Carly Dingles was just five years old when her mother took her on a long drive in her big red car. Carly loved car rides; she loved watching the trees blur past the window, feeling the wind from the open window ruffle her hair, and most of all, being with her mom. Her mother was beautiful, with golden hair that shone in the sunlight, and she always wore lots of jingling bracelets on her wrists. Carly liked the sound they made, like tiny bells dancing.<\/p>\n
That day, they drove far, farther than Carly had ever been before. The familiar streets faded away, and soon they were passing through open fields and countryside roads. Eventually, they stopped in front of a big white church standing alone in a field of green. Carly looked around. There was no one else there.<\/p>\n
Her mother turned to her with a bright smile. \u201cCarly, honey,\u201d she said softly, tucking a strand of Carly\u2019s brown hair behind her ear. \u201cYou wait right here, baby, and Momma\u2019s gonna be right back.\u201d<\/p>\n
She kissed Carly\u2019s cheek, her bracelets clinking as she pulled away. Carly smiled up at her, trusting. She watched as her mother got back into the car, her golden hair catching the sunlight, flowing like a banner in the wind. The last thing Carly saw was her mother\u2019s arm waving out the window, bracelets jingling. The red car drove off down the road, getting smaller and smaller until it was nothing but a tiny dot on the horizon.<\/p>\n
Carly sat down on the church steps, kicking her feet and waiting. The sun moved higher in the sky. She waited some more. The breeze was warm, and she was getting thirsty, but she wasn\u2019t worried. Her mother had said she would be back.<\/p>\n
But as the hours stretched on, doubt began creeping in. The sun was now high overhead, and the warmth had turned into an unbearable heat. Carly\u2019s throat was dry, her stomach ached, and she was starting to feel dizzy.<\/p>\n
Then, she heard footsteps. A woman was approaching, carrying an armful of colorful flowers. She was tall, with dark skin, and kind eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cChild,\u201d the woman exclaimed, startled. \u201cWhat are you doing out here in this heat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Carly looked up at her, relief flooding her small body. \u201cI\u2019m waiting for my mom,\u201d she said confidently. \u201cShe said she\u2019d be right back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman frowned, concern flashing across her face. \u201cOh, honey\u2026\u201d she muttered, placing a gentle hand on Carly\u2019s forehead. \u201cIt\u2019s too hot for you to be sitting here like this. Come on, let\u2019s get you some water.\u201d<\/p>\n
She disappeared to her car and returned with a bottle of water and a handful of ripe peaches. \u201cNow, you sit in the shade, sweetheart,\u201d she instructed. \u201cDrink some water and have a peach. I\u2019ll be right back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carly obediently took a sip of water, the cool liquid soothing her parched throat. She nibbled at the peach, its sweet juice dripping down her chin. The woman returned a few moments later, but this time, she wasn\u2019t alone. A tall man in a long black robe walked beside her. Carly thought it looked like a dress, but he later told her he was a priest.<\/p>\n
The woman and the priest spoke in hushed, serious voices. Carly couldn\u2019t hear everything, but she caught words like \u201cabandoned\u201d and \u201corphanage.\u201d The woman shook her head and made a phone call. Carly waited.<\/p>\n
By the time the sun had dipped below the horizon, a thin lady and a police officer arrived. Carly was scared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to take you somewhere safe,\u201d the lady told her kindly. But Carly didn\u2019t want to go. \u201cNo!\u201d she protested. \u201cI have to stay here! My mom is coming back!\u201d<\/p>\n
The officer and the lady exchanged a sad glance, but they didn\u2019t argue. Instead, they gently took Carly\u2019s hand and led her away. As the car pulled out of the church driveway, Carly kept turning her head, hoping, praying that her mother\u2019s red car would appear. But it never did.<\/p>\n
Carly was placed in an orphanage, but she refused to believe she belonged there. \u201cI\u2019m not an orphan!\u201d she would scream whenever someone tried to talk to her. \u201cMy mom is coming back for me!\u201d<\/p>\n
The other children stayed away from her. No one wanted to be friends with the angry, bitter girl who kept waiting for someone who never came. No one except Peter.<\/p>\n
Peter was a frail boy with pale skin and tired eyes. The other kids whispered that he had a \u201cbad heart.\u201d It didn\u2019t mean he was cruel\u2014it meant his heart didn\u2019t work the way it should. He couldn\u2019t run, couldn\u2019t play like the others. Instead, he made paper planes. He would sit on the staircase, folding them carefully, testing how high and far they could fly.<\/p>\n
One day, as Carly sat on the bottom step, crying silently, a small paper plane floated down to land at her feet. She picked it up and noticed something written on the wings.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re gonna be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carly\u2019s head snapped up. \u201cDid you make this?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Peter smiled. \u201cYeah. I can\u2019t run, so I make things that can fly high instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the beginning of their friendship. Over the years, whenever Carly was sad, Peter\u2019s paper planes would find her, carrying silent encouragement.<\/p>\n
When Carly turned seventeen, she decided she was finally old enough to find her mother. She demanded every piece of information the orphanage had about her past. \u201cCarly,\u201d the director said gently, \u201cyou have a bright future ahead, a scholarship\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo!\u201d Carly shouted. \u201cI know my mom is looking for me!\u201d She stormed out, ignoring the director\u2019s sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carly Dingles was just five years old when her mother took her on a long drive in her big red car. Carly loved car rides; she loved watching the trees blur past the window, feeling the wind from the open window ruffle her hair, and most of all, being with her mom. Her mother was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31903,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31902\/revisions\/31903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newzdiscover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}