Disclaimer: The characters Clayton "Zeke" Anderson and Judd, the social worker, belong to the creator and producers of "Tour of Duty"

Disclaimer: The characters Clayton "Zeke" Anderson and Judd, the social worker, belong to the creator and producers of "Tour of Duty". All the others belong to me. The story was written in answer to a challenge about how Zeke may have spent any one of his birthdays. It is for entertainment only and no money is exchanging hands for it.

By: Sgt.Pepper

Sixteen Years to Manhood

St.Bernadette's Orphanage was humming with the new day. The sun was just beyond the horizon and the sisters that lived and worked in the orphanage were busy at their assigned tasks. Today was going to be set apart from the rest so the nuns were busier than usual. Because on this day was the birthday of one of their oldest and favorite children. Clayton Ezekiel Anderson had just turned "Sweet Sixteen" today and the sisters wanted to make it a memorable one for him. There were presents yet to wrap, a birthday cake to make and the dinning room to set up just for the party.

The one who seemed the busiest, was Sister Theresa. While she was about her usual chores, Sister Theresa was also busy putting the finishing touches to the sweater that she had made just for Zeke. Holding it up in front of her, she checked and rechecked every stitch and inch of the sweater and hoped that she hadn't made it to extremely large for him. Thinking that Zeke still might grow a few more inches before he quit growing, she had made the sweater two sizes larger than he was now. As she was looking for the furniture polish for the dinning room table, Sister Theresa was also looking for a box to put the sweater in, one that wouldn't give Zeke a clue as to what was in it.

Sister Bernadette was busy in the kitchen baking the cake and creating the different colors of icing that would decorate it. Chocolate is Zeke's favorite flavor, Sister Bernadette remembers with a smile of secrecy on her lips. One of the first things that she had done for the very young Zeke, when Social Services just dropped him in their laps, was to bake a chocolate cake just for him. The orphanage had hardly ever received children as old as Zeke was, he was nine years old, when they brought him in and Sister Bernadette knew that it was going to be hard for him to adjust to life there. She remembers the day she walked him to school and how the school didn't want to take him in hand because he didn't have real parents, there was a chocolate cake waiting for Zeke when she had brought him back to the orphanage. Sister Bernadette begins to chuckle out loud and says, "It is a miracle that Zeke isn't the size of the orphanage with all the food I got him to eat these past seven years."

"That's only because he shared all those treats with the other children, Bernie" Sister Elise quickly tells her. "But if you ask me, I think that you tried to spoil that child all by yourself."

"Well Ellie, someone had to look after the boy properly. His mother couldn't take care of him for a while and then she was killed in that car crash on her way to pick him up for a visit. That was the hardest thing, I think, that Mother Superior has ever had to do," Sister Bernadette replies.

Sister Margrette, who was on her hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor, says, "That was quite a tragic day for Zeke. He seemed to have adjusted to the situation quite well. Most children would have rebelled against the adults around them but, not Zeke. Instead, he jumped in with both feet and started to help all of us with the different things that we had to do around here."

"And that wasn't bad enough, that fall I took him to the school and enrolled him. I remember the fuss they gave me over Zeke not having any parents. They didn't want him there and didn't mind letting him know that. Zeke handled them though, and in a rather adult manner for a boy of nine." Sister Bernadette says as she smiles and has a distant look in her eyes, almost as if she is watching the events of that moment for the first time.

Sister Kathrine was fixing a special breakfast for that morning chimmed in, "I remember that morning. Mother Superior decided to have me fix Zeke's favorite breakfast and pack a special lunch on that day. When you got back from that school, you had sort of a strange experssion on your face."

"Oh? What might that expression have been?" Sister Bernadette questions.

"It was one of anger and pride all at the same time. You came in and walked straight to Mother Superior's office with such determination, that I would have been the first one to the celler if war broke out," Sister Kathrine replies.

"It wasn't THAT bad was it Kathy?" Sister Elise question.

"Oh no, not that bad... It was worse. Bernie stormed into the front hall and right into Mother Superior's office. I was on my way to the nusery with a tray of bottles and had to stop in my tracks before she knocked me and the bottles over." Sister Kathrine chuckled at the memory of that moment.

"I was as little hot under the collar that day. I was in a hurry to report to Mother Superior, that there might be swith the school but, as it turned out, Zeke took the matter in hand better than I would have. I was so angry with the principle of that school. Sorry about the near collision. When I came in that day, I hadn't noticed that you were there." Sister Bernadette adds.

"What is taking so long to get the breakfast to the table ladies? The children are up and beginning to set the table" Sister Maria says as she comes in from the dinning room.

"Maria, grab onto your habit and hang on. Breakfast is almost finished. It takes time to fix ham, bacon, sausage, pancakes and eggs. I got every frying pan in the kitchen going." Sister Kathrine snaps the reply.

"Sorry Kathy. I just want today to be special and to run without a hitch. We all still have a lot of work to do before the party this evening. Bernie, is the cake going to be large enough to feed twenty five hungry teenagers and the childrean here?" Sister Maria asks.

"Yes Maria, it is. As a matter of fact, there will be enough for everyone to have seconds of rather large pieces. I am making two large cakes. Zeke is a very popular young man and I want to make sure that there will be enough for even drop ins." Sister Bernadette answers with a smile.

The ladies then gather the trays of food and head for the dinning room to serve nineteen very young children and one very hungry teenager.

Just as Zeke sits at his usual place at the table, Mother Superior enters, "Clayton Anderson, stand to your feet" she orders with a hint of her Irish brogue.

Zeke, startled by the way she entered the room, quickly obeys the command and waits for Mother Superior to lower the boom of doom over him but, instead she takes him by the arm and escorts him to her place at the table and motions for him to sit in her chair. Not quite sure what she is expecting from him, he pulls out the chair as if she is the one who is to sit there, "Mother Superior, your seat awaits you," Zeke says with a charming smile on face.

"Oh no Clayton. Today that not be me seat, today it be your seat. At the head of the table to honor ye on this day as you come of age" Mother Superior remarks with a very stern look on her face. She takes her place beside the chair and again motions for Zeke to sit. It was a custom at the orphanage, that no one sat before Mother Superior and usually that was never changed. But on this day, Mother Superior was determined to change it just for the day. "Well boy, are ye going to stand there and look silly or are ye going to sit?" she asks.

Zeke nervously moves to the front of the chair and sits in it while Mother Superior moves to the back of the chair and pushes it in for him. "Thank you Mother Superior but I don't think...." Zeke begins to say but is stopped in mid sentence by Mother Superior holding her hand up to hush him.

Mother Superior begins the speech that she had been practicing for the past week, "Child, today be your birthday. Ye have been here the longest with us and our most prized child. On this day ye become a young man who is not quite old enough to be on his own but is too old to be treated as a child. I am proud that we were able to be a part of your growing into a fine young man but am sad for ye at the same time as we were unable to make it the same as a private home. Ye could have rebelled and ended up in a juvinille hall but ye didn't. Instead ye grew into a fine young man with the weight of the world on your wee shoulders. Even though the law says ye are still a child, we here know that ye are not, at least not in the legal sense of the word but, in every other way. Ye have made us very proud of you through the years and hope that ye will continue to correspond with us after ye have left us in a few years. I have here something that belongs to ye and it is time that I be turning it over to ye" she says and hands Zeke a envelope, then adds, "Breakfast is getting cold. Zeke would ye please say the blessing over the food?" and she goes to Zeke's usual seat and sits, folding her hands and bowing her head waiting for him to do the honors.

"Father in heaven. We thank you for this bountiful that you have placed before us. Please bless it and those who you used to prepare it for us. Make this food meet the needs of our bodies and may our appitites match. Amen," Zeke ends the prayer and looks around at those who were beginning to serve the children and he stands to give them a hand, as he was accustomed to doing. But on this day, Sister Bernadette placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head to let him know that he was to stay seated.

Zeke was the first one served and hesitated to begin to eat as he was use to waiting for Mother Superior to start.

"Eat up Clayton. Ye have school to attend yet and ye don't want to be late today do ye?" Mother Superior asks.

"No Ma'am, Mother Superior, I don't" Zeke says and shakes his head.

"Good then. Today be your day Clayton Anderson, so there will be NO chores for ye to be doing, and I don't want to hear an arguement from ye on the matter as it is a closed one. Ye have been doing so much for us over the time that ye have been with us, that I believe it is time that we did something for ye. Little as it is, we still can let you sit the day out and do whatever it is that you want after school but, be here at six. The sisters have planned a party for ye and there will be a few guests I need ye here for." Mother Superior says to him. She looks at him and gives him a rare smile.

The day went off without a hitch and the party was on a grand scale for the orphanage. His friends from school were there and all the smaller children even enjoyed the festivities. As Zeke laid on his bed thinking back to the day he first arrived at the orphanage, thoughts of the past seven years began to race through his head. He had secretly wished that he could have shared them with his own mother but, life didn't permit that so he did the best he could with what he had been handed. ' It wasn't to bad a life, all in all. It could have been worse,' he thought to himself. Then he remembered the envelope that Mother Superior had given him and took it from his notebook, where he had place it on his way to school. He had intended to open it before now but things had gotten busy with the different things that his teachers and friends had done with him. He opens the envelope and takes out the contents... With that, he knew that today was the first day of the rest of his life, today he had stepped from childhood into manhood in sixteen years...

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