West Three
Ethan
He is life. . . for us. . .
Holding Sarah close to me, my eyes slid shut in relief. Styx is good for Johnny. I could breathe again. That is, until I jolted hearing Harmony and Dale take a seat in the gazebo.
They didn’t mean to interrupt us. I think they were terribly scared for these fosters that were struggling so hard.
We never even admitted to being sore, having headaches, or aches from the accident.
Caleb lost his life. What the fuck did we have to bitch about as far as injuries?
Not that the Weathers could show up to a doctor or emergency room with five foster children who all sustained head injuries without authorities being involved.
Nope, we would be separated and off to new homes.
No can do.
However, the only pain we couldn’t hide was that in our hearts. And they were the wounds worrying the Weathers.
Once we all got to our feet and a quietly made our way to the gazebo, Harmony gently asked, “Could we have a quick family meeting now?”
After we all nodded wearily, we were led through the garage to the front driveway.
The errand Dale and Harmony had run was to pick up the next vehicle us Misfits were to share. Bertha had been totaled after Caleb’s accident. Not that any of us ever would have been able to ride in her again. There was no way. Caleb died after being thrown from her.
The memory of that night had my stomach threatening to—
“Surprise,” Harmony tried to be cheerful, but the celebration expired in her throat.
With her hand in the air to show us our gift, she observed five very gloomy faces staring at the much older red jeep.
It was metal. Not fiberglass. And it had a roll bar…
This ancient tank looked like it was an everlasting Tonka toy from the seventies.
The sun was setting behind Dale as he rested a hand on the hood, his expression full of sorrow since this wasn’t a happy moment. With hopelessness, he shrugged while telling us, “We thought you could come up with a name, like you did, uh… yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
I couldn’t move. Nothing about a new ride could spur me into joy. The reason we needed it was far too tragic. But for the lovable foster parents who refused to give up on us, I numbly named it: “Indestructible Tonka.”
Dale gazed at us, desperation present.
Damn, these two humans loved us dearly.
After a silent moment that seemed to linger, shoulders began to shrug as heads nodded in forlorn approval. Nothing had been indestructible for Caleb.
“Thank you,” Finn finally said, for all of us. He sounded one decimal above monotone. “We are grateful. Promise.”
Harmony held her chest with both hands, nodding. “We know it’s very soon to replace a vehicle, but this ‘flu’ you all have had can only buy you so much time away from school.”
I dreaded that truth.
Finn was attending college on a baseball scholarship yet wasn’t on any field since Caleb’s passing. Nor were any of us attending school. This pace couldn’t last, not for a bunch of foster kids. Harmony was correct. Alarm bells would ring soon.
Kristen must be working like mad to buy us more time. My head dropped. Kristen had looked so guilty when Johnny left this morning. Jesus. We haven’t even survived a full day yet.
Gage exhaled, almost begging while asking, “Please, just a little more time?” He shook his head. “Being in a car is the last place I want to be right now.”
I felt exactly the same. I felt like I was stuck in a car, driving across the world.
Plus, I simply didn’t know how to return to school and face peers all asking which new school Caleb had been transferred to. There was a possibility I would throttle them. Not fair, since they had no idea he was attending Heaven’s classroom now.
Luckily, Dale and Harmony gave us the time we asked for.
The next whole day we slept, all having dreams of peculiar things like streetlights, traffic signs, dashboard lights, the smell of bleach, fast food meals, and growing legs that kept wanting to cramp up due to being stuck in a car for too long.
And a cloaked man, but all we could see was his grey goatee blowing in the wind that didn’t exist.
Huddled in Finn’s room, we stared at our blood oath hands. “This has to be the why of it,” Finn insisted.
There was no arguing it. We were somehow linked. To what? We had no idea at this point.
Gage asked, “Is anyone feeling sick or… odd?”
Heads shook no because, other than some serious paranormal shit going down, we had no supernatural ailments.
I admitted, while grabbing my stomach, “Unsettled. Agitated… inside.” Then I looked around at my fellow fosters, hoping I wasn’t the only one.
Shoulders relaxed in a way that screamed a pathetic Oh, I’m so glad it’s not just me.
That night, maybe from sleeping all day or being scared of the unknown, I was restless, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling.
Or maybe it was the weird as fuck dream I’d just had.
From some sort of bridge I’d never seen, I’d been falling toward water, but in slow motion.
On the way down, the same figure, with a grey goatee, in a dark cloak, was standing in a wooden John boat, rowing his way past where I was going to land.
As he disappeared into a mist to my left, I crashed into an ocean.
And even though I’m normally buoyant in water, I kept falling, except now I was looking up instead of down, desperate for the surface that kept getting farther away.
While in the dream, my heart pounded as my lungs tightened, so hungry to inhale. Next thing I knew, I woke up, feeling as though I was choking on water that didn’t exist.
Plus, now I had an overwhelmingly strong urge to find someone. Sarah?
I knew I cared for Sarah more than I was supposed to, but she was literally in the same hallway as me.
Why was I so damn worried about her? Instead of rushing to her side, I decided to check on all the fellow fosters so that I wasn’t Sarah’s stalker, alone.
Yes, stalk them all to cover how much you want her. At all times. Fucking idiot.
Gage was safely sleeping in our room as I left to check on Sebastian first. As quietly as possible, I opened his door.
He was sleeping, but a phantom knife stabbed me in the fucking chest when I witnessed half his arm hanging off the side of the bed, his hand opening and fingers stretching as if trying to reach something.
I prayed Blue would use her wings and come down to hold it. I wish I could put her back in your arms, brother.
As I shut the door, he mumbled, “Zero-four-nine-nine.” Huh?
Next, I quietly opened Finn’s door. There was a day this would’ve sent him over the edge, me not having permission to enter, but Finn had changed. He was a part of us now. I was thankful. Johnny made that happen.
I jolted when he wasn’t in his room and was about to run down the stairs to search for him when I noticed Johnny’s door cracked open.
Ah, fuck. Somehow, I just knew where Finn had gone.
He had claimed to kiss Johnny. Kisses commonly have a romantic meaning behind them.
Maybe Finn was struggling more than we knew with Johnny leaving.
Doing my best not to let the attic stairs creak, I made my way up to find Finn sleeping in Johnny’s bed.
I grabbed my chest. Finn had lost a roommate before.
Now he lost Johnny. I had to try harder to fill voids.
Maybe I could start by moving his stuff to where he wants to be.
At least that would get him away from staring at an empty bed. Like Sebastian. Like—
In a slight rush, I went straight to Sarah. Her door was open, and what I saw had me coming to a stop. Sarah was in bed, on her side, staring at Blue’s empty bed. Like Seb, her arm hung half off the mattress, but her hand was holding her cell phone.
It sucked how Dale and Harmony had to leave extra beds in the rooms because of their foster status. If a child in need arrived, in the middle of the night like Johnny, late at night like Blue, they had to be ready.
I didn’t think Sarah had noticed me until she quietly said, “How can someone so small leave such a big hole?”
In her heart. I understood. My little sister.
I leaned against her doorway, crossing my arms because I still hadn’t recovered from that life-shattering loss. “I don’t know. It’s like dynamite. How it comes in small packages.”
Lifting her head from her pillow, Sarah looked at me with a bewildered expression. “Yes… Her light was beautifully explosive.”
“And, touching.” I tapped my chest. “Like my… sister. Could reach the deepest parts of me.”
I suddenly stood up straight, beyond shocked that I’d spoken of her out loud.
Sarah’s mouth gaped before she caught herself.
She didn’t mention it, though. Instead, she sat up in bed and said, “Blue felt like a little sister to me.” When I didn’t say anything, she added, “Blue loved being here. She said it felt like having sleepovers. Ones she never got to have.” I watched as she held her cellphone to her chest. “Before you came here, did you ever get to have a sleepover?”
I think there was such an unusual innocence in Sarah’s voice that I couldn’t help but reply with the truth. “No,” I said as I sat at the foot of her bed. “It was too dangerous in my home—” I startled. Why am I saying so much? Why am I talking about him?
“Was it your dad?”
If that’s what you could call the mean sonofabitch.
“Yeah.” Just thinking of him had me suddenly back in the burning house.
The heat found me everywhere I turned while frantically trying to find my little sister.
As if the flames in my past had somehow followed me into real life, I smacked at the embers burning my clothes and skin—
Sarah’s soft tone and touch on my arm helped anchor me back to reality. “Are you okay?”