The Box, Chapter 8
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The next day, Naina decided she needed time to herself. She had grown comfortable with her solitude. She didn’t want to wonder about crystals, run into Holy Men, think of questions to ask, or have to answer to anyone. Raiya asking her about work distressed her more than she had previously realized. She didn’t like her work. But she didn’t know what else to do.
Naina had grown up all by herself. It may have been considered a privileged upbringing by many, but rather than the white-gloved nurtured attention of her classmates, Naina felt like a kid who had been dropped off at 160 Calhoun St. It was known as the Charleston Orphan House but the kids weren’t orphans. Back in the day, parents dropped off their kids because they didn’t have money to feed them.
Her father had plenty to feed her, but he had dropped her off anyway. Naina wasn’t an orphan but felt equally unwanted. She never knew why her father shipped her off. He never told her. Her father thought he failed her mother and didn’t want to risk failing again, feeling Naina would be better off in other people’s care. Naina didn’t know this. She felt she was meant to be forgotten.
The Charleston Orphan House had closed in 1951, and the same site was a dormitory for the College of Charleston. Any time Naina happened to…
