they hesitated.
He saw them communicate with a glance before nodding. The walk wasn’t far, at least, just a couple of alleyways and across a sidewalk to an abandoned-looking building, then a shed behind it. Sam swallowed. He’d hoped that maybe the living situation wasn’t so bad, but living in an old shed? The kids led him inside, and he got busy setting out the food for them with his silverware.
Tommy seemed to be the toddler, using a cardboard box like a crib. Sam helped him eat as the other kids dug in. “You’ve been out here alone?” he asked. Jamie kept eating.
“Yeah.” “How long has it been?” Mary spoke with her mouth full. Sam looked at Tommy again, relieved that he didn’t look sick or too skinny. He, as well as the other kids, looked tired and dirty, but they seemed okay.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Sam asked gently. The two older kids shook their heads. “Do you have parents?” More shaken hands.
Alright. Once the food was gone, Sam stood and took off his coat. He draped it over Tommy, who was falling asleep, as a blanket. “There. I’ll see all of you sometime tomorrow, okay?
I’m gonna bring more help.” Jaime looked downcast. Someone had hurt them. Sam crouched down in front of him and Mary. “I just want to help you, okay?
Do you think you can trust me for another day?” There was a long pause before the two nodded. Sam double-checked that Tommy was sound asleep and slipped back out into the cool night. He was already dialing a number on his phone. He returned to the shed the next day with Mary, an old friend of his.
Mary and her husband had been foster parents for years. Their most recent foster kid had been happily adopted a few months ago. Mary had insisted that she could take the kids in, and Sam had been glad when she’d responded positively to his call for help. When they approached the shed, Sam went ahead to warn the kids that he had a guest, and after a few minutes convinced Jaime to come out to talk. Mary stayed in the doorway.
Within a few minutes and Mary’s skills with the kids,
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