21. Betty
21
BETTY
J ust over an hour later, I found myself back in the hotel lobby, sitting on a sofa meeting three of my new children. It was both exhilarating and terrifying but I was so here for it.
Keilani smiled tightly as I smiled gently at them.
“You’re really married to an alien?” Moana asked me, pushing a chunk of her dirty blonde bangs out of her eyes. They’d grown too long and she needed them trimmed. A quick glance at the two boys told me they could use a trim as well, their shoulder length hair looking dry with a lot of split ends. One of the reasons for the damaged ends quickly became readily apparent as Akoni lifted a lock and began to chew on the ends nervously. Maui quickly copied his brother.
“Yes, I am,” I replied brightly.
“Cool. Me and Maui are named after demi gods but we got no powers. Will we get alien powers, space guns and stuff when we go live on the spaceship?” Moana said next.
“They won’t give kids guns, Mo-mo,” Akoni admonished her, rolling his eyes as he let his hair fall from his mouth.
I laughed. “I’ve never seen any of them with any kind of a gun. I know they’re warriors and practice hula and sword fighting though.”
Akoni’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Sword fighting? Cool! How old do you have to be for that?”
I shrugged. “You can ask Proslo that when you see him.”
“When will that be?” he demanded, crossing his arms.
“After he’s done looking over Kaia and starts her on a treatment plan,” I explained. “So, maybe not until tomorrow.”
“We gotta sit here until tomorrow?” Maui asked, his brown eyes looking alarmed at the idea.
“No, no. We’re only sitting here until they have our new room ready. Proslo and I only had a room for two people so they are readying a suite for us. Right now though, how about we give your luggage to the concierge and he’ll have them taken to our new room as soon as it’s ready. We’ll go to the Plaza and buy some floaties and new swimsuits and go play in the pool.”
“Pool! I wanna go to the pool!” Moana shouted, jumping up, ready to go there right now.
“It seems you have things well in hand,” Keilani said, getting up to leave. “I’ll take the luggage over to the desk for you. I’m sure Akoni here will help you take the twins shopping.”
“Yeah, I’ve got ‘em,” he agreed with her, standing up and taking them by the hands.
I watched as the social worker took the small, battered cabin sized suitcases to the desk before getting the hell out of dodge as if she was afraid I’d change my mind and hand them back. Did people really do that?
I shook my head mentally. No, she likely was in a hurry to go help the next child on her far too long list of cases.
“Okay,” I said, keeping my smile fixed firmly to my face. “Let’s go have some fun!”
“We can’t get too much or it won’t fit in our cases when they come to get us again,” Akoni said. “The donated suitcases are hard to come by and I’d rather not lose mine because my stuff will only fit in a trash bag.”
My heart broke then but I pushed that right down. I could cry about it later. Right now, I needed to make them feel secure.
“No one will be coming to get you,” I told him firmly. “Didn’t Keilani explain? Once you’re with a Mylos family, that’s it. You’re adopted under the terms of the treaty and Mylos do not give up their kids. Not ever. Children are considered the universe’s greatest treasures.”
Akoni gaped at me. “Are you serious? I thought she was saying you guys were hoping to adopt us if you liked us, not that you’d already adopted us.” He looked panicked. “What if you find we don’t fit? What if you decide four kids are too much? Especially when one of them is super sick?”
I noticed he never asked if what if they didn’t like us. I filed that away for later.
“Yup, done deal. Same thing kinda happened to me. I went in to see if I was a match because I wanted the scholarship and bam! Alien married. But seriously, this is all the best thing to ever happen to me and I’m positive Proslo will tell you the same thing.”
“You’re our mommy for reals?” Moana asked me, pulling free of her brother’s hand and reaching her arms up.”
“I am,” I replied, picking her up, feeling positively giddy at how happy that made the both of us in this moment.
She flung her arms around my neck. “I have a mommy! My own forever mommy!”
“Me too!” Maui insisted. “She’s my mommy too!” He reached his arms up as well, wanting to be picked up.
“I can only carry one of you at a time,” I told him.
“I’ve got you,” Akoni said, coming to the rescue, scooping his little brother up. “Just so you know, he’s got a teddy bear in his case and she has a rag doll but that’s it. The toys we always get given at Christmas by the charity never make the move with us, but then again, a lot of the time they get broken or stolen by other kids so not worth taking anyway. So they’ll probably beg you for every toy they see thinking since you’re our mom now you’ll buy them.”
“Would you help me pick out some tonight? We can order it and beds and stuff so your rooms will be ready for you.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He was doing his best to sound aloof, but I saw the glimmer of excitement and hope in his eyes that he was trying his hardest to suppress.
“Great!” I said as we entered the Plaza. “I think first, we’ll find a place that does walk-ins and get our hair cut. I need a trim and I think Mo-mo could use her bangs trimmed shorter.”
“Yeah, okay.”
So far, so good, I thought to myself as I led us over to the directory sign. I can do this. Definitely.