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Sixteen
Noah lifted his sister like he had millions of times before. If he didn’t, he was afraid she’d break his neck. Nova clung like a monkey sometimes.
When she was afraid and stuff.
“I thought you went to that heaven place, too,” she said around her tears. Whenever she cried, her eyes turned a weird blue and red. He just hugged her tight.
He thought she’d be gone forever. That bad things would happen to her and he’d never see her again. Or she’d be adopted by people who wouldn’t even care about her having a brother, who would change her name and make her forget her family completely and he’d never find her again.
But she was ok. She was in new pajamas he’d never seen before. And she was clean. A lot of the kids at the group home hadn’t been very clean. He’d been allowed a shower every other day when his name was on the list. But he’d felt weird in the stalls with the older boys right on the other side, so he’d tried to stay by the door and wash himself as fast as he could, where no one could watch. He’d kept thinking the group home was what prison had to be like.
Her hair was brushed and braided, too. She even smelled good, for once.
He’d never been able to braid her hair very good, but he’d tried.
He sat down in the chair. It wasn’t cool to be holding a little kid like he was, but all the grown-ups had left.
It was ok for now. He really didn’t care, anyway. “Are you ok? Did anybody hurt you?”
He’d heard other stories of what happened to little kids in some of the worst foster homes that had terrified him. For her. Nova couldn’t protect herself from anybody.
That was his job, anyway.
“There was a mean lady at the last place. Before here. Here we have a Robin. She’s really nice, and she holds me every time I ask. But she’s not my daddy’s wife. I have a Daddy now instead of a Mommy.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “But that’s ok. I do miss my old mommy.”
“I know.” He did, too. Most of the time she’d just wanted him and Nova to stay out of her way, but she was his mom.
He missed her constantly. She was dead. She wasn’t ever coming back.
He didn’t think Nova really understood that, though.
“Robin bought me my own pillows. And blankets for my bed. And lots of new clothes. And I got a pillow pet. You got a baseball pillow. We got you blankets, too. But she said to wait until you could pick out the stuff to put on your walls. And we waited on clothes for you so you could pick them out yourself. In case what we found wasn’t cool or didn’t fitted you. My new Robin bought me some toys. For my room. I got my own room now. She said my new daddy could paint it pink if I want. And could paint yours green. Since green is your favorite color.”
Nova was ok. Talking nonstop like she always did.
“We’re going to stay here for a while, my new daddy Nick said,” Nova said quietly. “Until he fixes his bigger house and we move there. That’s where we’re going to live forever. That’s what he promised. And we can get a puppy when we move there.”
“Is he nice to you?”
“Uh-huh. But he had stuff to do today so I went with my Robin to the store. Where we getted the clothes.”
“Do you want to stay here?” Noah didn’t know what he’d do if she said she didn’t. He had thought about running away from the group home, but that had been to find her.
There was no way he could run away and take a six-year-old with him. There just wasn’t. He’d be ok on his own, but she wouldn’t. Nova had to stay here.
Noah took his first real look around the house.
It was really clean and looked like some of the houses he saw on those shows his mom used to watch on the house station, but a lot smaller. She’d watch them and say how sad she was that she didn’t have one. That she’d given up those dreams to have him and Nova and take care of them instead. He felt a bit guilty that he and Nova got to live here now and she wouldn’t.
“Come on, Noah. I want to show you my room. My Robin washed my blankies. My Robin took me to McDonald’s, too. Like Sophie and Cammie got to go sometimes. And we got toys. Lots of toys!”
Noah didn’t know what else to do. He followed her down the hall.
“That’s your room. It’s really, really big. This one is mine.” She pushed open a door and walked in. There was a pink-and-purple blanket covering a real bed. That old doll he bought her rested on the pillows. He almost cried seeing that stupid thing.
Nova had never had a real bed before. There were toys on the floor next to it, some still in boxes.
The room was ok. It was white, not pink, but it was Nova’s.
She was ok.
That was finally starting to sink in.
“Come on. I’ll show you your room, too.” She was yanking on his hand, almost excitedly. Noah followed.
He didn’t care about a stupid room.
