Orphan Train

Mr. Grote’s hunting isn’t going well and there is a shortage of food. One day, he tries to figure out the worth of Niamh’s claddagh cross, but Niamh convinces him that her necklace is made of tin and worth nothing. She remarks that Mr. Grote talks to her “all the time.” He tells her how his brother killed his father and how he ran away from home. He tells her that he and Mrs. Grote married after having several children on accident, and that he would rather spend his life hunting than raising children. He says he doesn’t love his wife, and that she doesn’t talk to him anymore. He says she loves sex but that she disgusts him, and that he wishes he’d found a girl like Niamh who wouldn’t have “trapped him.” Niamh “knows he shouldn’t be talking to [her] like this” because she’s “only ten.”

Niamh notices that the children “whimper […] and cluster together” rather than playing like “normal kids.” Still, she finds herself unable to satisfy their unmet need for love because it “takes all [her energy]” just to get ready and go to school each day. Lying awake one night, Niamh remembers how her Da told her to imagine a happy place to get through a difficult time. She imagines the same place again now: Gram’s kitchen. In her memory, she pictures herself and Gram baking, singing, and sipping tea. But then other memories creep in: She remembers her Mam “expecting her” to cook, clean, and care for her siblings. She remembers one night when her Mam was crying and she went to hug her. Her Mam shook her off and accused her of being insincere. After that, Niamh felt “numb” and stopped “trusting” her. In response, her Mam called her “heartless.”

The Grotes’ children come down with lice. Niamh remembers her Mam’s stories of lice outbreaks at boarding school. Her Mam refused to cut her long, dark hair ever again and was careful to keep her children clean. Reluctantly, Niamh tells Mrs. Grote, who instantly accuses Niamh of bringing the lice. For hours, Niamh boils water and washes the sheets while Mrs. Grote sits and directs her. When Mr. Grote comes home, Niamh hears them argue, with Mrs. Grote yelling phrases like “dirty Irish bog-trotter.” Mr. Grote then comes out and starts helping Niamh. He shaves all the children’s heads, but only “gently” cuts Niamh’s hair short, insisting “it would be a crime” to shave her head. Niamh remembers how she was the only redhead in her family and how her family loved her hair. Mrs. Grote refuses to let anyone check her own head. Niamh spends days cleaning the house, feeling helpless and miserable.

When Niamh returns to school several days later, she hands Miss Larsen a note explaining that she was absent because of the lice. Miss Larsen “doesn’t give away a thing” and compliments “Dorothy” on her “new haircut.” She tells her she reminds her of flappers – “big city girls [who] go dancing and do what they please.” Miss Larsen smiles and tells Niamh, “Maybe that’s what you’ll become.”