Dove

Prologue

– AGE SEVEN

“Do you wanna play?” Dove asked the little boy with the sad, dark eyes. She had never seen eyes so dark and so sad.

She had just finished a hopscotch drawing on the sidewalk, and he stood across the street, watching her. She had crossed over after looking left and right to make sure no cars were coming. When she extended her hand and tried to introduce herself, he had just stared.

He was one of the new kids in the neighborhood, and he was a part of the Reed family. He, along with his sister and brother, had been there for almost a week now. Everyone knew that the Reeds didn’t have kids of their own, but they often took in kids whose parents couldn’t take care of them.

Dove didn’t understand what it meant to have parents who couldn’t take care of them. She was glad that her and Ivy’s parents were always there to take care of them and love them. Who would go to their school plays, dance recitals, or gymnastics performances if not their parents?

The only thing that she knew was this kid wasn’t like the rest of the kids who came to visit the Reeds.

A lot of the kids were mean, sometimes shy, and sometimes really loud and ghetto.

While she wasn’t sure what it was, Dove knew there was something different about this kid—something special.

It wasn’t just the fact that he had a headful of thick, kinky, long hair that was braided and stopped in the middle of his back.

She had never seen a boy with hair so beautiful.

There was something unique about him. Something inside of her made her want to protect him and stick up for him.

“He doesn’t talk. What makes you think he’ll wanna play? He’s weird,” Jacob Brown, from down the street, declared. He came to a stop in front of them. He had been walking and bouncing a ball with his friend, Ollie Johnson.

“Yeah, he sits there and stares all the time. My brother said he can’t talk. He’s deaf and dumb,” Ollie Johnson pronounced, taking the ball from Jacob and bouncing it.

“Jake, who are you calling weird? You’re seven, and you still sleep with the night-light on, and you lick the jelly off your peanut butter and jelly sandwich before you put them together and eat them.

And Ollie, you’re the dumb one. You got kept back last year.

If he was deaf, he wouldn’t turn his head to look at me whenever I’m talking to him,” Dove argued.

She had planted her hands on her hips because she was angry.

“Take it back!” Ollie replied. He moved the ball underneath one arm and shoved her with his free hand.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to hit girls!” Dove shouted.

“You’re not a girl. You’re a freak. A freak who likes deaf and dumb idiots!” Ollie yelled and shoved her again, but this time, he made her fall onto the sidewalk.

Dove jumped up to defend herself, but before she could do anything, the Reed kid had jumped up. He snatched the ball from Ollie, bounced it hard against Ollie’s face, and caused his nose to bleed.

She was sure his nose was broken. She had never seen so much blood in her life. He shoved Ollie onto his back, sat on his chest, and in the middle of the sidewalk, he pummeled Ollie in the head and face.

Ollie cried, and all Dove could do was stare in astonishment.

She had never seen a little kid fight the way that this kid did.

Most kids just shoved or smacked each other.

This kid was all fists and fury. She looked up to see Jacob running down the street, and she sighed because he was no help.

It wasn’t until the kid’s siblings came running out of the Reeds’ house that she was able to say something.

“Stop! Please stop!” she called out to the kid.

He jerked his head and turned in her direction. Slowly, as his sister and brother came to a halt beside him, he climbed off Ollie, who was crying. Ollie jumped up and shouted, “I hate you! You’re still a freak, you and Dove!” He turned around and ran down the street.

“Man, what are you doing? You wanna get us kicked out of here?” The oldest brother scolded his younger brother and grabbed the kid’s arm.

“Hey! Ease up on him,” the sister fussed at her older brother.

“If I don’t be hard on him, we’re all gonna be separated. You want that?” the older brother asked his sister.

She shook her head, and tears pooled in her eyes.

Dove’s heart lurched in her chest, and she spoke up in a pouty voice.

“The Reeds wouldn’t do that. Send him away, I mean.

They have lots of kids coming and going, and they never send any of them away.

Not even the kid that stole their car and smashed it into another car. ”

Three sets of sad eyes turned her way. With a slight shrug of his shoulders and sticking his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans, the older brother replied, “Still. He can’t go around beating kids up.” He grabbed the younger brother by the shoulders and pushed him toward the house. “Let’s go.”

Dove sadly watched the three new kids head back toward the house. Before they climbed the last step, she ran as fast as she could, with her lungs burning and sucking in all the oxygen they could get. Her skinny arms pumped hard to push her little body faster. “Wait!” she shouted.

The three siblings stopped just inside of the doorway. She ran up the steps and stuck her hand out. She had done the same thing earlier just before Ollie and Jacob joined them.

“Hi, I’m Dove Flowers, and I’m seven. What’s your name?”

The kid stared at her outstretched hand before he looked into her eyes. Slowly, his eyes came to life, and a snaggletoothed grin stretched his remarkable features.

He looked at her hand and then looked at her. “I’m Reighvyn. I’m seven too.”

Dove’s eyes lit up. “Like the bird—raven?” she asked excitedly.

He nodded.

“Only our mama spells his name R-e-i-g-h-v-y-n,” the girl explained. “And I’m Paloma, and that’s Wryn.”

“A whole family of birds!” Dove exclaimed excitedly.

Paloma bobbed her head. “Yep, and our last name is Bloom. Like what your flowers do.”

That made Dove smile even brighter, and her heart danced in her chest. That was what made him so unique.

God had created him special, just like her.

They both had bird names, pretty last names, and they were seven in the second grade.

Besides, nobody had ever taken up for her before and protected her like this boy had—nobody but her daddy.

“Do you want to be my best friend, Reighvyn?” Dove asked.

“Yep,” Reighvyn replied shyly.

“This is the first time he’s talked since we left home with Mama,” Paloma explained.

That also made Dove smile.

“We’d better go,” Wryn declared, opening the door and shoving his siblings inside.

Dove hoped she and Reighvyn could be best friends forever.