Tom K. —“Orphanage”

This morning, Tom woke up in an excellent mood: his mom had promised she would visit him, something that thrilled him enormously, as it had been months since he last saw her.

After getting dressed and brushing his teeth, he headed straight for the phone in the hallway. He slotted a coin into the machine and dialed his mom's number. As soon as he heard her sweet voice on the other end of the line, he couldn't help but smile.

—“Hi, mom.”
Tom said, leaning against the wall with a small smile on his lips.

—“What time are you coming? Are we going anywhere?”
He asked enthusiastically, while a restless leg betrayed his excitement to see her again.

Tom came from a small, humble family; it was just him, his mom, and his dad. However, his family life was always marked by instability. Jörg, his father, had been cheating on his wife with another woman for years, and he even had a second family. She knew, but she never dared to confront him. Everything changed when, one day, Jörg left them both for good.

His mother tried to take care of him, but the money wasn't enough. The debts and responsibilities overwhelmed her, and she finally made a painful decision: to take Tom to an orphanage. Three years had passed since then, and he was still there, without her.