Big cities had never bothered Jamar. Growing up in Detroit, he was well aware of the possible threats associated with traveling alone at night in an urban city, but he had become confident about his ability to survive on his own. Mostly he knew the three basics rules to survival: avoid eye contact with strangers, keep to yourself, and blend into the crowd. He religiously observed these practices and was still alive. There had to be something to these rules.

The past two weeks in Demaitre had been an intense immersion into Canadian life. The university that he’d be attending offered a summer program that paid for him to do independent research with professors along with taking two courses for college credit. The program kept the summer scholars busy, but Jamar found time to slip away and privately explore the city.

The subway system had become Jamar’s preferred mode of travel for many reasons; however, the primary one was that each ride was unique from each other. The people were always different, and he had a bad habit of watching them. He was interested in human behavior. Often times, he’d have to quickly look away when other people caught him staring to avoid awkward situations. Yeah, avoiding eye contact was one of the rules he habitually broke. Someday it would cost him.

Tonight, he was sitting alone in a half-filled train car leaning his head against the window. He wore a pair of white-washed blue jeans and a brown jacket accented with a blue scarf. His thoughts drifted to his night at the park as he waited to arrive at his stop. Exhaustion was beginning to settle inside of him.

"No... This isn't right..." Gabriella murmured under her breath as she looked at the map on the subway. She had thought she'd been going on the right train, but the last stop had been Kensington Avenue, and that was going a different direction than what she wanted.

How could she be going the wrong way? Sister Bethany had told her to take the blue line to get to St. Mary's church to drop off the binder of sheet music and scores. And the train was indeed the blue line, Gabbie had double checked before getting on board and had nearly missed it making sure. So she knew she had to be on the right train.

But there. On the route of the yellow line, Wintworth Parkway. That was the stop she needed to get off at. Five stops down where the Blue and the Yellow lines seemed to split.

Well there was nothing for it really. She would have to wait and either get off at the next stop... Or just wait until the train went back to the right stop.

Either way though, she would be in trouble. She had to be home before dark and according to the little watch she wore, it was already six thirty. She couldn't possibly make it back to the orphanage by sun down!

Ooohh... If only she hadn't had all those problems and hadn't met Mr. Drake. It was because of him now that she had to be in by sun down... Because he'd told of how he had saved her from that mean guy.

If only she knew a quicker way to St. Mary's. She didn't want to get in trouble, and it wasn't even her fault. She'd followed the directions that she'd been given after all. It was just too far away.

Biting her lip hesitantly she looked over to the young man who was sitting near by. Maybe....

"Excuse me sir. But... Would you happen to know a quicker way of getting to St. Mary's Church rather than taking the Yellow line?" Maybe he did know. She always had the luck of meeting nice and helpful strangers.

Drifting on the edge of consciousness, Jamar was alarmed when a young girl suddenly appeared next to him. After taking a moment to gather his wits, he began to process what the young girl had asked him. Then, he began to wonder why such an innocent, young looking girl was alone taking the subway. He stopped the impulse to ask her any questions; she needed help first. Questions could come later.

“Let me look at the map for a moment,” he said taking out his own copy of the subway system lines. “ I am new around here. Please, give me a second.”

Looking down at the map, it was clear that the little girl was not currently on the quickest way home. From his best assessment, it seemed that the little girl had taken the wrong train on her last stop. Now, he had to decide the best way to get her back on-track.

Jamar looked up with a quick smile, “I think that I can help, my dear. From what I can see, you took the wrong track on your last stop. You simply need to get off from this train and go back to Kensington Avenue where you can take the Blue line directly to St. Mary’s Church.”

After pausing for a moment, he looked at her sternly still wondering why she was traveling alone. A part of him empathized with the little girl, being lonely in a big city. Jamar couldn’t help his compassionate heart, but he needed to remain level-headed to assess where this young girl really needed to go. His interrogation would begin shortly.

“Do you need help getting there?” He inquired in an even tone.

Whoever this young girl was she reminded him of his years in Catholic school. Although he didn’t identify as a Catholic anymore, he still was proud and thankful of his upbringing. Besides his obvious problem with their stance on homosexuality, he also saw the world in more a pluralistic way. Oh, Catholicism!

Gabbie smiled as the man said he would help her. He seemed polite enough. This was just her guardian angel coming in to play again.

But as the man explained she frowned. Not angrily by any means, just puzzled and confused. "The blue line? But aren't we on the blue now Sir? Wasn't that the last stop right there?" She asked pointing to the little dot with the Kensington station along a blue line. "Sister Bethany told me that the blue line would take me to the closest place to St. Mary's Catholic Church, but she told me that I should get off at Wintworth Parkway."

Her eyes skimmed over the map.

"And Wintworth is here..." She said pointing to a dot on a yellow line.

Next time, she would stay above ground to do her traveling. She knew the roads above them well enough. And she'd just been given a bicycle that the Orphanage had received since she ran the errands for them.

She blinked slightly at his offer, but then shook her head. "No, I wouldn't want to trouble you with something like that. I just have to drop off some music is all. Nothing too difficult." She made a little face. "Well if I have the right directions." She said turning back to the map.

The blue line seemed to curve up at the end to Headington Avenue. And Two blocks down from Headington was Catharpin. That was where she needed to go! The church might be a little down one way or the other, but it was the right road.

"Oh! Good, all I have to do is just stay on here until Headington. It's only two blocks down from where I have to go." She said cheerfully, sitting down again, putting the backpack beside her. She smoothed the jumper over her lap and smiled at the young man.

"So you just moved here? I've lived here all my life. It's a big city, kind of scary sometimes, but there are so many nice people here. The people who say everything is all bad," She said looking out the dark window. "They really haven't tried to meet anyone new."

Listening to the young girl as she explained her understanding of the map, he concluded that she hadn’t really needed his help. She seemed to know where she was going better than him.

He smiled at her warmly as he spoke, “It seems like you know where you’re going.”

The girl sure had a lot to say. Then, he reminded himself that he was talkative when he was her age. Jamar was clumsy and awkward with young kids. Always having been quiet as a kid, he never socialized much with kids his own ages. With this came an added maturity from a young age.

“Are you sure that you want to go alone?” He asked slouching back in his seat. “You can take a seat next to me. I will at least make sure you make it safely to your stop.”

He left the remainder of her questions unanswered. She had talked so fast that he honestly had forgotten half of what she had said to him.

"Oh! I didn't until then! I guess my Angel just keeps a look out for me." She said with a smile. "Everything seems to come out okay for me." Well, except for finding a family. It was almost thirteen years now... Thirteen years that she'd been at the orphanage and she still didn't have any real place to call home.

Gabbie looked up again as he spoke and shook her head with a smile. "No thank you. I'll be okay. I promise." She said earnestly. "I run errands like this all the time. I'll be okay. I've gone to St. Mary's before but I took the bus because I was going from school, not from the orph- I mean, home. The buses don't run too late out there for one reason or another." She gave a little shrug.

"So... How long have you lived here? How do you like the city so far?" She asked curiously, her brown eyes nearly pinned on him

The young girl seemed adamant about not needing any further help. For such a young age, she seemed to be confident alone at night. Something about that fact made him uneasy.

“I just moved here for college,” he replied to her persistent questioning. “How long have you lived here, and what is your name?”

He sat back waiting for her response he was certain that it would be long winded. Words were certainly something not in short supply with this girl. However, he did notice something peculiar while she was talking. She slipped about running errands by herself and it sounded as if she had said orphanage.

“Why do your parents let you run errands alone?” He asked coolly trying to scope out the situation.

"I've lived here all my life." She said with a slight smile. "And people call me Gabriella. Or just gabby if you prefer." She offered. Now, normally it was said that you didn't give your name out to strangers, but Gabriella never really minded. After all, if they looked in records, they wouldn't find it, and she didn't even really have a last name. You had to have a family to have one of those.

She bit her lip though as he asked about her parents. “I… I don’t really have any. No one knew who my father was… And my mom died when I was born. So… I live in an Orphanage run by the Church of St. Jerome. So I do what I can to help them out… As a thank you for all they’ve done for me.” She said with a little shrug.

It wasn’t that she hated living there. She loved all the sisters dearly, and she loved helping with the little ones. But she didn’t want to stay there forever. She didn’t want to become a nun, didn’t want to just live that life… Stay in the orphanage forever.

But she didn’t see any other options really. She didn’t see where else her life could take her.

“So… What are you going to school for?” She asked, not really wanting to talk about herself anymore and genuinely curious about what the University was like. “Do you like it there?”

Words failed Jamar. His heart immediately hit the floor. Unable to control his reaction, a concerned look of pity cascaded across his face. 'How she must hate this proverbial response,’ he thought to himself.

Trying to hide his face, he looked away and began to speak, “I am sorry.” It was all he could utter.

Never being close to his parents, he now felt a surge of guilt about not calling them since he moved to Canada. Granted, they practically disowned him when he came out to them about his sexuality, but now he felt a sudden desire to call or e-mail them.

When Gabriella spoke he was barely listening and was relieved that she had decided to change the subject. Young children were always a mystery to him.

“I am undecided. I am going to decide after my first year,” he responded. “Yeah, Demaitre is nice. I haven’t had a lot of time to enjoy the city, yet. What do you like most?”

"It's okay... My mother was very ill... And she was able to get to the orphanage where I was born and where I've lived." She said with a shrug, keeping her face virtually impassive. "I've lived there all my life, and well... There's very little that could make me any happier." There was a small smile on her face, but there were hidden emotions behind it.

She nodded though as he spoke about school. He didn't know what he wanted to do but- "That's okay. I mean that you haven't decided. I'm sure you'll find just what you're supposed to do, even if it takes you more than a year." She said with a smile. Normally she would have said that God would show him what he wanted him to do, but some people didn't believe that anymore.

"But... I think I like meeting all the people here. There are so many different people here, and when you talk to them and get to know them, you realize that the city isn't as big and scary as it seems. There are so many nice people here." She said with a genuine smile, one that held only the slightest bit of pain as she remembered Mr. Drake. She had been hoping that he would want to adopt her... But she hadn't seen him in so long now, and she might never see him again.