Sunday, November 17, 2019

The Church

 Kate looked up at the kaleidoscope of colors filtering through the stained glass windows and stretched her aching back. It has been a long few weeks of renovations, and dust particles danced in the beams of light. 
Glancing around she surveyed her work. The crew had today off, so she had taken the opportunity to tidy. The newly sanded floor was ready for a coat of gleaming varnish. Pipes stuck out from the floor and wall waiting for appliances. The wooden cabinets sat in a clump nearby awaiting their final placement and the heavy marble counter would be arriving tomorrow to be fit over the top. 
The large open fireplace in the middle of the room split the massive space and when lit would add an air of coziness when lit. 
She closed her eyes and began to picture where each piece of furniture would go. This was an exercise she had done the first time she had stepped into this drafty old church. She was inspired by the stained glass, high ceilings, and the feeling of peace the old building had invoked. 
Weeks later, she was so close to finally being able to move in. So close to finally having a space large enough to share. 


‘Coming!’ shouted Kate as she heard the chimes of the doorbell ringing out. 
She brushed the worst of the dirt of her hands as she rushed around from the back yard where she was working on planting the lavender and wildflowers in rich soil. 
Standing on the front step was a rather confused looking woman in her 50’s looking like she was on her way to a board room in a charcoal pants suit and carrying a leather case. 
‘Ms. Walter?’ she queried ‘I was sure I had the wrong address, this looks rather more like a church than a house.’ 
The questioning look and wrinkle in her forehead were quite concerning to Kate, but she forced her sunny smile back in place and rushed to open the door.
‘I’m so sorry to keep you waiting, Mrs. Matthies wasn’t it? I wasn’t expecting you quite so early this afternoon. Do come in and look around while I scrub this dirt of my hands and then I’ll give you the grand tour.’ 
She ushered the social worker into the large open space that comprised the first floor of her home. Glancing surreptitiously at her as they stepped into the room to see if the sun streaming through the large stained glass windows above had any kind of impact on the tightly wound older woman. 
Mrs. Matthies raised an eyebrow as she glanced around, but otherwise kept her poker face in place. 
As she prowled the room Kate quickly scrubbed her hands clean at the kitchen sink and pulled the pitchers of refreshingly cold lemonade and iced tea from the fridge to set them on the island next to the jar of homemade cookies. 
‘Mrs. Matthies, I see you have found the library’ she said as she made her way up to the raised area that used to house the pulpit. Tall bookshelves encircled the space with comfortable chairs surrounding a table in the center. Books, her passion, filled the shelves. Mysteries, histories, theologies, psychologies, books on educational theory, string theory, and music theory, books for children, and books for adults, Kate loved books and this space was the beating heart of the home.
She set the tray with beverages and cookies on the round table and turned to Mrs. Matthies while extending her hand.
‘Kate Walter, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Sorry to keep you waiting. And please, call me Kate.’
‘Mary Matthies,’ the woman responded shaking her hand and glancing to the tray. ‘And if you are sharing that delightful looking lemonade I suppose you can call me Mary.’ 
Kate quickly filled a glass and handed it over.
‘Well then, Mary, would you prefer to sit and chat first, or the tour?’ 
‘I confess myself quite curious to see the rest of this interesting home.’ She said, downing her lemonade ‘then we can return here and go over the paperwork.’ 
‘Of course!’ Kate said brightly, ecstatic that Mary had expressed interest in her rather creative home. ‘As I mentioned on the phone as well, it is still a work in progress, but this is the library/office.’ 
She led the way down the three shallow steps to the main floor. 
‘Over here on our right is the kitchen. All of the required safety features are present, and the smoke detector is right here.’ 
Mary followed along making notes on her clipboard, the rest of her leather case staying behind in the ‘library’ as the fanciful girl had called it.
‘Here is the dining area, though to be truthful, I usually prefer eating at the kitchen island’ Kate continued in a wide circle around the large space. 
‘Over here is the only computer in the house. I think it best to keep surfing the internet and/or gaming to the public spaces. I know that some schools require laptops or tablets, so there is a charging station here so that there  is no need for devices to go upstairs.’ she said indicating a section at the side of the desk with slots for devices. 
‘Speaking of upstairs, if we come back toward the front door here…’ she led the way towards a set of stairs leading up from the vestibule. 
‘Here are the bedrooms’ she said indicating a hallway that had once led to Sunday school classrooms. 
The doors stood open allowing sunshine to bathe the hallway. While a couple rooms stood empty, two rooms boasted tidily made twin beds covered with cheerful quilts. Both rooms contained a dresser, a nightstand, an empty shelf, and a lamp. White curtains fluttered in the breeze at the open windows giving them a cheery lived-in feel despite the emptiness. 
‘You will find the fire escape under those windows is up to code’ Kate added as she indicated the view through the windows. 
‘And where is your room?’ queried Mary.
‘This way’ Kate led her back down the hallway past the open doors and past a second set of stairs ascending into darkness. Before noticing that Mary had stopped. 
‘What is up here?’ Mary stood gazing curiously up the dark stairs.
an attic. Dusty but empty. However, the view from the window is quite lovely if you have the time?’ 
They strolled up the stairs and gazed out over the town from the third floor window.
‘I’m surprised you haven’t used this space. It is lovely’ Said Mary. 
‘I think of it as the attic of possibilities and legal nightmares’ laughed Kate. ‘It would be a perfect playroom or bedroom, but I have yet to come up with a way of getting a stable fire escape up here without blocking the stain glass windows below.’ 
They ventured back down to the second floor and turned away from the children’s bedrooms to find a spacious master bedroom and bath next to another staircase leading back to the main floor where a piano sat surrounded by music stands, a guitar, and a saxophone. 
‘You play?’ asked Mary 
‘Poorly but with great enjoyment’ grinned Kate. Music is food for the soul.’ 
With that, and a glance at the living/sitting area next to a large stone fireplace, they made their way back to the library, tall glasses of chilled lemonade, chocolate chip cookies, and the joy of paperwork. 


Kate paced the floor as Mya and Cinder, her dogs, watched with great interest. She probably should have put them in the backyard again before Samuel got there. There was no saying how he would react to them. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Their calming presence was needed to calm her frayed nerves. 
Today was the day her first foster child would arrive. She acknowledged that this was a rather odd dream, but it was a day she had dreamed of for years. It was why she had bought this drafty old church and sunk most of a decade’s worth of savings into turning it into the home it was. 
Mya and Cinder glanced towards the door and lifted their ears. She spun and rushed to the door. Glancing back to make sure everything was in place. 
She waited next to the door for the chimes to ring, took a deep breath, smiled, and opened the door to find Mary and a sullen young boy with a dark mop of hair that shielded his eyes.
‘Mary, Samuel, come in, come in!’ 
‘Can’t stay I’m afraid,’ sighed Mary. ‘I’ve got one more placement to make tonight. You both have my number if you need me.’
She handed a bag to Kate and crouched in front of Samuel. ‘You know I will always answer, but please no pirate attacks, alien abductions, or monsters this time ok? Try to get through till Friday. I’ll be by then for a check-in.’ 
Samuel grunted and turned away. 
Kate watched Mary jog back to the idling car and sent up a quick prayer for patience, the right words to say before turning back to the boy. 
‘Well Samuel, why don’t we grab a bite of dinner and I’ll give you the grand tour.’ 
‘Your house is creepy and weird,’ mumbled Samuel as he sighed and trudged through the front door. 
‘It certainly is a bit bizarre’ Kate smiled ‘but I hope in a good way.’ 
She turned and led the way into the main room. 
‘Mary said you were a fan of grilled cheese and tomato soup so that’s what we have for tonight, but it will be about 20 minutes till everything is ready. Why don’t we meet the other two residents of the house, get you settled in your room, and then you can explore till dinner is ready?’ 
‘Whatever’ Sam mumbled before turning to look at her suspiciously ‘what other residents? Mary said I was your first pathetic cast-off and you aren’t allowed to have random people live with you. The rules say so.’ 
Kate smiled ‘First, you are absolutely right, no random people living here, Second, you are right again, you are my first, but most importantly, I have not for a  moment thought of you as a pathetic cast-off and I guarantee Mary has never thought that about you either.’ 
She whistled and patted her leg causing a flurry of paws and claws over the hardwood floors. 
‘Samuel, meet our housemates. This is Mya,’ she said gesturing to the small fluffy dog excitedly wagging her tail‘ and this is Cinder’ she said gesturing towards the more stoic large grey dog with one blue and one brown eye. 
‘They are both friendly, but if they make you uncomfortable let me know.’
Samuel looked at her with the first spark of interest he had showed since entering the door.
‘How… how do I… am I allowed to pet them?’ 
‘Here’ she knelt down and signaled the dogs to sit. 
Gently taking his hand she guided his fingers before each dog’s nose receiving a sniff and a quick lick before smoothing his palm over their sides and backs. 
Samuel looked up a bit shy.
‘Thanks.’ 
Kate smiled and grabbed his bags. ‘Why don’t they join us on the tour? Come on girls! We have a new family member and he needs to see our crazy weird house.’ 
Turning and gesturing for Sam to follow Kate set off for the steps by the door with the dogs close behind. 
Sam followed behind curious what else this odd house could have in store for him. 
They walked past the open doors of the empty rooms and Sam peered in trying to fathom having so much space that rooms literally sat empty. 
‘Here is your room’ chirped Kate standing outside and waiting for Sam to go in first. 
‘Um… thanks… you can just… you know… leave the stuff’ he glanced uncomfortably at the small bag she carried and looked to the empty shelf and dresser wondering what on earth she thought he had in this bag that would take up so much space. 
‘Of course!’ Kate knocked on the door ‘May I enter?’ 
‘Um… it’s YOUR house’ Sam rolled his eyes.
‘Yes,’ Kate answered seriously ‘but this is YOUR room, and I will not enter it without your permission unless I am worried about your safety. As you do not appear to be dying at the moment…’ she cocked her head to the side and pretended to search him for wounds ‘… I will wait for an invitation.’
The both stared at each other till Sam realized she was freaking serious and gestured for her to come in. 
‘Thank you!’ Kate said setting his bag on the end of the bed. 
Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a ring of keys and handed it to him. 
‘This one’ she gestured to a shiny modern looking key with an orange plastic ring around the top ‘is for the front and back door to the house. This one’ she gestured to a similar one with blue ‘will open the deadlock on the front door. The green one is the deadlock on the backdoor. And this one’ she brought up the odd looking old-fashioned key is for your secret drawer.’ 
She walked to the dresser and indicated an oddly shaped hole which he fitted the strange key into and turned. A very normal looking drawer was revealed. 
‘It’s just a drawer’ Sam rolled his eyes again. ‘What on earth makes this a secret drawer?’ 
‘Because you hold the only key,’ she answered brightly ‘so anything you put inside is a secret.’ 
And with that she turned and walked out of the room followed by the wagging tails of Mya and Cinder. 
‘Come on!’ she called back over her shoulder, ‘so much more to see!’ 
They spent the next fifteen minutes walking over every inch of the house and pointing out the locations of extra bedding, towels, etc… 
Kate left Sam in the library and headed back to the kitchen to finish dinner. 
‘Explore’ she called from the kitchen. ‘Feel free to poke around and snoop.’ 
As she put the finishing touches on dinner she called for Sam to join her and set their food out on the kitchen island. 
As he came into the kitchen she gestured towards the sink and suggested washing up while she grabbed glasses and silverware. 
Once she had each person’s selected beverage she sat and turned to Sam. Before I eat I pray. I would appreciate it if you would join me in prayer, but if that makes you uncomfortable feel free to just wait quietly till I finish.
Sam looked at her like she had lost her mind, but she smiled, bowed her head, and spoke. 
‘Dear God, thank you for the beautiful day, the sunshine, and the food before us. Thank you for bringing Samuel here and giving me a house to share with others. Please guide our conversation and help us to draw closer to you each day. In your precious and holy name, Amen.’ 
‘Um… am I supposed to say something too?’ he asked in a quiet voice.
‘That’s entirely up to you! Sometimes people just echo the ‘Amen’ as if to say ‘yeah, what she said’. Some people like to prayer their own words. You can do it out loud, or quietly, or, if you don’t want to talk to God right now, you don’t have to do anything.’ She smiled again trying to convey that whatever he chose was ok. 
‘Um… what she said’ he said with a bit of a laugh. ‘Now what?’ 
‘Now, we eat!’ 
That night as they ate they filled out a ‘like and dislike’ sheet for their favorite and least favorite foods and planned out menus for the rest of the week. 
After dinner they took the dogs for a walk and talked about their favorite and least favorite activities. 
And after the walk they sat in the library and talked about their favorite and least favorite books and topics for study. After a few minutes Kate began prowling around the shelves and asking questions like 
‘Do you prefer books with children as the main characters or adults?’  (um… both? I guess?) 
‘Do you prefer  nonstop action, a puzzle that has to be solved, or a story that could really happen? (action and puzzles) 
‘Have you read this? Or this? Or this?’ 
By the end of fifteen minutes she had built a pile of fifteen books (among them some of her favorites, ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,’ ‘The Sorcerer’s Stone,’ ‘Magyk,’ ‘The Ranger’s Apprentice,’ ‘The House of the Scorpion,’ ‘The Goodness Gene,’ ‘The Hobbit’ and a pile of non-fiction centering on war throughout history). She then asked permission to enter his room again and the four of them walked back upstairs. 
The sun was setting and the room was bathed in a rosy glow as she proceeded to the bookcase and filled a shelf with the books she had brought. 
‘Any of these you like are yours to keep. If you try one and don’t like it just set it back on the table in the library and I’ll return it to its former spot. Now, do you want or need any help unpacking? Or would you rather I leave you alone?’ 
‘Um… I can do it.’ 
‘Ok, now before I go, tomorrow feel free to sleep in as much as you want. When you wake we will talk through the schedule of the next week and then head out shopping. We need groceries for the meals we planned, and we will need to grab you some school supplies since school stars on Monday. If there is anything else you need, PLEASE feel free to ask. You remember from the tour where my room is if you need anything during the night. I promised I would go and let you unpack and get ready for bed, but do you want Cinders to stay? She’s a great listener, good bed warmer, and pretty excellent guard dog.’ 
‘I’d like that.’ 
‘Goodnight Samuel. Goodnight Cinders. If she starts to leave just call her back, or shut the door.’ 
And with that Samuel was left alone in yet another room to open his pathetic sack of clothes he hated that the state had provided him, with a photo album that was too painful to look at, a tattered baseball glove the dad he barely remembered had given him back before he was arrested, and three years of emotional bagged from bouncing around foster homes. 
He shoved the clothes in an empty drawer, locked away the photo album and glove in the ‘secret drawer,’ and turned to look at the bookshelf. There was no way he would be able to sleep yet after this bizarre, but in a good way, day so he grabbed a book, plopped down on the bed, and Cinder joined him where he read till he fell asleep. 


The next morning dawned bright and clear and Kate was up with the sun. She meandered down  the kitchen to make some cinnamon rolls and contemplate how to gently have the conversations that needed to happen today. It was obvious Samuel was in need of almost everything. Mary had hinted that his previous foster family was not going to be sending much of anything useful, but the tiny amount of luggage (if it could be called that) he arrived with didn’t even include a backpack, and based on the weight and squishiness of the bags she was pretty certain there were no toiletries or extra shoes either. 
As the cinnamon rolls baked she prayed and considered how best to approach these issues.
An hour later a bleary eyed Samuel appeared accompanied by Cinder who trotted away to the back door to join Mya in frolicking around the yard. 
‘Good morning Samuel’ Kate smiled and offered him a cinnamon roll and a glass of orange juice. 
As he ate she assembled her supplies for the conversations ahead. 
‘Alright, we have a few things to go over before we head out to shop. First, chores. This table contains every task that needs to be done daily, weekly, or monthly, to keep our home running smoothly. As we are the only ones living here, we will need to divide them up. Each week we can sit down and reevaluate and make any trades we want to. Some of these might be new to you, but that’s ok, I will teach you and they are all important skills for a person to have. While I wash up the breakfast dishes why don’t you look over the chart and see which ones you are most interested in.’ 
She turned to the sink hoping that this would go well and that he would not resent being asked to help around the house. She firmly believed that chores were are great way to teach personal responsibility as well as instill a work ethic. If he was going to feel that this was HIS home than he needed to have some ownership over it and not live like a guest in his own home. 
She turned back to find him staring at his lap. 
‘Are you ok Samuel?’ 
‘Yeah, I don’t want to talk about it.’ 
‘Did I upset you? Or is it something else.’ 
‘Something else.’ 
‘Ok. I won’t pry. Let’s divvy these up. Now I assume you are going to want ‘Clean Samuel’s room’ so that I’m not banging around in your room yes?’ 
‘Yeah’
‘Are there any others you wanted?’ 
‘Can you do them like you did the books? I liked the books you picked. I read ‘The Goodness Gene’ last night and started ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.’’ 
‘Sure! Do you prefer being inside or outside?’ 
‘Do you prefer standing still or moving around?’
‘Do you prefer starting a project or finishing a project?’ 
And so the questions continued until Samuel ended up with several active and outdoor chores and a variety of indoor chores to try out including one night of cooking per week, two nights of washing dishes, doing his own laundry and cleaning his own room, and sweeping the second floor. 
‘Excellent! Now that we have that out of the way onto shopping. Anything you would like to add to the shopping list?’ 
‘I’m fine.’ 
‘Alright, to the car!’ 
Once they arrived at the store she steered them into the school supply section. 
‘Alright, now, here is a list of the required materials for your school, why don’t we gather them first so we can be ready for Monday and then we can move on to the rest of the list?’
As she named each item she watched him agonize over each purchase, selecting the cheapest possible option and often looking at her as if to see if she was upset by the cost. Several times she intervened trading the cheap item for a slightly more expensive but higher quality item. After all, what good is an eraser that doesn’t erase? Or a pencil case that will be broken by next week? 
Once they had found each item on the list he breathed a sigh of relief, looking like he had just escaped execution. She led them to the backpacks next. 
‘These aren’t on the list.’ Sam said. 
‘Perhaps not, but it would be awfully hard to get all those items to and from school without a bag.’ She answered with a wry smile. 
‘It’s… it’s fine. I’ll just use a shopping bag.’ 
‘Samuel, look at me. We are buying a backpack. We are also buying an alarm clock, some new clothes that you will pick out, and anything else you need. AND just so you know, these things are YOURS. Not mine. You aren’t borrowing them from me. They are YOURS. And if you don’t pick things out I am going to so we will end up spending just as much money but you will end up with things that you don’t particularly like. So instead, let’s enjoy this. You find things you actually want, and I will enjoy spending time with you. Deal?’ 
‘But backpacks are so expensive! And they break!’ 
‘Well certainly they break! Most things do, eventually. However, if you buy a quality one like these ones over here they will last you a good long time. This one looks a bit small for all the things you need to carry. This one the straps look far too narrow and would probably dig into your shoulders. Personally I would probably pick one of these three. Sturdy, comfortable looking, and fairly spacious. Thoughts?’ 
‘Um…’ 
‘Here, try them on! Let’s pile a few notebooks in each of them so you can see what they feel like with a bit of weight to them.’ 
Several minutes later and a surprising amount of laughter as they took turns prancing around with the backpacks on he settled on one and placed it reverently in the cart. He would never admit it to her, but this was the first time he would be walking into school on the first day with everything on the list and it was definitely the first time he had owned a brand new backpack. His mom had been sick as long as he remembered and his dad had been in jail for years. 
Neither of them had really been able to take him school shopping. And his previous foster families he had been in and out of so rapidly that they had never really felt any need to buy him things. And when they did, they made SURE he knew how much it was costing them..
‘Ok, school supplies and a backpack. Do you eat school lunch? Or do you want to bring lunch? Do we need a lunchbox?’ 
‘I get school lunch. Didn’t Mary tell you? The government pays for it.’ 
‘Yes, well, if you enjoy eating school lunch that is fine. If you decide you would rather pack lunch, let me know! Now, clothes. You are going to need clothes for school, clothes for working, clothes for sleeping, and clothes for dressy events. You also will need underwear, socks, and a few pairs of shoes. The list is long, so let’s get moving!’
Thanking the good Lord above that all of the clothing items for boys his size are all kept in the same area of the store she herded him through racks of clothes urging him along till the cart was filled with an assortment of clothing items. She then got a changing room and piled all his prospective purchases inside. 
‘Ok, try everything on. Stuff you decide to keep goes over here, stuff you decide you don’t want goes over here. I’m going to run to the other side of the store and grab the groceries while you try things on. Please stay in the changing room so I don’t lose you, ok? I’ll be right back.’ 
He looked with horror at the gigantic pile of clothes on the bench in front of him. She wanted him to try them all on? This would take FOREVER! However, she had been far too nice the last two days for him to want to anger her now over something so little, so one by one he picked up the items and tried them on. 
A short eternity later, he had finished. 
‘Samuel, how’s it going?’ 
He opened the door to show her the two neat piles. 
‘Ok, let’s go through the keep pile as you put them into the cart. Let’s see school clothes first.’ 
After checking to make sure he had, in fact, put enough items in the keep pile to keep him clothed for at least a week and spending a bit more time to find a dress shirt he felt he could actually be forced into wearing they checked out and headed home. 
At the checkout Kate thought Samuel was going to become physically ill. He stood there the whole time watching the numbers on the till go higher and higher with the purchase total for the day. He kept looking at Kate as if she was going to turn into a monster at any second as soon as she noticed how much he had cost her. However, she chatted amiably with the cashier, paid the total, and turned to ask him if he remembered where they had parked the car. 
Back at the house Sam sat in his room surrounded by his purchases. He peeled labels and pulled tags off each item and carefully organized his new clothes into the dresser. He slipped the tags and labels into his ‘secret drawer’. He felt silly keeping them, they certainly weren’t valuable, and he couldn’t exactly have put into words why he wanted them, but they were a good reminder of a day when his opinion had mattered more than money. 
As he emptied the bags he kept finding surprises too. Things he had glanced at in passing as they were walking through the store had somehow ended up in the cart. There was a movie poster he had admired that featured his favorite superheroes, the soccer ball he had run his fingers over, a comic book he had picked up while waiting for her to decide on an alarm clock, a candy bar he had gazed at while they waited in the checkout line, and several school supplies that were most definitely not on his required list but were pretty cool.
He contemplated putting them in his secret drawer to treasure them, he contemplated taking them downstairs and returning them to her to prove he wasn’t greedy, he contemplated keeping them and displaying them proudly in his room. In the end, Kate arrived at the door with yet another bag and a smile and helped solve the problem by insisting that she would accept none of them back, and would be incredibly pleased if he chose to use them. 
She then presented him with a bag filled with soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, brushes, and everything else a person could possibly need to be squeaky clean. The bathroom supplies were placed on his dresser for him to sort through when he got around to it, the alarm clock set and placed on the nightstand, and the rest of the items were sorted into the backpack, dresser, or shelf. 
After another lap of the neighborhood with the dogs they each built a sandwich in the kitchen and settled in the library to eat, read, and enjoy some calm after all the changes and emotions of the last twenty-four hours. It was a quiet and contemplative house that evening. 


Sam woke on Sunday with Cinder sprawled beside him and the sun streaming across his pillow. His dressy outfit was set out on his dresser for church this morning. The thought sent him right back into a panic. The same panic he had been trying to hide since Kate mentioned going to church before they went to bed last night.
Samuel had been to church once in his life. Once. And that was for his mother’s funeral.
It was one of the worst days of his life and he was going to have to try to relive it. He was absolutely NOT looking forward to it. He had already run through every possible option to get out of it. 
He could pretend to be sick. Which would include lying and possibly making her angry with him.
He could run away. And be drug back by whichever cop caught him this time. Mary would probably move him again after that.
He could fight. He could tell her he refused to go. And she might hate him. 
He could go. And die of the awfulness of it. 
And he had no idea why, but for some reason he was leaning towards the going and dying option. His mom had always lived in fear and it had eventually killed her. Maybe facing his wouldn’t be fatal. Maybe it would be. He was going to find out today. 
‘Goodness Samuel, you look like you swallowed something bitter. Everything ok this morning?’
‘Fine.’ 
“Hm. I can see that that is not true. And I’m not a fan of us lying to each other. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s ok. I won’t force you. But just tell me that it’s not something you can talk about right now. You don’t have to pretend to be fine when you aren’t. Ok?’ 
He gave her that look again. The one that made her wonder if her head was on upside down or if she had sprouted antenna. It made her smile. She knew her approach was a bit bizarre. But hopefully in a good way. 
‘Ok’ he finally said as he sat down to eat his breakfast. 
The mood continued to be somber as they got in the car and headed down the road. 
‘Samuel, is it ok if I tell you a bit about what is going to happen when we get there?’
She took his silence as approval and continued. 
‘When we go in people are going to greet us and hand us papers and ask us questions. Since this is the first time you have been here, they are going to be pretty curious. You don’t have to say anything unless you want to. It is ok to just smile or nod as they talk and then follow me. If you are getting too uncomfortable, just grab my hand and that will be my signal to get you out of there to a pew. 
“Once we get inside and sit down the service will start and they will all sit down in their own pews and listen. There will be singing. If you want to join, feel free. If you don’t, it’s ok to just listen. There will be praying, like we do at dinner, and you have the same options, though mostly just the preacher will do the outloud praying. There will also be listening. The pastor will give a sermon which is like a lesson on an idea from the Bible. 
“When he is done there will be a couple more songs and then we will drift back out for talking. Again, if you don’t want to do the talking, just grab my hand and I’ll get us out. Ok?’ 
They were at a stop sign and she stared at him until he nodded his understanding. 
The rest of the ride was silent and filled with tension. 
‘I’m really sorry about whatever is bothering you. I wish I could help.’ She said quietly before they exited the car. He continued to stare at his feet and reached for the door handle. 
‘Kate! So good to see you! How was your week? And who is this young man? Is this? Did you? Congratulations! Such a handsome young man.’ Gushed the woman who was handing out programs. 
Samuel was sure she didn’t breath once. She certainly didn’t give Kate any time to answer. And she spoke as if Sam wasn’t even there. But the tone was so shockingly different from what he was expecting that Sam looked up.
Every eye seemed to be looking at him. The blood drained from his face. 
He grabbed for Kate’s hand in their prearranged signal and felt like an idiot as he fumbled and missed before he felt her take his hand. He looked up to see her reassuring gaze and soft smile as she firmly held his hand waved politely to anyone who spoke to her, and steered them both into the sanctuary. They skirted around the crowds in the entryway and she soon had him situated between her and the wall towards the front in a mostly empty section of pews. 
Even as they sat, she kept hold of his trembling hand. 
‘Sam’ she whispered, ‘are you ok? Do you want to leave?’
He sat still and quiet. Shaking slightly. Pale. But he gripped her hand like a life preserver and stared fixedly at the front of the church. 
She bowed her head and focused on the hand she held and prayed that God would give her the wisdom and him the courage so they could speak about whatever was bothering him. 
They sat still. Long after the service was over. The congregation trickled out, laughing, talking, shouting, making plans for lunch, asking about the neighbor’s nephew’s new baby, and generally loving their time of fellowship. 
A few tried to approach the pair, full of good intentions, but a slight, firm head shake from Kate would send them on their way, full of curiosity, but knowing that now was not the time for it. 
Once the sanctuary was empty and blessedly quiet, she turned to him and raised her other hand to wipe the tear tracks from his face. She was slow, and gentle, as if approaching a wild animal. And, like a wild animal, he flinched. With slow and careful patience she finally traced her finger along his cheek bone, brushing the tears away. 
‘Sam. Please. Please tell me what is hurting you so much.’ 
‘I can’t’ he sobbed and buried his face in his lap. They sat there for what seemed an eternity like that. Him sobbin, her gently rubbing the back of his hand and humming one of the songs from the service.
Eventually he was cried out and they headed back to the car. The pastor met them at the door to unlock it and let them out. 
‘Samuel, Kate, I hope you have a blessed week and I hope to see you both next Sunday.’ 
Samuel could not for the life of him have said what the pastor’s name was, or even what he looked like, that day, for he had spent most of the service trapped in memories of the past. However, in the weeks to come he eventually came to look up to the man and to enjoy sitting in those pews and hearing of ancient miracles and modern ones as well.


At home, Kate pulled a blanket out of the back of the car, threw it in a sunny patch of grass and led Sam to it. 
‘Sit here. The dogs will be right out and I will be back in just a couple moments.’ 
This is it, he thought to himself, she is going to call Mary and say that I’m broken, defective, she’s going to send me on. He couldn’t even find it in himself to be angry about it. That is just the way things worked for him. Nobody had ever wanted him, except maybe his dad. Even his mom had made sure he understood that he was a burden she wasn’t supposed to have to carry.
He lay there feeling empty as Cinder and Mya jogged around him. They finally came to the blanket, Cinder stretched out next to where Sam lay and rested her head on his chest. Mya curled up at his hip and began to lick his fingers. 
Kate emerged from the house with a tray of food and sat down on the blanket opposite Sam. 
‘Ok Sam, I’m going to tell you a story while you eat. You feel free to interrupt me or correct me if I get anything wrong.’ 
She paused and seemed to fix her vision on an indistinct spot in the sky. 
‘Once upon a time, a baby boy was born. He was beautiful and tiny, and his parents named him Samuel. Who knows why they picked the name Samuel, but they did….’ 
‘It is my dad’s middle name. And I wasn’t beautiful. Mom told me I looked like a scaly pink raison.’ 
‘Very well, a perfectly normal baby boy, because, let’s face it, all newborns look a bit like a raison at first,’ she laughed, continuing with a smile ‘who was named after his proud father. Now that baby grew and grew and eventually he became a little boy. That little boy loved to run and jump and climb and his father gave him a baseball glove and taught him how to throw and catch.’ 
‘How did you know?’ Sam asked, a bit distrustfully. It’s never really a comfortable feeling when people know more about you than you have told them. 
‘You chose almost all outdoor chores, and you own a well used baseball glove’ she responded, and then continued. ‘Now, this active young boy who loved baseball didn’t live in the best of houses or have the most expensive toys, but he was happy because he was with his family, and he worked hard to make them smile.’ 
‘They never did. Or hardly ever anyway.’ He blurted this out without thinking and immediately wished he could take it back. But she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, and he relaxed a bit more. 
‘The little boy never gave up. He had hope, and more courage than most. But circumstances beyond his control tried to snuff out that hope and crush that courage. His parents were taken from him. His father was the first to go. It turned out that his father had made some choices that were not entirely legal and he was taken away. The poor little boy was only six, and he hasn’t seen his father since.’ 
Sam stared down at his hands. This was the part of the story he was dreading. He knew that part of the story was in his file. Convicted father, dead mom. She was getting to the part where he wasn’t enough. Wasn’t good enough or hopeful enough, or courageous enough, or… 
‘And the boy decided that he would take care of his mother since his dad couldn’t anymore. This was a very brave thing to do. And goodness knows he tried. But finances got tight for their small family, and there is very little a small boy is able to do when it comes to finances. His mom was so sad all the time. No matter what the boy would do. After a couple of years, when he was gone at school she started using chemicals to numb the pain of her disappointment.’ 
He flashed back to coming home from school in second grade and finding his mom passed out on the floor. He had thought she was dead. He was so panicked that he had gotten the neighbors who helped wake her up and get her fed. When the drugs wore off she beat him for sharing her weakness with strangers. He never made that mistake again, though he often cried himself asleep wondering if she would wake up this time or if this would be the night she died.
‘These chemicals caught hold of her and wouldn’t let go. She lost her job, her friends, and after a few months, she lost the apartment because she could no longer pay the rent.’ 
She had beat him that night too because he had cried when she made him leave all his belongings behind except a blanket, a change of clothes, and as much of the food from the kitchen as he could carry. 
She had beat him again when she discovered that he had snuck a few beers out of one of the sacks to fit his dad’s baseball glove inside. 
‘The two of them lived on the street for months. The boy would go off to school and would eat school lunch, his only meal of the day, and would sometimes steal things from other kids backpacks…’ 
His face burned with shame. He had never been able to explain to his teachers or principals why he stole those things. If he had explained, his mom would have beaten him or they would have taken him away from his mom, or maybe both. He knew the stealing was in his file too. Most of his foster families had accused him of stealing from them as well, but that wasn’t true.
‘…but he only stole things he needed. Extra clothes, food, school supplies. He didn’t know what else to do. Then, one day, he came back from school and walked downtown to find his mom, but he couldn’t find her. He spent hours looking for her before a police officer found him and brought him to the morgue to identify his mother’s body.’ 
He was sobbing again now. It shouldn’t still hurt so much. His mom had hated him. She had told him that often enough. But for some reason, he had always stupidly hoped that someday he would do something right and she would look at him the way other moms looked at their children. And maybe it was the crushing of that dream that hurt more than the loss of the woman who birthed him, but whatever it was, he couldn’t put it into words, and the pain never seemed to lessen. 
‘This was a dark time in the boy’s life. His family was gone, he didn’t have any friends, and the police officer wouldn’t let him go back out to the streets to his ‘home.’ A strange older woman who looked like she was on the way to a business meeting came to the station for him and explained that he was going to be sent to stay with a family nearby while they looked to see if there was a will or any living relatives.’
He smiled at her description of Mary. That was her to a T. She always looked like she was on her way to an important meeting. 
‘Based on your reaction today, I’m guessing your mom had a funeral, at a church, and that Is not a happy memory for you. Do you want to take over the story? Or should I keep guessing?’ 
‘There isn’t much more, I guess. Her parents, my grandparents, showed up and said that they had disowned her years ago and had no interest in taking in her bastard son, but that there would be a funeral, and it would be in the church, and it didn’t matter if nobody came. And well, nobody did. They were there, and me, and Mary, the guy from the church, and the guy from the funeral home. All of them stared at me as if I was supposed to know what to say or do. The guy from the church, I think he pitied me, and he asked me to give a speech but I didn’t know what to say, and then I ran. Mary caught up with me a few blocks away and I refused to go back. I don’t even know where they put her. Mary probably does.’ 
He continued running his fingers through Cinder’s fur as he stared morosely at the clouds floating by. 
‘I’ll go pack my stuff. I mean the stuff I came with. When do I leave?’ 
‘Samuel Henrick,’ she spoke sternly ‘there are two things you need to understand. First, if I give something to you, it is YOURS, for however long you want it. You are not borrowing it. It belongs to you. And far more importantly, the ONLY time you will be going to pack your belongings is when you decide you can’t stand living with me anymore. I will NOT be kicking you out. Is that clear?’
He looked up with wide, surprised, eyes. It was the first time she had spoken sharply and it was quite intimidating. She had a voice that commanded your attention and the sternness of her face brooked no arguments. But he couldn’t help questioning her. 
‘You mean, you aren’t sending me away? But you know everything! I’m a bastard, a thief, a juvenile delinquent, a whiner, a cry baby, and a pathetic waste of space.’ 
‘Oh Sam, somehow you managed to get that almost entirely wrong,’ she said with a wry smile. ‘Yes, you were born to parents who were not married, so according to some archaic definition, you are a bastard, but so are a great many of your peers, and it doesn’t change your worth one bit. You WERE a thief, out of necessity, but you are not anymore, now that you have people providing you with what you need. You are not a weak, whiny,  or a cry baby. You have been through real pain. Why you are hurt, you ARE allowed to cry. And you most certainly are not a waste of space. 
‘You ARE creative, kind, sensitive, and a great listener. Plus, the dogs approve, and dogs are excellent judges of character. So, I’m afraid you are stuck with us a while longer. Let’s go wash up the lunch dishes and take the dogs for a walk. I think this afternoon will be for resting and relaxing, and tonight will be for movies and ice cream. You in?’ 
He stared at her for a while, not really sure how to respond, but her words had stirred something within him and a warmth spread through his chest. It felt incredibly strange, but also awfully nice. 
When she continued to look at him with an eyebrow raised and a half smile he realized she was waiting for a response. 
‘I’m in’ he said with a shaky grin. 
Sunday passed without any further incident. Samuel had dozed off on the couch while reading and Kate had woken him for an impromptu piano lesson a couple hours later, sensing that he needed a bit more activity and mental stimulation. They watched the movie version of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe which he had finished reading, and enjoyed far too large ice cream sundays with all the fixings. By the time bed time rolled around, the mood was almost cheerful again. 


Monday dawned grey and gloomy. It was raining. Hard. 
They rushed through the morning routine, swallowed a bowl of cereal, and were in the car twenty minutes before they needed to leave, but they decided to go anyway. Kate was on a leave of absence from work for a few days to get Sam settled, but she drove Sam past the middle school, pointing out where her classroom was and then they drove to the upper elementary, paying attention to the route that Sam would need to walk/ride to get to her classroom after school each day once she was back at work. 
They were among the first in the parking lot, so they walked in together and Sam showed her his classrooms, pointed out where his locker was, and shyly introduced her to a few teachers. 
As the hallways started to fill, Kate led Sam into the office and sat down facing him. 
‘This’ she said, pulling out a small device, ‘is an emergency device. You push this button and it will call me and give me your location. If anything ever happens and you need me, push the button and I will find you.’ 
He looked slightly alarmed at this. What did she expect to happen? She smiled encouragingly and passed over the device. 
‘Luck favors the prepared’ she said in answer to his questioning expression. 
Next she pulled out an envelope. 
‘And this, is a letter. There is one for each of your teachers. It is just introducing me and giving them my contact information. You can either give it to them yourself, or we can hand them to the office assistant and he will make sure they get passed out.’ 
Sam clutched the two items to himself as he waved goodbye. 
Tucking the device into his pocket and the letters into his backpack, he stepped into the hall. 
‘Sammie whammy, who took pity on you and bought you new clothes? Could the same person take pity on us and get you a new face?’ Noah sneered at him. 
‘Yo Sam, who’s backpack d’you steal this time?’ shouted Tyler. 
Trevor grabbed him by the arm and shoved him into the wall of lockers ‘Watch where you’re going, loser.’ 
It had been too good to last. He knew the fairytale wouldn’t extend to school. Afterall, Noah, Tyler, and Trevor had used him as their personal punching bag for years and there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it. Well, nothing except tell a teacher, but that usually meant they would be even worse for the next few weeks, and half the time the teachers didn’t believe him anyway. He didn’t have the best reputation. 
‘We are going to be late for class’ he mumbled as he turned towards his first class. 
His hopeful attitude was not at all restored when Noah and Trevor followed him in. Thank you for small blessings, he thought, since Tyler was clearly in a different class. But really, two was almost as bad as three. 
Mr. Warsh, their teacher for language arts and social studies, was wearing overalls and carrying a guitar. He sang them songs about meeting new people and had them fill in the chorus with their names. He sang songs about classroom expectations. And he sang songs about their homework assignment. There didn’t seem to be anything he didn’t sing songs about. While Noah and Trevor mocked him behind his back, most of the class joined in the fun and were giggling by the time the class was over. 
Ms. Bless, their teacher for science and math, reminded Sam of Mary. Pant suit on, hair in place, and straight to the rules and expectations. As fun as Mr. Warsh’s class had been, Sam was pretty sure that man wouldn’t notice if the school caught fire. In contrast, Ms. Bless would catch Noah or Trevor the moment one of them so much as sneezed in his direction and he loved her for it. Of course, they sensed this as well, and were perfect angels for the duration of the class period. 
He handed both of them letters as he exited class. He also gave a letter to Mrs. Stirle the PE teacher and sports coordinator who announced that sign-ups for sports teams would be posted at the end of the week. Mr. Lutz, the music and drama teacher waved the letter away with a grin saying he was quite familiar with Ms. Kate Walter as the two had worked together on several Middle School performances and that he looked forward to having Sam wielding a hammer when it came time to build sets for this years show. While Sam had no idea what he was talking about, he smiled and logged the words in his memory so he could ask Kate when he got home. 
The only dark spots in the day, aside from the darkened sky, were the normal ones. The pre-class jeering, and the fact that his lunch tray was ‘accidentally’ bumped into by Tyler causing it to dump all over his new clothes and forcing him to go through the line again to get food. Oh, and the fact that every single teacher assigned homework, on the first day. 
As soon as the bell rang at the end of the day he headed cheerfully back to his locker to grab his backpack and homework. Unfortunately, it seemed that the three amigos had missed him a bit too much over the summer and weren’t quite done with him yet. They waited patiently while he opened his locker then ‘accidently’ stumbled into him shoving him bodily into the locker. His arm caught on the hook where his backpack was hung which hurt, but it lodged him far enough out of the locker that they didn’t quite get it to latch as they sauntered away. 
With a sigh and a promise not to cry he grabbed his things and trudged for the parking lot.
She had been waiting in the parking lot for half an hour before the bell rang. It was ridiculous. She knew that. But she was so excited and nervous to see how his first day back at school was and the errands and chores she had assigned herself for the day had gone unexpectedly quickly due to the adrenaline rush that she seemed to be perpetually on for the last few days. 
As the students began pouring out the door she watched for his dark wavy hair and waited, and waited. 
Finally, as the flow slowed to a trickle she spotted him trudging. Her ‘How was your day’ died on her lips as she noted his hunched back, downcast eyes, and slow pace.
‘Sam, over here.’ She said instead and opened the door for him. 
They drove in silence for a few minutes before she decided it was time to break the ice.
‘Was it that bad?’ she asked. 
‘It was fine.’ 
‘Sure, if ‘fine’ means absolutely awful. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other. Let’s try that again shall we?’ 
‘It was good and bad.’ 
‘Ok, which do you want to start with?’ 
‘Huh?’ 
‘Interrogation it is then!’ she laughed
‘Ok, teachers, who are they, and on a scale of one to five with one being the worst teacher you have ever had and five being the best teacher you ever imagined where do they fit.’ 
‘Um…’ he stalled for time as his mind whirled back through the day trying to remember everything. ‘Mr. Warsh for LA and SS. He’s funny and sings a lot. Ms. Bless for Math and Science. She reminds me of Mary. So she kinda scares me, but I kinda like her. Mrs. Stirle for PE. She can make a basket without looking and ran faster than any of us. And Mr. Lutz for music and drama. He said he didn’t need a letter because he knows you and wants me to swing a hammer or something like that.’ 
‘Sounds like some pretty cool teachers.’ 
‘Yeah. Oh, and I have some forms for you to look at. Sports sign-ups are on Friday.’ 
‘Awesome! I’ll look at them while you do your homework. And how about classmates? Any good ones?’
This was met with a shrug and avoiding eye contact.
‘Any less than good ones?’ 
Still silence. 
‘So the good was the teachers and the subjects, and the bad was some classmates?’ 
‘Yeah, I guess.’ 
‘Ok, well if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here.’ 
‘Sorry about the shirt’
‘Why? Did you damage it on purpose?’ 
‘No, it was…. It was an accident.’ 
‘Well, clothes are meant to be worn, and wearing them sometimes means getting them messy, so no need to apologize. Before you start your homework how about we learn how to rinse and pre-treat clothes to get stains out? Then a walk, homework, dinner, and then we will see how much time we have left and go from there!’ 


The next day dawned much brighter, hotter, and more cheerful. Due to the warmer weather, Sam made the mistake of wearing a tanktop and Kate gasped at the purple and yellow bruise on his arm from where the locker hook had hit him when he had been shoved inside his locker the day before. 
He insisted he had just tripped into something and it wasn’t a big deal, but she insisted on taking pictures of it anyway and he ended up running to his room to change. 
The ride to school was tense as they both pondered the lie about the bruise. Kate knew that he was lying.That bruise was deep, it would have hurt a lot, and yet he had clearly avoided mentioning it. Sam knew that she knew he was lying but also knew that telling her the truth would complicate things even more. They ended up pulling in barely on time so there was no more time for anything except a quick ‘have a good day’ and he was gone. 
Kate paced the floors at home trying to figure out what she should do. Should she go to the principal with the photos of the bruise and ask him to look into it? Should she respect his decision to keep it a secret? Should she force him to talk? 
She busied herself while she paced with gathering the forgotten sports and language forms and a change of clothes that she had meant to put in his backpack incase there were more lunch spills. 
Finally she settled on going to school, showing the guidance counselor, and demanding nothing, but making them aware so that they could keep an eye out. 
The appointment was awkward and really raised more questions than answers. The counselor maintained that Sam’s story was likely true, or that it could have happened over the weekend, or any number of other possibilities. She did agree to keep an eye on him, but didn’t seem to think anything would come of it. 
Needless to say, Kate was already pretty steamed when she felt her phone buzzing and saw that it was Sam’s panic button. His location was pinned at the school so she zoomed in to try to find a more accurate location. She had memorized his schedule and he should have been at PE, but instead his pin seemed to be in a hallway on the opposite side of the building. Following the pin through the deserted hallways she walked till she was literally on top of his pin. There was no one to be seen. 
She turned to leave but a sound caught her ears. Over the noise of the surrounding classrooms she could hear a repeating thud and what sounded like frustrated muttering. She followed the sound to the lockers and began to call out. 
‘Sam? Where are you?’ 
‘I’m THUD in THUD the THUD stupid THUD locker THUD’ he said, punctuating each word with what sounded like a kick. 
‘Yes, but which one, and what is your combination’ she answered with a wry smile. He certainly was a fighter. How long had he been kicking the locker waiting for someone to find him? 
‘A40. The combination is 12-25-14. How did you get here so fast?’
‘There!’ she flung the door open ‘How about I’ll tell you that when you tell me how you ended up in there?’ she answered with a  raised eyebrow. 
‘Um… I tripped.’ 
‘Right. You tripped and fell into your locker, and then because you were already there you thought, Hmmm… why don’t I just close this door behind me and lock myself in! That will be great fun!’ 
The stern look was back an he knew there was no lie he could say that she would believe. She knew how he got there. She just didn’t know who. And there was NO WAY he was going to tell her. She looked ready to chew the heads right off their bodies. If he could at least put it off till tonight maybe she wouldn’t care so much any more. 
‘Um… I’m REALLY late for PE and going to be in kinda a lot of trouble already, could we talk after school?’ 
‘Come.’ She commanded. 
He wasn’t sure what was coming, a beating was usually what came after lying or refusing to answer grownups like that, but she hadn’t beat him for anything yet. Curiously he followed. 
‘Mrs. Wittle, I’m back, and no I don’t have an appointment, however, I did just find my child shoved into his locker twenty minutes into class when I went to drop off his change of clothes, and you will notice the red mark on his arm where the locker hook was perfectly matches the bruise on the other arm that he came home with yesterday. Now, Sam has, so far, refused to give me any details or name any names, but he is in need of a late pass for PE that will keep him from getting penalized for being bullied, and you will pass the contents of both of our conversations today on to Principal Clement. I will be scheduling an appointment with her.’ 
Mrs. Wittle, being a guidance counselor, was not particularly new to having angry or emotional parents in her office, but she was rather new to the idea of feeling that she had been entirely wrong about a situation involving one of her students. She had always figured Sam as a bit of a problem child. Their court mandated sessions since his mother’s death usually included him staring sullenly at the wall while she asked the required questions and he mumbled incoherent answers under his breath. This child staring in awe at his angry foster parent and clinging to her hand like a lifeline was not one she had experienced before. 
As she scribbled a quick late pass for Sam and gestured for him to retrieve a treat from the candy bowl she offered Kate a chair and said ‘if you are free, I can call Mrs. Clement in.’ 
And so, Sam walked to PE with a bounce in his step and a smile on his face that thoroughly confused those that had expected to see him teary and mad. They were further confused when Mrs. Stirle took the paper from him, smiled, and said she was glad he had made it. 
The contents of the conversation in the guidance office are rather long winded to repeat, but it boiled down to the fact that they all agreed that Sam seemed to be a target. As he seemed reluctant at present to share details he should be allowed to speak up when he was ready to do so. He should be given every opportunity to do so. However if this kind of pattern continued he would be questioned more thoroughly and steps would be taken to discover what was happening without involving Sam if necessary. 


Kate made a trip to the hardware store and called in a few favors from around town. By the time school was over for the day she was back at school and leaning against Sam’s locker. 
‘Hey loser, how’d you get out of the locker?’ 
‘Wouldn’t you like to know’ Sam rolled his eyes and kept walking.
‘Listen here, bastard, when we put you in a locker we expect you to stay there till we are ready to open it for you.’ 
‘Yeah, we better not hear that you went to the teachers. If you tattle you are seriously going to regret it.’ 
‘Hey crybaby, who is that in front of your locker? You hire a bodyguard? I see you got the cheapest option. She wouldn’t scare away a fly!’
Sam looked up to see Kate leaning against his locker and his face flushed, partially because of the insults, but mostly because she had somehow known it was going to happen again and was standing there with her sternest face practically daring anyone in the hall to try to touch him. 
To the three bullies she may have looked decidedly unthreatening, but to Sam she looked like a vengeful angel. He couldn’t help but smile. 
‘You stayed?’
‘No, I left and ran some errands and came back. Mrs. Clemment is waiting for you. When you finish there, Mrs. Wittle will be waiting. When you finish with her, meet me here. I have some surprises for you.’ she winked and nodded her head in the direction of the office. 
He wasn’t sure what the surprises were, but a trip to the principal's wasn’t a new experience. He knew from past adventures that if he apologized profusely, took the blame, and refused to share any details this part would be over fast. 
A trip to the counselor also wasn’t anything new. He had been meeting weekly with Mrs. Wittle for the last few years. Most of those meetings were her halfheartedly asking questions and him staring at the pattern in the carpet. They almost always ended after five minutes of silence and a weary sigh. 
‘Mrs. Clemment? Kate said you wanted to see me.’ 
‘Sam, please come in. Don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble.’ 
She chuckled a bit at the surprise and confusion evident on his face. 
‘Yes, it IS possible to meet with the principal without being in trouble. I wanted to say that Kate showed us the photos of your bruise and told us where she found you today. I’m sorry you had to go through that. If you are willing to tell me the rest of the story I would love to hear it.’ 
Awkward silence reigned. Sam had memorized the rather boring pattern of this carpet a long time ago, but he loved to look for hidden shapes in the whorls and grain of the wood panels on the front of the desk. 
‘Somehow I thought that might be your response. So, instead, I’ll keep talking. I want you to know that whoever is doing this to you is breaking a great many school rules, is behaving in a way that is very unkind, and I’m very disappointed in them. I understand that there is something keeping you from telling me who it is and/or why it is happening, but we will be investigating, and if you ever change your mind about staying silent, my door is open. Deal?’ 
Sam nodded.
‘Ok, well, Mrs. Wittle needs to complete the incident report, so go give her whatever information you can, then we will see you tomorrow.’
Sam was prepared to repeat his spectacular silent performance for Mrs. Wittle, but she was prepared for him and asked only questions that were perfectly safe to answer. She wanted to know approximately when he entered the locker, approximately when he exited the locker, and which locker he had been locked in. He was pretty sure she was hoping he would divulge more, but she didn’t press. Once she had jotted down the pertinent info she waved him away with a ‘see you tomorrow’.
Back by his locker Kate was now beaming at him and standing in the middle of the empty hallway. 
‘Ready for your surprises?’ 
‘I think so.’ 
‘Ok, surprise number one. Open your locker.’ 
Bemused, he opened his locker and stared inside. It looked empty and completely normal. 
‘Um… I don’t see anything.’ 
‘Hmmm… why don’t you try climbing inside and see if you can figure out the difference?’ 
Slightly concerned, but mostly curious about where on earth this was going, Sam set down his backpack and climbed inside. It looked just as normal from the inside. Though it was far less painful than last time… 
‘The hooks! What happened to my hooks?’ 
‘I’ve removed them. Since you refuse to tell us what happened I’m about 98% sure you will end up back in there at some point, so best to be prepared. Now, because hooks are somewhat important for hanging things, I bought some low profile 3-M hooks that we will put on the back wall that should hold things but not stick out far enough to stab you.’
‘Ok… thanks for the surprise?’ 
‘Oh, that’s only the beginning. Take this.’ 
She handed him what looked a bit like a heavy binder clip.
‘I’m going to shut the door. Before the lock clicks, open the clip and shove it here on this bar. It SHOULD keep the lock from engaging. Ok?’ 
He did as she asked and stuck the clip to the bar she indicated. Now locked in his locker for the third time in two days he was officially becoming less interested in the surprises. 
‘And how long would you like me to stay here?’ 
‘Why don’t you come on out?’ 
‘I can’t, you locked me in my locker.’ 
‘Did I? That seems like an odd thing for me to do. Why don’t you try anyway?’ 
‘Fine’ he grumbled as he heaved his foot into the locker door.
CRASH! The door, flung with great gusto by his angry foot, slammed into the neighboring locker. The complete surprise on his face was enough to make both of them start into fits of giggling. 
After experimenting with the device a few more times Kate seemed satisfied and produced another 3-M device. This small plastic clip she attached to the door itself just above the lock and clamped the strange metal device into it. It should be within easy reach the next time he got locked in. 
‘Alright, next surprise. Let’s go.’ 


The sound of grunting and muffled shouting came from the building in front of them and was both confusing and disconcerting to Sam. However, Kate marched confidently through the door and into the dimly lit hallway beyond. Striding purposefully, she led them to a tiny office that was tidy and almost entirely empty except for a long flat bench against the wall and a desk with a computer and phone against the opposite wall. 
Kate sat, pulled out her phone and sent a quick text. 
In moments the door on the opposite side of the room opened and a man dressed in an odd, white outfit that looked a bit like pajamas walked in. While the outfit looked odd, the man had an aura of confidence that Sam envied and stood as if the outfit were the finest clothes in the world. 
Kate stood and bowed at the waist, which Sam thought was decidedly weird. 
‘Master Song, thank you for taking the time to meet us.’
‘Of course, Kate. This must be Sam’
‘Um… hi?’ 
‘Hmmm, son, your posture is terrible, stand up straight. And when you greet someone, look them in the eye. Whether you are confident or not, eye contact and good posture will make you LOOK confident.’
Sam looked between the two adults with a comically confused expression.
‘Sam’ Kate smiled ‘meet Master Song. He is a Taekwondo master and will be teaching you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after school for the next few weeks. Once you pass your first belt test you can decide to opt out if you do not enjoy it. Master Song will teach you how to defend yourself, but, more importantly, he will teach how to stand and move confidently and how to avoid conflict. He is a good friend and a great teacher. I’ve got you a uniform in the car, but for today you just need an open mind and a listening ear. Go with Master Song and I’ll be here when you return.’
Hesitantly, and with a few questions about his new foster mom’s sanity, he followed. 


‘Sam, Taekwondo is an ancient form of martial arts. As such, there are some practices that we observe that may not make sense to you, however, you will be required to observe them. First, when you speak to me, you will call me ‘Master.’’ 
He stopped and stared at Sam long enough that Sam sensed he was supposed to respond. 
‘Um… yes, master?’ 
‘Very good. Second, when greeting myself, or any one else within the practice chambers you will bow from your waist. It is a sign of respect. Let us practice.’ 
They bowed to each other several times until Master Song was satisfied with the straightness of the spine and angle of the head. 
‘Excellent. The key to mastery is to practice each simple movement until it is flawless. You will be learning forms and techniques that are centuries old. You will practice each one until it is perfect before you will be taught the next one. You may not understand the importance of the individual movements at the time they are taught, but they will eventually come together to create almost a dance of fists and feet. Do you understand.’ 
‘Yes’
‘Yes what?’ 
‘Um… yes master?’ 
Again, without the ‘um’ or the questioning tone.
‘Yes master’
‘Better. We will spend the next fifteen minutes practicing two incredibly important skills. Standing tall, and walking in a straight line.’
Sam sighed and rolled his eyes. This had been a rather long roller coaster of a day and now he was going to spend fifteen minutes practicing standing and walking. He was not a toddler. This was ridiculous. He looked up to see that Master Song had most definitely seen the eye roll and was looking unimpressed. 
‘You think these lessons are beneath you?’ He asked in a low voice with one eyebrow raised. 
‘Anyone can walk a straight line.’ Sam said, slightly abashed, but not seeing the point in pretending. 
Master Song let out a chuckle that could only be described as evil and gestured for Sam to follow him out of the practice room. They moved through several other hallways and practice rooms, most full of people, before arriving at a room full of strange equipment. There was a trampoline, some bars and rings suspended from ropes, long poles up on stands, and several other odd shapes that Sam had no idea how to describe. Master Song led him to a long flat padded board set at about his shoulder height and gestured to the step stool next to it. 
‘If a straight line is so easy, then this should not challenge you.’ 
‘What am I supposed to do?’ 
‘Walk the straight line.’ 
Sam mounted the steps and climbed onto the beam. As he gripped the beam with his toes he was glad that Master Song had made him remove his shoes back in the room Kate waited in. He was also slightly regretting his snarkiness. If he didn’t make it to the other end it would be proving Master Song right that he needed practice even doing simple things like walking a straight line. But from up here the bar seemed quite high and falling didn’t seem like a very fun option. 
So, carefully, step by careful step he worked his way across the beam waving his arms around to help him balance. 
Halfway across he lost his footing and crashed into the safety of the mats below. 
‘Again.’ 
Sam narrowed his eyes huffed out his breath as he moved back to the steps and climbed them again. It took seven tries before he reached the far end and the fifteen minutes were long behind them. As he finally reached the opposite end, he looked back with a smile.
‘I made it!’ 
‘Yes. You walked a straight line.’ answered Master Song with a hint of a smile ‘Tomorrow you will try again until you can do so without waving your arms like you are trying to take flight. We will move on from the beam once you can walk across it without staring at your feet. Kate is waiting. Let us return.’ 
Feeling inordinately proud of himself for making it to the end and very silly for feeling so proud, he followed Master Song back to the waiting room.
‘Kate! I made it to the end without falling!’ 
Kate wrapped him in a congratulatory hug and whispered in his ear that he should bow, thank the master, and collect his shoes. 
‘Um, I mean, no um, I mean, thank you Master Song.’ Sam bowed as they had practiced and then looked him in the eye. ‘I’m sorry about what I said.’ 
‘Humility is an important part of mastery. Accepting what you do not know gives you room to grow. I think we have had a productive first day. I’ll see you tomorrow after school.’ 
With that Master Song smiled at Kate and moved back into the practice room to await his next group of children. 


All through dinner Sam recounted the epic adventure of walking a straight line. Kate informed him that he had been walking on a balance beam in the gymnastics room. She also hinted that he would need to be able to do more than just survive the walk before Master Song was satisfied. 
Sam asked lots of questions about what Taekwondo was and Kate explained that martial arts is partially about the ability to defend yourself, but it is also about developing confidence in yourself, and learning techniques to help de-escalate situations. She explained that she did not sign him up for Taekwondo so that he would get into fights at school, but that if a situation ever arose where his well being was in question that he would have the ability to defend himself. 
She also explained that his lessons were going to be a bit different than normal Taekwondo lessons. The beam, for example, was something that Master Song put all his new students through to make sure they had balance and focus before moving on to the actual movements. It was not, however, a traditional Taekwondo practice. 
After dinner and homework were finished and the daily chores had been completed Kate led Sam to one of the empty rooms near his bedroom where he found that she had constructed a board beam about a foot off the floor to serve as a practice area. Smiling she walked away,  ‘Happy practicing!’ 


Life at ‘the church’, as Sam affectionately named their home, settled into a routine. Kate was back at work teaching in the Middle School. Every morning she would drive the two of them to the Middle School, unload Sam’s new bike, and after spending a few minutes reading or helping out in her classroom he would ride the few blocks to the Elementary School. 
Sam was excelling in most of his classes. He found math to be difficult since he had fallen so far behind the last few years, but due to his new-found passion for reading, and the encouragement of Kate, he was constantly reading about ecosystems, solar systems, ancient civilizations, technology through the ages, and anything else he could get his hands on. 
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he biked to the Fitness Center after school for Taekwondo lessons and Kate would pick him and his bike up on the way home from work. 
Tuesday and Thursday he biked back to the Middle School where Kate ran a community service and tutoring club. On Tuesdays he joined the math support table along with a few other struggling Elementary and Middle Schoolers. On Thursdays he joined whatever service project the group was engaging in. They cleaned the school grounds, helped out at the recycling center, cleaned and served at the local soup kitchen, helped out with yard work for the elderly or differently abled, visited the nursing homes and assisted living centers, and helped care for the local parks. 
At school the three amigos continued to harass Sam. He ended up in his locker as often as they could manage it without a teacher seeing them, but, thanks to the device Kate had rigged up he was able to free himself as soon as they walked away. 
He ended up wearing his lunch about once a week and had become an expert at treating his clothes for stains. He always found a clean outfit in his backpack when the mess required changing. 
After a couple weeks Kate added packing lunches’ to the chore chart and the two started bringing food to school with them. Kate said it was so that they could focus on having more nutritious foods to get them through the day. While the lunches were quite healthy, he was also fairly sure that it was partially so that his food was much harder to spill. 
Once they were all reconvened and back at home in the evenings Sam would do homework at the kitchen island while Kate made dinner and they would talk about their day. 
If all the homework was finished Sam would join Kate for walking the dogs around the neighborhood. He would then spend some time practicing balancing or forms, while Kate worked on her lessons for the next day. They usually ended the day in the library or music area where they would read and talk about books or Kate would give Sam a piano lesson and they would sing silly songs they made up. 
They were both inordinately happy. Kate still struggled daily with wanting to force Sam to say some names and get his tormentors in trouble, but knew that was a good way to lose the trust she had worked so hard to build. Sam seemed happy and healthy, so she and the principal were patiently letting things unfold. 


One Tuesday in early October, Sam showed up for tutoring with a full lunch box. Kate had received a rather interesting call from the Elementary office earlier that day, so she waited till the ride home to question him as to why he had eaten none of his food. The silence that followed was all the answer she needed. Somehow it involved whoever was shoving him in his locker. The only answer he would give was to request a replacement device to keep the locker from locking. He claimed to have misplaced his. 
In truth, the three amigos had gotten sick of him escaping from their trap and annoyed that he regarded them with quiet dismissal as if just waiting for an annoying ritual to be completed. So they sacrificed a bit of their teacher’s good will to wait and spy on him after shoving him into the locker.
He had waited a couple of minutes, as he usually did, then simply opened the locker and climbed out. 
Feeling triumphant, they deprived him of his device that he was busy hanging back on the clip, shoved him back in, and planned out their alibis. Trevor went to the nurse with a stomach ache, Noah went to the counselor to discuss friend problems, and Tyler ran late to class saying he had forgotten his bag in the previous class. 
They congratulated themselves on their genius and continued with their day. 
Sam kicked himself mentally again and again for allowing them to figure out how he was getting out. He still had the device Kate had given him and could have summoned help any second, but this was HIS fault. He was stupid and had gotten cocky. So he waited. And waited. And waited for one of them to come back and retrieve him. 
He missed math. He missed lunch. He missed technology. 
By this point he had been reported missing by multiple teachers and the secretary had to call. They had teachers check all the bathrooms, locker rooms, hallways, classrooms. No one had any idea where else to look. He was simply gone. 
Of course, the principal and counselor would have known exactly where to find him. However, as luck would have it, both were away for the day at a district wide administrative event. 
Kate immediately knew where he was, and subtly hinted to the administrative assistant that called that perhaps someone should check his locker to see if he had collected his belongings prior to disappearing. 
She also sent a quick email to the principal suggesting that perhaps she might want to inquire into the man-hunt at the ES when she returned. 
And then she waited. To find out what on earth he would have to say to explain why he was missing for so long, and why he didn’t use the emergency alert button that she knew he wore around his neck along with the house keys. 
Of course neither answer was forthcoming. Instead she was met with the ever frustrating wall of silence. 
‘Please Sam. Please let us help you. You missed two classes and lunch today and if the office hadn’t called me in a panic to let me know that you had possibly been abducted you could still be there now. I don’t understand what I need to do to make you trust me.’ 
Sam had started crying at that but still refused to talk about it so Kate had let it go and they endured a rather quiet and suffocating evening attempting to follow their routine until both claimed headaches and went to bed early. 
Sam was devastated that Kate thought he didn’t trust her. She had been amazing to him. But she didn’t understand that she couldn’t help with this. This was his problem. He was the problem. She couldn’t fix him. 


The office was lively the next morning when Kate and Sam walked in. The administrative assistant was in briefing the principal and counselor on the situation from yesterday in great detail while both Ms. Bless and Mr. Cullin waited to be filled in on why exactly a student had missed both of their classes and been discovered in a locker. 
Sam looked ready to crawl out of his own skin and disappear under a piece of furniture as he stared resolutely anywhere except at any of the adults. 
Kate had called in and taken the morning off to come deal with the fallout from this particular round and sat patiently beside Sam all the while fuming inside about how stubborn he was being. She had worked with enough children (and animals) to know that cornering them and demanding answers rarely worked, so instead she talked in a low soothing voice about the schedule for the rest of the week and asked him innocent questions about homework, practices, and chores in order to keep him calm and distracted.
Eventually the administrative assistant returned to her desk and the four of them were called in to join Principal Clement and Mrs. Wittle. 
‘Welcome everyone, thank you for coming on such short notice. I know we ALL have other places we need to be right now so let’s cut to the chase. Sam, we need to hear your side of the story.’ 
Ms. Bless and Mr. Cullin were shocked at Sam’s blatant refusal to speak, though everyone else expected nothing else. Both were used to the polite, curious, and compliant boy that worked hard and always completed his work. This sullen, silent, boy who refused to make eye contact or speak was an entirely foreign creature to them. 
‘Samuel, your principal is speaking to you.’ Ms. Bless said, somewhat sharply. 
Sam looked up at her with such a sad look that her confusion deepened even further. 
‘Very well,’ spoke Principal Clement, ‘I’ll tell as much as I know. Yesterday both Ms. Bless, before lunch, and Mr. Cullin, after lunch, reported you truant. The office instigated a search of the premise that involved all faculty that were not currently teaching. They searched every inch of this campus looking for you. Eventually they were forced to make a very difficult phone call. They had to call Kate and tell her that the one person she cared about most in this world was gone and we, the people responsible for caring for that child, didn’t have a clue where you had gone.’ 
As the story unfolded, everyone seemed to be staring alternately between Sam and Kate to see if Sam would decide to speak or if Kate would lose her cool. Neither happened. 
‘Thankfully, Kate knew exactly where you were. Why is that, Sam?’ 
Silent tears began flowing down his cheeks and Kate reached over and took his hand. 
‘If I may, Principal Clement, I knew where he was because I have previously met with both Mrs. Wittle and yourself about the injuries Sam has sustained while being forced into his locker.’ 
At this both Ms. Bless and Mr. Cullin whipped their heads back and forth between their boss and Kate. 
‘And why is it that Sam is no longer showing up with these injuries? And why is it that Sam has not been truant until today?’ 
Sam couldn’t be quiet any more. They were now attacking Kate. Kate who had protected and helped him. It was his fault. Not hers. 
‘Because Kate helped me.’ The heads whipped back to stare at Sam, shocked that he had spoken. ‘ She helped me by removing all the hooks in my locker so they couldn’t bruise me. She made a device that would keep the locker from locking when I was inside so I could get out to get to class. It’s not her fault. It’s mine.’ 
Kate jumped, desperate to make sure that everyone understood the situation. 
‘The only fault that is Sam’s is that he continues to protect whoever has repeatedly shoved him into a locker, dumped his food down his shirt, and bullied him every day.’ She said while making eye contact with each person in the room, as if daring any of them to disagree with her. 
‘Which brings us to the final point. Sam,’ spoke Principal Clement, ‘I told you last time we met that I would give you time and space and opportunity to come forward on your own time, as long as it didn’t get worse. However, yesterday showed that the situation has NOT improved. If anything, in the month and a half since the first incident, this seems to be an escalation. I’m afraid you are going to have to tell me names, or I’m going to have to find them myself. The time for patience has passed.’ 
All adults stared at Sam, but he lowered his gaze back to the floor. 
‘I can’t. I just… I can’t.’ 
‘Very well. Please go with Mrs. Wittle to file another accident report and then get to class.’ 
After the two had exited Kate turned to Principal Clement. 
‘What’s your plan?’ 
‘For the rest of the week I have assigned a TA hover rather nearby at all times but not make it obvious which student she is observing. Her presence should hopefully deter any further action this week, but that’s as long as she can be spared from her other duties. 
‘By the end of the week, I will have security cameras installed around the school covering all hallways. This should have happened years ago, but I was never able to get the budget for them approved. Funny thing. I got your email, immediately knew what had happened, and after sharing the incident, without names of course, the budget was suddenly approved. 
‘Using the cameras we should be able to ID whoever is responsible.’ 
All present agreed that this seemed like a reasonable plan. However, Ms. Bless objected to the TA. Having a TA trailing Sam would both make him feel like he was no longer trusted and perhaps cause other students to assume things about him that might be damaging to his slowly healing image. She proposed instead that the TA be assigned a task that would keep the hallway in question manned and that staff be asked to increase their presence in the hallways during passing time. 
This modified plan was met with a reasonable amount of enthusiasm and all parties returned to their jobs hopeful that this day would be brighter for everyone, especially Sam, than yesterday was. 


‘That damn lady is around again’ Trevor sighed to Noah as they rounded the corner.
‘She is here all the time’ Noah responded ‘I think she’s watching for us. Clearly the cry baby snitched.’ 
‘I heard he missed two classes and lunch and the teachers finally found him sobbing in his locker’ laughed Tyler. 
‘I suppose he’s free of the locker as long as a guard is posted.’ Trevor growled. 
‘We could always smear him at lunch’ sneered Tyler. 
‘He always has his own lunch now, which makes it impossible to accidentally nudge his tray.’ Noah pondered. ‘But, what if we hide his lunch? He will have to go buy one.’ 
And so, in the business of the hallway and the chaos that the promise of food can bring, the three of them swooped in, deprived Sam of his lunch box, and skipped off happily too lunch to await the hilarity of spilled food. 
Sam watched them run away with his lunch and didn’t even bother following. He almost WANTED to be locked in his locker. At least inside his locker he was alone. At least there no one was judging him or insulting him. 
Instead he locked himself in a stall in the bathroom and spent lunch convincing himself that crying would absolutely not make his day any better. 


Tyler, Trevor, and Noah were so annoyed that yet another well laid plan was destroyed that they didn’t even bother to plan their next interaction. They came back from lunch to find that the TA had stepped away from ‘working on the bulletin boards’ and that Sam was just emerging from the bathrooms. 
A few well placed fists and a whole lot of insults later, and Sam sat in the middle of the hallway with a bloody nose. All three were so surprised by the amount of blood that they fled immediately. 
The TA found Sam not moments later after emerging from the girls bathroom and took him to the nurse. And Principal Clement, praising the Lord that she had placed a temporary camera in the hallway while waiting for the system to be installed, reviewed the footage. 
If didn’t take long to ID Noah. The other two were harder to identify. The poor video quality coupled with their dark sweatshirts and pre-teen tendency to wear the hoods up made it incredibly difficult to guess who they were. The blood on Noah’s knuckles was enough to incriminate him even without the video, and so, Noah’s parents were called, Kate was called, and another gathering took place in Principal Clement’s office. 
Anne Sherman, Noah’s mother, came prepared to protect her dear, sweet, son’s innocence. However, after seeing his bloody knuckles, Sam’s face, and the video of the attack, Anne Sherman looked ready to burn him alive simply with the heat of her glare. 
As principal Clement explained about the daily locker time that Sam was facing and her belief that the two incidents were connected the gears in Anne’s head started spinning. 
She apologized profusely to both Sam and Kate, swore that such behaviour would NEVER happen again, and turned to Principal Clement with a determined glint in her eye. 
‘Principal Clement. Clearly the Noah Sherman who attends school here every day is NOT the Noah Sherman who I raised and taught the difference between right and wrong. He clearly is in need of a full time aid to help him recognize right from wrong.’
Principal Clement looked quite shocked at the suggestion but did not have time to answer before Anne continued. 
‘I understand that your budget and staffing probably does not have any such individual available so I would like to volunteer. I would like to follow him from class to class, through the hallways, sit with him at lunch, and generally be stuck to him like a barnacle on a ship. If he puts a single toe out of line I will report him myself and there will be consequences both at school and at home. As I work at the clinic, I think you will find that I can provide proof of all necessary training and certification to pass any legal hurdles.’ 
Noah’s face had gone from bright red to white as a sheet during this speech and had settled somewhere around the color of pond scum. She was serious. Her tone was not at all humorous. He would be laughed at. He would be ridiculed. He was one of the most popular kids in the grade. This would ruin him. 
Principal Clement turned to Kate with a questioning look. Kate smiled and looked to Anne.
‘That truthfully sounds wonderful, but are you sure you can afford to take that much time off from the clinic?’ 
‘I’ve saved up a few weeks of vacation. We were going to use the days to take a roller coaster vacation, but that clearly will NOT be happening this year. I’ve said for years that I wanted to spend more quality time with Noah. This is a perfect opportunity.’ 
All adults were in agreement. Noah spent the rest of the day in the office writing apologies to Sam and Kate as well as letters to each of his teacher’s to let them know that he would now have a full time aid and there would need to be a space for his aid to sit somewhat near him in each class. With each letter he wrote he became more convinced that Sam had ruined him and that there would be retribution. 


Kate found Sam in the nurse's office. His nose was broken and she needed to take him to the hospital to get him more thoroughly checked over. The nose, however, was the least of her concerns. 
Sam looked empty. His eyes were glassy and stared straight ahead, not seeing anything around him. His face was expressionless. His body was there, but his spirit had fled. 
She gathered him in her arms and began to cry. 
Rocking him back and forth she cried and whispered apologies. She was so sorry that she hadn’t protected him. So sorry that he had to go through this. So sorry that people could be so cruel. 
Eventually her tears slowed and she prayed over him. She prayed for healing, she prayed for strength, she prayed for his heart and his broken spirit.
Slowly, the shock faded and he came back. He treasured the feeling of being rocked in her arms. He had never felt this wanted and cared for. Sam wrapped his arms around Kate and basked in this moment of maternal love. 
Eventually, they had to disentangle so she could take him to the hospital, but they walked to the car with her arm around his shoulders and his arm around her waist. She was the safety line, and he was not letting go. 


Sam and Kate took the rest of the week off from school/work for recovery. Sam had suffered a concussion and couldn’t be left alone. His nose was broken and needed to be set and splinted. And he had a few rather nasty bruises. 
Anne and Noah came by each day after school to drop off notes and assignments. Sam fled to the second floor each time they came and then he and Kate spent the afternoon/evening pouring over the notes and completing the assignments. Cinder was affectionately nicknamed Shadow since she refused to leave Sam’s side. 
Little by little, Sam’s smile began to peak through the melancholy that had settled over him. They bonded over Kate’s favorite childhood movies, and they continued music lessons. 
When Monday rolled around again Sam begged not to go. The days at home had been beautiful. Couldn’t he just stay and do that? 
Kate patiently explained that she had to go back to work. She had taken a great many days off already this year and it would not be a good thing if she were to lose her job. Sam rationally understood this, but it didn’t keep him from sulking the whole way to school. 
As Kate dropped him off at the front doors of the ES, she leaned over and took his hands. 
‘Sam, remember your emergency button. If you need me, I will come. And don’t be afraid to ask an adult for help. That’s what they are there for. Ok? I love you Samuel. Don’t forget that.’ 
The words ‘I love you’ rang over and over in Sam’s ears and helped to lighten his mood. So did the sight of Anne marching along behind Noah through the hallways. Even the moody glares Tyler and Trevor sent his way didn’t put a damper on his hopeful mood. 
Sam made it through every one of his classes without incident. 
Students oohed and aahed about his nose and the visible bruises. He felt almost like a celebrity. He couldn’t go anywhere without people pointing, whispering, and asking him to tell the story. Each time he would smile politely and say there wasn’t much to tell. Some jerks had decided to turn him into a punching bag and so he now looked like this. 
At 3:00 Anne drove Sam over the the MS while Noah ignored his existence. 
Sam worked on his homework while Kate got her lessons and classroom ready for the next day. Aside from the ride with Anne and missing Taekwondo, the days were not all that different from how they used to be. Soon enough, another week was gone.


The following week Sam asked to go back to Taekwondo. The pain had lessened and he was eager to continue his lessons. 
The bike was loaded back on the rack on the back of the car, and they headed off to school. 
Monday and Tuesday passed without incident. Anne continued to act as a guardian angel, not simply watching over Noah, but managing to hover near Sam as well most of the day. 
On Wednesday Sam noticed Tyler and Trevor paying a bit more attention to him than usual and intentionally shadowed Anne till 3:00. 
Grabbing his bike of the rack, Sam threw his leg across and started down the bike path towards Taekwondo practice. 
He loved the peace of riding. He loved the wind across his face, the sound of the birds in the trees along the path, and the steady whir of the tire against the pavement. 
Suddenly sharp pain exploded across his cheekbone. Clutching his face, Sam lost his balance and crashed to the pavement scraping the skin from both palms in an attempt to catch himself.
Reaching towards his face to discover what had happened, he felt pain in his arm and turned to see a rock clatter to the pavement next to him. 
Then came another, and another, and hoots and shrieks from the bushes. 
Their time training for the baseball team was being put to use. They hurled the rocks with quick and precise aim. Some bounced relatively harmlessly from his helmet or bike frame, scratching and/or denting, but causing no pain. Some bounced off his backpack as he turned, lifted his bike to its wheels and ran. And some bit into his face, neck, arms, and legs leaving bruises, cuts, and scrapes. 
Sam ran blindly trying to escape the volley and ran sobbing right into a car that had skidded to a stop in the intersection in front of him. 
Anne bounded out of the car like a bat from hell and flew straight at the boys. Grabbing each by the backpack she firmly demanded they sit on the nearby bench and stood glaring at them with barely contained fury as she pounded the principals number into her phone. 
Sam looked up from where he lay on the ground. His legs were tangled in the bike, and blood from the cut on the cheekbone was getting into his eye and making it hard to see, but he hurt everywhere and could not bring himself to move. 
‘Holy hell’ came a voice from above him. ‘What were they thinking?’ 
He rolled his head slightly to see Noah’s face peering out the window above him. 
‘You still alive? Can you move at all?’ 
Sam ignored him. 
‘Dude! Do I need to call 911?’ 
Sam groaned and shifted again to look at Noah. 
‘No. Call my mom.’
And then he closed his eyes and let the pain carry him away. 


Principal Clement was livid. This was a tricky situation since it had taken place off campus and the only witnesses were a child who had already been suspended for abusing the victim, and his mother. 
She had zero doubt that Anne spoke the truth, and Noah was shaken enough by the violence of the situation that he confessed everything. The years of verbal abuse. The daily locking of the locker, the dumping of his food, and every name that he could remember that they had ever called him. 
‘We didn’t mean anything by it. I’m not even sure how it began, or why. No one seemed to mind. Sam didn’t even fight back. But it was never supposed to go this far. I never wanted to actually hurt him.’ 
Trevor also seemed shaken by the event. While he was nowhere near as talkative as Noah, he did admit to throwing a couple of the rocks but claimed that he had only aimed at the bike. 
‘I just wanted to scare him. I never meant to hurt him!’ 
Tyler said nothing. 
Tyler’s father demanded to see evidence, refused to listen to Anne’s retelling of the story, and marched out of the office with his son in tow after hearing that both boys were being suspended for the next two days and would be serving after school detentions for the following week. 
Trevor’s father, on the other hand, listened in stony silence and nodded agreement to each punishment. He shook the principals hand and assured her that Trevor would not lay a finger on Sam again. When he turned to Kate he looked her in the eye and told her that Sammy boy had no more to fear from Trevor. He added that Sam’s father was a close friend of his and he would be making sure Trevor understood that Sam was 100% off limits. 
Sam was at the hospital with Mary during this time getting cleaned up, bandaged, and having some x-rays. Mary was broaching the subject of moving him to another town for his own safety and well being, and as usual, he was refusing to respond. 
That night, Kate, Sam, and Mary sat around the table for a quiet and tense dinner. Kate was terrified that Mary thought she hadn’t done enough to protect Sam and would take him away. Sam was heartbroken that he had finally found the answer to what would make Kate send him away. Mary was torn. 
After dinner, Mary asked for some time alone with Sam, so Kate took the dogs for a walk. 
‘Sam, we need to talk this through and makes some decisions. The silent treatment isn’t going to work. I need to hear your thoughts. 
‘On one hand, I’ve never seen you do so well in school. Over the last couple of months you have seemed happy and confident during our check-ins. On the other hand, this abuse has been going on for years and you have refused to let the adults in your life protect you. Maybe it is time for a fresh start?’ 
Sam stared at his hands and mumbled something intelligible. 
‘Sam, you know I couldn’t understand that. Please speak up.’ 
Sam began quietly crying. 
‘Why do you want to make me leave?’ 
‘Oh Sam, I’m not going to make you leave. If this is where you want to be, and you feel safe here, we can make that work.’ 
‘I love her. And she loves me. And we take care of each other. She listens to me, and she cares about what I think. I don’t want to lose that. I want to stay here forever.’ 
‘Well Sam, you know I can’t promise that. Your father still has the right to try to reclaim you when he gets out of prison, but, if you want to stay here for the time being, I will file the necessary paperwork.’ 
Can I go tell Kate?’ 


There was a great deal of celebration over the next few days; celebration that Sam got to stay, celebration that his tormentors had been identified, celebration that Mary approved… And mixed in with all the celebrating was moments of tears because their emotions were so close to the surface. 
By Friday they were no longer crying at the drop of a hat, and Sam’s cuts and bruises were beginning to heal. As the bruises on his face faded, so did the fear in his heart. Though the uncertainty of the future still gnawed at him constantly. 
Mary had suggested that maybe it was time for a second child to join the family, so that the two of them would not be so emotionally dependent on each other. As such, they spent much of the days away from school planning, dreaming, and preparing for Callie, who was going to join them in a couple weeks. 
Her file said she was into art, specifically drawing and painting, so they set up an art studio in the attic. Her file also said she loved chocolate, fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and tacos. So they planned out a menu for her first week with them so that she could have all of her favorite foods. 
Focusing on someone else for a few days helped themcreate some distance from the event. 


When Trevor rang Noah’s bell on Friday, he was a sight to behold. His father had not been exaggerating when he had said that he would make it clear to Trevor not to ever touch Sam again. 
Noah opened the door and gasped in shock. Trevor was twitchy, was sporting numerous cuts and bruises on his face, and his eyes looked permanently startled. 
‘Woah, dude, what happened?’ 
‘I… I came to say that I’m sorry for my behavior. I understand now that it was wrong and hurtful.’ Trevor mumbled to the ground. 
‘Um… you didn’t hurt me.’ Noah was getting more concerned. 
‘Yes, I did. I didn’t stop you. I didn’t stop any of us. And so we all got hurt, but none of us as much as Sam.’ 
‘Yeah… He’s actually pretty cool. I don’t know why we never gave him a chance. But seriously, what happened to you. He didn’t do this, did he?’ 
‘No, my dad thought I should get to feel everything I did to him. So I’ve been locked in a cabinet, missed meals, been shoved around, insulted, and even had to ride my bike around the yard while he threw rocks at me.
My mom kinda lost it when he started throwing rocks and got me out of there. She suggested I take a few hours and go make some apologies. I was going to go to Sam’s, but I don’t know where he lives.’ 
‘I’ll ask my mom if I can take you. I’m grounded till the end of time, but she might let me go if it is for an apology. Hold on.’ 
Anne, who had been waiting nearby, announced her presence by saying ‘I’ve got the car keys, I think you both owe Sam some apologies. Trevor, it’s good to see you.’ 
‘Oh, um, Mrs. Sherman, I was wondering. You know how you are helping Noah to not make stupid mistakes? Could you help me too?’ 
‘I’d need to talk to your mom or dad about that.’ 
‘I think they will agree. I just know that Tyler isn’t going to let this go, and I don’t want to go back to doing things like this.’ 
‘Very well, type in your phone number and I’ll call from the car while you make your apologies.’ 
And so, the tranquility of life at ‘the church’ was abruptly halted when two of the three tormentors stood side by side on the steps and rang the bell. 
Kate came to the door and recognized both boys. She immediately felt angry and protective and wanted to throw them bodily out into the street. But she didn’t. She looked more closely and saw the fear, the pain, and the uncertainty and decided to hear them out. 
‘Mrs… I mean Ms… Um…’ 
‘Call me Kate’
‘Oh, um, Kate? We were hoping we could talk to Sam.’ 
‘May I ask what about? I’m not entirely sure he is going to want to talk to you.’ 
‘We just wanted to say that we are sorry.’ Noah chimed in.
‘I see. And do you think that saying you are sorry is going to fix everything?’ 
‘No’ Trevor sighed ‘I don’t think there is much of any way to fix it. But we can say sorry and we can promise never to do it again.’ 
‘Well, that’s a start. I’ll go see if he is willing to see you.’ 
It took some cajoling, but Kate reminded Sam that he was going to have to see them sooner or later anyway and that he might as well get it over with here, on his turf, without an audience. 
The apologies were awkward. No one was quite sure where to look, what to say, or what to do once the words had been spoken. Both Kate and Sam, however, were pleasantly surprised to discover that the boys actually seemed to be sincere. 
Anne came from the car at that point to let everyone know that Trevor’s mom had agreed to the plan and Anne would be keeping an eye on both of them at school for the next two weeks. She then reminded Noah that he was grounded and they trudged back to the car to go home. 
Kate looked at the cuts and bruises Trevor was sporting and invited him in. 
‘Trevor, you look like you could use a snack. Do you want to come in?’ 
The shock on his face turned inquisitive as he turned to Sam.
‘Would that be ok?’ 
‘I guess.’ 
So, while Sam went and practiced his Taekwondo upstairs, Kate set out a plate of cookies and then cleaned and bandaged cuts, dug out some more ice packs, and set an extra place for dinner. 
She asked Sam to give Trevor the grand tour, which was met with a stunning lack of enthusiasm. Kate took the opportunity to share that hate often comes from a lack of understanding. Showing Trevor who they were and inviting him in might teach him to understand and empathize with them instead of fearing or hating them. 
A quick text to Anne got her Trevor’s home number and she called and thanked them for sending Trevor over, commented that the boys were working on reconciling their differences, and inquired if Trevor could stay for dinner. 
Trevor’s mom, Lynn, still in a panic over her husband's violent outbursts towards her eldest, declared that Trevor could and maybe should stay as long as he wanted. So Kate suggested that she would drop him off Sunday afternoon after the boys had lots of time to work things out and Lynn agreed and ended the call when the drunken roaring of Trevor’s father began. 
So Kate called the boys back to the kitchen for dinner and to let them know the plan. 
‘Trevor, I just got off the phone with your mom’ 
The little color in Trevor’s face drained away. 
‘Am I in trouble?’ 
‘No, not at all, she just gave you permission to stay for dinner and spend the night. Actually, you are here till Sunday afternoon. How does that sound?’ 
The relief in his face broke Kate’s heart a bit. After years of teaching she knew that generally a bully didn’t have the best home life, but the fear on his face and the panic in Lynn’s voice were going to haunt her dreams. Sam may or may not thank her for this, but she could not send Trevor right back home to gather more bruises and cuts. 
‘So, eat up, both of you, and you two are on dish duty tonight.’ 
Kate pried Sam back out of his shell over dinner by chatting about Callie, commenting on Cinder’s shadow like qualities, and asking about his most recent reading selections. She made no move to actively engage Trevor yet, it was important for Trevor to see this side of Sam. Trevor seemed to agree as he watched the conversation with avid interest. 
During dishwashing, Kate turned on one of Sam’s favorite CDs and the two of them hummed and sang along while they worked. Sam washed, Trevor rinsed and dried, and then Kate put the dishes away in the cupboards. 
After dinner they picked out a movie and the three of them settled on the couch to watch. 
Kate had intentionally picked a funny movie that she was pretty sure neither had seen, and the boys continued to shock themselves by bonding over what parts of the movie were the funniest. As the end credits played, Kate asked Sam to go pick out a book for their guest and then turned to talk to Trevor. 
‘How are the bandages? Do you need any more Tylenol?’ 
‘They feel much better Ms. Kate. Thank you for helping.’ 
‘Trevor, I want you to know a few things before we all go to bed tonight. First, I’m proud of you for coming to apologize. Apologizing is a hard thing to do, but worth it in the end. Second, while Sam is my first priority, if you ever need me, know that I’m here, and I’m always willing to help. And finally, I’m very glad to have met you.’ 
With that she and Sam led the way upstairs. They settled Trevor in Callie’s future room and informed him that Saturday mornings were for sleeping in and chores. Sam gave him the book he had picked out, 
by C.S. Lewis, and suggesting that reading was sometimes a good way to relax for sleeping and that if he woke up early he could read until the rest were up and about. 
And so, former enemies, Trevor and Sam slept that night with nothing but a wall between them. Though ‘slept’ might be a bit of an overstatement. All residents of the house tossed and turned. Kate spent much of the night praying for the boys and wishing there was more she could do to soothe their pain. Trevor spent most of the night alternating between waiting for his father to burst through the door and drag him home to finish the job and reading his book to distract himself. Sam spent a great deal of time thinkin.
At first, he had been angry that Kate had invited Trevor in. She was supposed to be HIS and he wasn’t a fan of sharing her with someone whom he disliked so intensely. But seeing him whimper in pain as she cleaned his cuts had gone a long way to softening his heart. He himself had been in that position only two days before. A part of him was happy that Trevor now understood the pain, but he didn’t like that part of himself very much and he was pretty sure Kate wouldn’t either. 
Finally, around three in the morning when he heard the sound of crying coming from Trevor’s room yet again he got up, turned on a light, and thumped around his room. When he was quite sure that Trevor had heard him and had stopped crying, he crept out into the hall and knocked on Trevor’s door. 
‘Hey,’ he whispered ‘you awake?’ 
‘Yeah, sorry, did I wake you up’ 
‘Yeah, but it’s ok. Want to see something?’ 
The two and Cinder crept quietly down the hall and up the creaky flight of stairs to the attic. Through the window, the stars sparkled above and below, the glow of the distant city lights, looked like an elfin city in one of the many stories Sam loved. 
‘I love coming up here when I can’t sleep. It is so peaceful. It’s hard to be afraid when looking at all the stars.’ 
‘What are you afraid of?’ 
‘You. Or I was anyway. Noah, and Tyler. But I’m less afraid now. I know you can hurt me, but I also know Kate will always come to take care of me, and that makes me less afraid. What are you afraid of?’ 
‘Everything.’ 
Sam laughed a surprised laugh. You cannot possibly be afraid of everything. You are one of the bravest people I know! 
It was Trevor’s turn to laugh. ‘Then, dude, you don’t know me at all. I’m afraid of spiders. I’m afraid of my dad. I’m afraid of pain. I’m afraid that if I disagree with my friends I will lose them. I’m afraid for my mom and my little brother and sisters. I’m afraid that if I make dad mad again, he might hurt them for real. I’m afraid of being locked in small spaces, I just discovered that one, actually. I’m afraid that everyone would be better off if I wasn’t around. And I’m afraid of you. I’m afraid that you know more about me than anyone else and you could use that.’ 
‘How do I know more about you than anyone else? We have never even had a conversation till yesterday, well, one that wasn’t about how stupid I was.’ 
‘Yeah, but you know my fears. I’ve never told anyone that. I’m not sure why I told you. You are right though, it’s hard to be afraid up here.’ 
The two laid back on the floor and stared up at the stars, letting the silence hang between them. It wasn’t uncomfortable silence this time. It was a silence full of possibility. 
‘I won’t tell anyone about your fears’ whispered Sam as he felt sleep creeping near to claim him.
‘Thank you. And I will protect you. I promise.’ whispered Trevor as a feeling of peace descended on him and he slipped into dreams. 
Kate crept from her vigil on the stairs, grateful for the loud feet of sleepy children, and collected some blankets. Once their breathing was steady and slow she slipped into the attic and covered each of them, slipping a throw pillow under their heads, and slipped back down to her bedroom where she cried tears of joy that melted into peaceful sleep. 


Saturday was more fun than they had had in ages. With Trevor to help out, the chores were done in no time and the three of them took a picnic to the park where they watched the dogs chase leaves, squirrels, and each other to their heart's content. On the way home, they stopped at a few stores and made some purchases that would furnish and supply a guest room. 
While Kate found the necessary supplies, the boys walked around the store chatting and coming up with grand plans for things they could do with the rest of the day. She vetoed swimming because of their open cuts, the trampoline park because of their many bruises, and the movie theater because there was nothing they really wanted to see that was currently playing. She suggested that they do all three in a few weeks once they were healed up and the new superhero movie they wanted had come out. Instead she approved an hour at the arcade followed by dinner out and then camping out in the backyard at home. 
And so, Saturday flew by in a blur of fun and bonding. Sam taught Trevor how to do the balance beam and a few techniques from Taekwondo, and Trevor taught sam how to dribble a soccer ball. Kate and the delivery men set up the new bedroom. The two boys raced, competed, and teamed up in the arcade and then spent the whole of dinner describing every moment of the games to an amused and happy Kate. 
That evening she had to order them to take showers because they were so busy having fun and scold them into laying out clothes for church the next day. Trevor was, of course, borrowing from Sam since he hadn’t been expecting to stay and so it took a few minutes to find some nicer clothes that would fit his larger frame.  
Once both were tucked into bed and Kate had made sure the pillows and blankets were still in the attic for when they inevitably snuck up there, again, she retired with a smile and a thankful prayer for the healing power of fun and empathy. 


The two battered boys drew a great many looks at church the next day, and a few unfriendly comments, but Kate’s friends were quick to correct misunderstandings and tell the story of bullying and courage, and that Kate was, in fact, not an abusive parent. 
The message, all about grace and forgiveness, seemed exceptionally well timed, and the boys both listened attentively to the story of the prodigal son’s many mistakes and failures, and the unfailing love of his father. They listened in awe as the minister explained that God was like that father and would love us no matter how many mistakes we made. And their faces took on a look of determination when the minister described how their heavenly father was just waiting for them to decide to come back to him and to choose to accept his love. 
It was one of the happiest days of Kate’s life when both boys bowed their heads at the call and prayed the simple prayer of acceptance that the minister led. She knew it would be a long road for both boys and that there would be many missteps along the way, but she was overjoyed that they felt the call and had accepted the love of God. 


When Kate called Lynn to get an address for dropping off Trevor, it was suggested that perhaps his father needed a bit more time to cool down, and so the two agreed that Trevor could stay indefinitely while things calmed down at home. 
Trevor was thrilled. And the boys celebrated all afternoon. 
Kate tentatively called Mary, bracing for the worst. 
‘Mary, I have something we need to talk about. You know the boy, Trevor, who was bullying Sam? Well, he showed up here on Friday, bruised, cut, and starving, looking at least as bad as Sam had looked on Wednesday. You know me, I couldn’t send him away like that. So I fed him and bandaged him and let him stay the night.’ 
‘Oh no, what happened?’ 
‘Nothing! That is, nothing bad. The two have become good friends. It’s the strangest thing. I’d love if you could stop by for a cup of tea and see them for yourself.’ 
‘How about 4:00? We can count it as the week’s check-in.’ 
‘Perfect!’ 
Kate wrangled the boys and filled them in on her plan. 
‘Sam, you know I’m not allowed to have ‘random people’ living here while being a foster parent. When Mary finds out Trevor is staying here it could cause problems, especially since she will remember Trevor from last week’s incident.’ 
‘So we dont’ tell her.’ Sam spoke confidently.
‘I can hide’ volunteered Trevor.
‘No. Absolutely not. We are not going to be dishonest, we just all need to be aware of the situation. I will talk to Mary about it, but you two need to make sure that a) you continue to look like you are having a blast together, and b) that you are on your best and most polite behavior. Deal?’ 
‘Deal’ said Trevor.
‘Wait, what if she doesn’t like it. What if she says that you can’t have anyone else here?’ 
‘Then it will be your turn Samuel to turn on your persuasiveness. Convince her. How could she say no to that smile and those eyes?’ 
And so, full of hope, they waited for Mary. 
Mary was pleasantly shocked to find out that Kate had not been exaggerating. The boys were busy playing hide and seek around the house when she came, transitioned to making up silly songs together about their favorite superheroes by the middle of the tea cup, and had come to breathlessly ask if they could have pizza for dinner by the time she had reached the bottom. 
‘Well, who is this bright eyed, excited, ball of energy?’ Mary said looking Sam up and down. 
She also inspected Trevor and saw what Kate had been trying to say. He was clearly abused, and sending him home was not an option if his parents had willingly sent him away. She would obviously have to look into his family and make a report. For the time being, this was a safe place for him. She could delay Callie’s arrival by another week while she dealt with this… 
‘Boys, Mary and I need a few minutes. Why don’t you take the dogs for a walk and we will make pizza when you get back. Deal?’ 
‘Yes!’ they skipped happily to the back door to collect the leashes and amid a stream of conversation about books, superheroes, and their favorite pizza toppings, they were gone. 
‘You wanted me to see him. You knew I couldn’t send him away after I saw him.’ 
‘Of course! You can see plain as day that he has been abused. According to him, his father is abusive and did all of that to teach him to leave Sam alone. He is afraid. There is no way I can send him home. His mother is more than happy to have him stay here where his father can’t touch him. This is her phone number if you would like to talk to her.’ 
‘And the father?’ 
‘I haven’t heard from the father. He yells sometimes while I’m talking to Lynn, but the only thing I have coherently heard was ‘if that’s that coward you birthed, tell him to stay hidden under whatever rock he crawled under.’’
Mary nodded sadly. 
‘I’ve made up another room. The two boys are loving having a friend around to talk to. They sneak out of bed each night to stare out the windows at the stars and have deep conversations. I think more healing has happened in the last two days than the weeksI tried to talk to Sam about this. He finally has someone who truly understands.’ 
Mary sighed and got up. 
‘You have made more work for me, that’s for sure, but I can’t find it in myself to be upset. I’ll delay Callie’s transition while we sort through this.’ 
‘If you think that is what’s best, I understand, but we have Callie’s room ready, and Sam is very much looking forward to having a sister.’ 
‘Well, we will see how the next couple of days go and then we will chat again.’ 
‘Thank you for coming.’ 
‘Tell Sam goodbye for me.’ 
‘Of course.’ 
As Kate closed the front door behind Mary the boys came whooping in from the back door. 
‘You did it! You persuaded her!’ 
‘You loons. You know she can hear you, right?’ 
‘I don’t care. I’m so happy!’ 
And another day came to a close with homemade pizza and their new tradition of reading aloud a few chapters before heading to their rooms for pre-bed productivity. 
There was a momentary hiccup when they all realized Trevor didn’t have any of his school stuff with him, but Trevor quickly assured them that he hadn’t taken any of his school stuff home on Wednesday so it was all in his locker at school. He blushed a bit when Kate asked how he had done his make-up assignments without his school stuff, and assured her he would work on it during detention that afternoon and would bring his things home today. 
The after school schedule required some talking about as well. It was decided that Anne would resume dropping Sam off at Taekwondo for the week, and Kate would pick up Trevor at school and then swing over to the athletics building to pick up Sam. 
With all the nuts and bolts for the week squared away, lunches packed and in the fridge, and clothes laid out, the boys were sent to bed with a reminder that they needed to be well rested for school and shouldn’t stay up all night talking. 
So, of course, they did. They snuck up to the attic again, knowing full well that Kate was aware of their nightly visits since she had made up beds of sorts by the window for them. They were both nervous for Monday. So much had changed since Wednesday for the two of them. And yet so little would have changed at school. Were they going to be able to be friends at school? Was it going to work? Would Trevor get sucked back into his old habits with his old friends? They whispered their secret fears to the stars and each other and fell asleep on their pile of blankets hoping for the best. 


Monday was terrible. They both knew it was going to be. Trevor spent a large portion of the morning in the office being informed of what he had missed, meeting with the counselor about his aggressive tendencies, and meeting with the principal to discuss the rest of his punishment. 
Tyler was there through all of it, and acted as though nothing had changed. For him, it hadn’t. Trevor tried so hard to keep to his newfound promises. He managed to not laugh when Tyler made fun of Mrs. Whittle. He managed to look ashamed while Tyler laughed off the punishment. He avoided eye contact when Tyler made rude gestures at the principal when he thought she wasn’t looking. He just kept picturing the window full of stars, his new friend, and the promise that God had forgiven him and wanted him to make better choices and he got through. But Tyler was furious. When the principal stepped out for a moment to collect their lists of missing assignments he rounded on Trevor.
‘What happened to you, pansy? You are even worse than Noah! At least he has an excuse. He can’t do anything fun with his mom hanging over his shoulder, but she is only here for two more weeks, then it’s back to fun. So pull your head out of your ass and appreciate a sense of humor.’ 
‘Tyler, I’m not doing any of that anymore. You know my dad. He was incredibly clear that if I hurt anyone again, I won’t have legs to walk on. Noah’s mom is going to be watching me too. She sorted it with my mom. And, I know this isn’t going to make sense, but I’m living with Sam now.’ 
‘What? What’s wrong with you? Did they brainwash you?’ 
‘No one brainwashed me. But my dad did make me see how much we had hurt Sam. And made it clear I wasn’t welcome at home right now. I don’t want to do that anymore. I’m out. I’m done.’ 
When Principal Clement came back into the room she found Tyler on top of Trevor screaming at him that he was a traitor and throttling him. She used her drill sergeant voice to separate them, sent Trevor to the nurse with strict instructions that when he was finished there he should report to Mrs. Sherman and attend his classes. She would see him at 3:05 and not a moment later here in the office. 
She then turned to her desk and called in some backup. Tyler was clearly beyond rational conversations and had showed no remorse during the entire ordeal. He obviously could not be returned to any of the rooms with other children, and she was frankly scared to be alone with him. His fists were clenched, he was breathing heavily, and his eyes were narrowed to slits. 
It took a few minutes, in which she calmly continued her work and ignored him, before Officer Steinman walked through the door. He stood by the door like a sentinel and Principal Clement turned to Tyler. 
‘Tyler, this is Officer Steinem. He is here because of your violent outbursts as a protective measure both for you, and for all of us you may be tempted to strike. Know that your previous confrontation was on camera, and as you were warned before, was in violation of your probationary status as a student of this school. 
We are calling in your parents, and I regret to inform you that unless drastic changes occur in your behavior you will no longer be allowed to attend here.’ 
Tyler, running on pure adrenaline at this point, lept towards Principal Clement with howls of outrage. Officer Steinem stepped between the two and took the punch to the chest.
‘Son, sit down and keep your hands to yourself or I will be forced to restrain you.’ 
‘You can’t restrain a kid. That’s illegal.’ 
‘It’s actually not. Not when that child has proven himself to be a danger to himself and others. Now sit down.’ 
Tyler lowered himself seething into a chair with a muttered ‘just wait till my father hears about this.’ 
Tyler’s father was, in fact, as belligerent as he had been before, but the presence of Officer Steinem persuaded him to hear Principal Clement out this time. It was soon made clear to him that because Tyler refused to make any changes to his behavior or show any remorse, and had violated his probationary status by further acts of violence, he was expelled. 
There were options to be discussed. He could go to the alternative school on the other side of town, he could be homeschooled, he could try to get into a private school, or the family could move and he could try again somewhere else where he would have a clean slate. He could also get some counseling while at one of the other options and come back in a few months to try again. 
Each suggestion was met with yelling and accusations. Tyler’s father felt that the principal had it out for his son. They were good working people, not mamby pamby rich people who could afford to sit around teaching their son when they paid taxes for the government to do that. Moving was not an option. How was the family expected to just suddenly have new jobs in another town. This was unreasonable and could not possibly be legal. 
Principal Clement and Officer Steinem reminded them that Ridgmont Alternative School was an option and that if he was able to get through the rest of the year there without incident he would be able to transfer back if he wanted to at the beginning of the following year. 
In the end, after much yelling and blustering, they chose to try out the alternative school and were eventually escorted from the property to a great sigh of relief of all involved. 


Tyler’s departure was a turning point for the group. Noah and Trevor were still shadowed by Anne each day, but she was beginning to wean them off needing her to help them make good choices by only walking them to class and leaving them alone under the supervision of the teachers. She assisted with lunch duty but did not sit with them any more, and allowed them to go play during recess times as long as they stayed within her line of sight. 
Things progressed well at home as well until one night when Trevor complained of a stomach ache and went to bed early. By morning, he had a high fever and was alternating between chills and hot flashes. She dropped Sam off at school, called in sick and brought Trevor back home. 
By the time they got back he was moaning in pain and vomiting long after there was anything left to vomit. 
Kate desperately wanted to take him to the hospital, but since she was neither his parent, nor his legal guardian, she was stuck. 
She called Lynn, but Lynn was at work, and she had no idea how to track her down since her house cleaning moved her from house to house and the addresses were confidential. 
She had no choice but to track down Terrance, Trevor’s father,  and beg him for his help. A bundled up Trevor slept fitfully on the back seat with a bucket near his head. 
When she pulled up to the build site, she was able to get the attention of one of the workers nearby. He called Terrance over. 
‘Terrance, I’m so sorry to bother you at work, but Trevor is very sick. I want to take him to the hospital.’ 
‘So take him. What’s that got to do with me. He clearly has decided to no longer be part of my family.’ 
‘I wish I could, Terrance, but legally, I’d need to be a parent or guardian.’ 
‘So be a guardian.’ 
‘I would need signed papers.’ 
‘Then write me a damned paper and I will sign it. I’ve got work to do.’ 
Terrance had never forgiven Trevor for running away on him, or Lynn for letting him go, and he certainly held no soft spot for the woman who was enabling him now. 
With nothing else to do, Kate called in a favor from her lawyer friend Sylvia and had some temporary transfer of guardianship papers drawn up and brought over. Terrance scribbled something resembling a signature at the bottom, and Sylvia and the forman signed as witnesses. 
With the paperwork in order, Kate finally got Trevor to the ER where it was established that he had Mono and would need IVs to get him rehydrated and medication to control his fever. Once he was stabilized and could keep food down he could go home.
Kate sat by his bedside throughout the day, writing sub plans, and filing for medical leave days for the rest of the week. When he would wake, she would coax him to drink some broth and mop his brow with cold cloths till he would fall back asleep. 
Anne brought Sam over after school and then took him home with her and Noah for the night, promising to bring him over again the next day after school when Trevor should be getting released. She picked up the dogs too, which was a blessing, and helped Sam’s anxieties as well. 
Lynn showed up that evening after she finally received the voicemails. She had fought through a storm of emotions since she got the message and talked to her husband. She was angry at him for giving up on her son. She was angry at herself for failing her son by not being there for him when he needed her. She was grateful to Kate for taking such good care of him, and angry at Kate for keeping her son from her, while also recognizing that she was the one who told him to stay there. She spent the drive over sorting through her feelings and making very little progress. 
Walking in and seeing Kate mopping his brow while he clung to her hand immediately cleared her head and she stood in the hallway watching. The emotion she settled on was gratitude. This woman was caring for her child more gently and more fully than she ever had. She was tempted to just turn and walk away, but something forced her feet in through the door. 
As soon as Kate saw her, she stepped aside and volunteered to give them some space. Lynn answered by asking for the document and adding her name under her husband’s signature. 
‘Thank you’ she said, embracing Kate. ‘Thank you so much for taking care of my baby.’ 
The two sat there for hours, alternately talking and dozing off, trading off caring for Trevor when he woke. 
Before the sun rose, Lynn announced that she had to go get ready for work, thanked Kate again for caring for Trevor, and asked if she could stop by and see him later in the week. Kate informed her that she was welcome absolutely any time, and a new bond was formed. 


Trevor and Sam continued to become close, and while they were very different people, they found they had a lot in common. Trevor preferred sports after school to Taekwondo, and throughout the year he took part in the school’s intramurals for soccer and baseball. Both boys joined for cross country and trained together with Cinder every evening to get in shape. 
They also both joined the band the choir and continued to learn piano and guitar in the evenings. They continued to be voracious readers, and both boys were diligent about doing their schoolwork. Several teachers commented that Kate must be a miracle worker, but she laughed and said all she did was model her love of books, music, and her passion for learning. The rest was the boy’s inherent desire to please and their bond that encouraged them to find shared passions. 
Callie fit right in as well. There were a few hiccups when she wanted Cinder to sleep with her and Sam wasn’t willing to give her up, or when she would follow the two of them around and they would get tired of being followed. However, she was feisty, and didn’t let their exasperation get to her. She painted them both pictures of all of their favorite things, sang along as they played their instruments (no matter how bad the pitch or tempo were), and was quick to become a fan of super heroes (though her insistence that Wonder Woman was far cooler than any of the others often caused exasperation with her foster brothers). 
She was two years younger, so the three rarely saw each other at school, but once they got home, they were the three musketeers. With some adult help and supervision, they built an epic treehouse in the old oak, and hung a tire swing. They had active imaginations and would act out scenes from their favorite books as they ran around the yard. Kate sometimes joined and sometimes gave them the space to work things out on their own, and for the  most part, everyone was happy. 


Weeks went by smoothly as October turned to November, and the trust between the four grew. They often talked about how they had come to be a family and what the future might look like. Trevor called his mom daily now to chat about life, and she would stop by with his siblings for dinner about once a week. 
One such evening, Lynn showed up sporting a black eye and little Cole had some nasty bruises around his wrist. Kate asked Lynn to help with the dishes so they could chat while the children took the dogs for a run in the backyard and played on the new tire swing under the oak tree. 
‘Lynn, I don’t mean to pry, and feel free to ask me to mind my own business, but are you ok?’ 
‘Honestly, I don’t know.’ 
Time passed as they scrubbed and rinsed the dishes, each trying to figure out how to navigate the rest of the conversation. 
‘I just want you to know that I’m here for you, if you ever want to talk, or if you need anything.’
Lynn sighed and set down the dishrag. 
‘I do want to talk, I’m just not sure what to say. I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened, but he’s my husband. And he’s a good husband. He takes care of us. And I know he cares about the children. It’s just… after a long day, he sometimes has a little too much to drink to help him relax, and then he’s not so careful. He doesn’t realize his own strength. And his emotions run a little crazy.’ 
‘That’s why Trevor is living here. And I’m so happy he is. But I’ve got more space. If you ever need to get away for a few days, my door is open.’ 
Lynn was thankful for the offer but insisted that they were fine. She did, however, broach the subject of making Trevor’s stay more permanent. It was obvious to both women that Trevor was thoroughly attached to this new life and had no intention of returning to his former home. For now, however, the temporary appointment of guardianship was enough. 
Two days later Kelsie was wearing a cast and Lynn and the four younger children moved in. 
The art studio was moved to the ground floor, Lynn and the girls got the attic, and Trevor moved in with Sam so the younger boys could have his room. Mary was informed, unofficially, and suggested that Lynn and the other children be termed a ‘temporary house guest’ so as to not ruffle any legal feathers. 
The little old church was filled to the brim with children, and the expected level of squabbles and noise filled it’s sunny spaces. Kate and Lynn sat down to sort out expectations and finances the first night. Lynn insisted that since most of the kids were hers she would finance the grocery bill. Kate insisted that since the house was hers, all utility bills and house payments would be financed by her. 
Lynn and all of the children were added to the chore rotation so that no one ended up having to work any harder, as long as all pulled their weight. Sam, Trevor, and Cole handled most of the outdoor jobs. Callie and Andrew both turned out to be fantastic cooks and would often take turns helping to prepare the evening meals. Kelsie was an efficient cleaner and loved sweeping. Emily loved to do the laundry, and would sit on the washer or dryer reading while she waited for the load to finish. 
In no time life inside the house settled into a routine. Cole joined Trevor at soccer practice, Kelsie joined Sam at Taekwondo lessons, and both Andrew and Emily joined Callie at art lessons. All seven would join Kate in her classroom Tuesdays and Thursdays for tutoring/homework and service and she would drive them all home in the van she traded her hybrid in for. 
Lynn worked long hours at the cleaning business and would usually arrive in time for dinner and cleanup. Both women took a united front on scheduling and decided that 4-5 was chores/cooking, 5-6 was dinner and family time, 6-7 was homework, 7-8:30 was free time (as long as chores and homework were done), 8:30-9:00 was story time, and all lights went out at 9 on school nights. Cole and Kelsie, used to a bit more freedom, rebelled a bit at first, but after being firmly reminded multiple days in a row that they had not earned any free time and couldn’t play with the others because they had not finished their homework and chores… they aquicesd. 
Trevor’s dad, however, did not handle this new separation well. He often showed up drunk and angry on the front lawn demanding that the awful old witch inside give back his stupid wife and terrible children. This, obviously, did not endear him to anyone in the house and the family became good friends with Officer Steinman who would come and escort Terrance home. 
Kate and Lynn hooked up white noise machines in the bedrooms to help shield the children from witnessing these late night events, and after the second time he responded to the call in an official capacity, David Steinman gave the family his personal phone number and requested they call any time, day or night, if Terrance were to come back. 
He was as good as his word, and came at 2:30 the following morning to sit on the front steps and talk Terrance down. He recognized the hurt in the man’s drunken insults from his father’s struggle with his mom’s death and the alcoholism that had stolen his father from him. While he had been unable to help his father, he wanted to help Terrance. He knew from experience it would take time to convince the man that he needed help. 
After time number five, David finally convinced Terrance that he was not, in fact, ok and that it was not a weakness to admit it. After time number seven, Terrance finally agreed to go to an AA meeting, just to check it out. 
During this time David was often invited in for coffee, tea, or even over for dinner as a way of saying thanks. He loved the cheerful energy of the place and the warmth that seemed to emanate from it. He also found a certain single mom to be intriguing and her adoration for her foster children to be heartwarming. 
This may, or may not, have played a part in how often he answered the call. 


The beloved tradition of the night time reading had moved through the Chronicles of Narnia (Trevor empathized with Edmond and saw himself in the redemption story, Sam felt kinship with Shasta and his journey for identity, and Callie saw herself in Lucy’s refusal to be set aside or ignored), through the Wrinkle in Time series (Callie and Trevor loved Calvin’s adventurous spirit, while Andrew and Sam empathised with Meg’s awkward attempts to do the right thing, Cole and Kelsie thought the twins were quite underrated, and Emily wanted more information on the Mrs.’s), and had moved on to the Harry Potter series where Callie, Sam, and Trevor thought of themselves as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They explained that Cole and Kelsie who often joined their fun were the Weasley twins and Andrew and Emily were Neville and Luna. This caused a fair amount of good natured squabbling each day as their chosen character’s succeeded or failed, but all looked forward to their nightly reading. 
One night after Kate had read to the children and sent them off to get ready for bed, Sam stayed behind to talk about something that was bothering him. 
Sam had written to his dad weekly for the first year that his father was in prison, about once a month for the next year, and then cut down to only writing at significant moments. He had never received a letter back, and had quit writing altogether several months before he moved in with Kate. 
He felt that his current family was more his ‘real’ family than the one who had given birth to him, and was worried that when his dad got out of prison in six months he would be ripped away from the only place he had ever felt at home. He ended up crying himself to sleep on Kate’s shoulder as he begged her to be his mom and not make him leave. She cried herself to sleep begging God to let him stay. 
Mary’s check-in/dinner was the next day and the two of them pulled her aside from the chaos while Callie and Andrew finished up dinner under Lynn’s watchful eye. Sam repeated his reasonings, request, and even some of the tears from the night before to Mary as he begged her to let him stay. Mary sadly shook her head and said she had no power in this situation. She did, however, explain the processes that could possibly work. Sam had two options. He could get his dad to willingly give him up. A lawyer could draft the paperwork transferring his rights as a parent to the current guardian of the child. If he was unwilling there was little they could do. They could take him to court and Sam could argue his custody case before a judge, but few judges would take away the biological parent’s rights unless abuse could be substantiated. 
Sam ended up skipping dinner and crying himself to sleep again with Kate holding his hand and wishing she could promise to take away his pain. Once he was asleep she came down to help oversee the rest of the evening, and sent a quick email to her friend asking to set up an appointment for legal advice. 
When David stopped by that evening to check in, he found a very subdued group. The kids were sent to individual reading time since Sam was already asleep and an early bed since everyone was a bit on edge. Lynn offered to oversee the bedtime routine and said she would get to sleep early as well and see Kate in the morning. 
And so, an emotionally wrung out Kate found a concerned and calming David sitting next to her on the couch asking her what was wrong. She broke down and cried until her tears were gone before apologizing profusely and explaining the situation she was dealing with. He had seen her love of Sam and his devotion to her and knew that taking them apart would cause both a serious amount of pain. While he wanted to help, all he could do was offer a shoulder to cry on, literally. With great regret he finally walked out the door to sit on the steps with Terrance and continue their nightly conversation about love, sacrifice, and the consequences of choices. 


Terrance made a great deal of progress once he recognized the need for change. He regularly attended his AA meetings, was more often able to resist the bottle. At his sponsor’s urgering he even began seeing a counselor. 
As a reward for two solid weeks without a drink David got permission to bring him over for dinner and made him promise to be on his best behavior. The kids were happy, though tentative, to see him, and Lynn watched him like a hawk. 
At three weeks sober he came again for dinner and Lynn gave him permission to call each day to check in and say hi to his children. 
At one month Lynn agreed to come to marriage counseling with Terrance. 
And so it progressed till he was spending a great deal of his after work hours at ‘the church’ surrounded by his family and under the watchful eye of David and Kate; who found this excuse to spend time together without investigating their feelings to be quite agreeable. 
One evening when watching the children play, Terrance came and sat next to Kate. 
‘I suppose I have a lot to apologize for. I said a lot of rude things about you. In truth, I hardly recognize my children. They are happy, healthy, and flourishing. Lynn too. She is confident, calm, and looks about ten years younger. I thought I was doing the best I could for them, but I was wrong. Thank you for helping me see that.’ 
‘I’m so glad you are able to spend time with them and see them like this. But I do wonder, how long are you going to wait to ask out that wife of yours?’ 
‘What?!?’ 
‘Oh, come now. I know you want to work things out, and the way she has been watching you the last few days says she just might be ready to consider that too. So, ask her out! Take her out for dinner and remind her that you love her.’ 
‘I don’t know, do you think she will say yes?’ 
‘I truthfully don’t know, but I think she will. There is only one way to know for sure, but remember, if you really want this to work you have to be ok with either answer. If she says no you will need to be able to be calm and patient and give her the time she needs.’ 
‘But you think it’s time for me to ask?’ 
‘I do. I think she would like it a lot.’ 
Her blush and smile when he knelt and asked her if she would join him for dinner the next night confirmed all their hopes. 


Sylvia had long since drafted the custody paperwork and Sam had sent it off with yet another letter to his father explaining that he had finally found a family, was happier than he had ever been in his life, and really really wanted stay with them forever. 
He expected no response and was shocked when an envelope came from his father with the documents signed, witnessed, and notarized. There was no other note. He cried. He cried sad tears that his father hadn’t cared enough to fight for him and he cried happy tears that Kate was now legally his mom and he cried a great many other tears for emotions he couldn’t name.
He and Trevor talked far into the night about what this meant and finally broached the question, what was going to happen to Trevor when his mom and siblings moved back home. The dates had been going well, and any day now the grownups might decide it was time to move the family back home. 
Trevor was torn. His entire family seemed different now that they were here. He liked them. He had bonded more with his younger siblings in the last few weeks than in all of the years growing up. He had received more hugs and praise from his mom in these few weeks than in all other years combined, and his dad now looked at him with a touch of pride that he hadn’t known could exist. 
When they left, would the spell be broken? Would they go back to the way things were before? Would they want him to come back? Or had they gotten used to the way things worked without him? And did he want to go back? It would feel like chopping off his right arm to leave Sam behind and his right foot to walk away from Callie. It would be giving up all the support and love that Kate had poured into him. He didn’t know if he could do it. And he didn’t know how to talk about it. 
For the first time since he moved in, Trevor became sullen. He stopped spending time with Callie and Sam and hid in the treehouse by himself instead. If they came to join him he would come up with a chore that needed to be done and run off to do it, or claim the need to go lay down. Finally Sam and Callie begged Kate to interrogate him and force him to say what was bothering him. Kate knew what was bothering him. It has been bothering her too, and she had been avoiding having this conversation because she didn’t know how to lift the weight or what to say, but seeing that avoiding it had not helped, she summoned Trevor to accompany her to the grocery store and help carry things. Once they were driving she began. 
‘Trevor, are you willing to talk to me about what’s going on?’ 
‘Nothing’ 
‘So that’s a no. Well then, how about I tell you what’s going through my head. Is that ok?’ 
‘Fine’ 
‘Well, I’m missing my Trevor. He is really important to me, he finds joy in the smallest things. He is active, and friendly, and he has two best friends that miss him dearly. Have you seen him?’ 
Trevor rolled his eyes, but a slight smirk graced his face. 
‘No. He’s hiding.’ 
‘I can tell. Do you know where he is hiding? Or why?’ 
‘No.’ 
‘I see. That is a problem. Maybe if I tell you where and why I have been hiding it can help us find Trevor. You see, I’m afraid. I’m afraid that in a few weeks when your parents get back together and move out that everything will change. I’m afraid that the house will feel empty and quiet and that the laughter will be replaced with tears. And more than anything, I’m afraid that Trevor is going to leave us. So I hid inside myself and refused to come out because if I didn’t say it maybe it wouldn’t come true. But, do you know what? I’m done being afraid, Trevor. It’s not helping either of us. And it’s not helping Sam or Callie. 
If you stay with us, you can go visit your family any time. If you go with them, you can come visit us any time. This will not be goodbye. We will not let it be. Whatever you want, we will make it work. Ok?’ 
Trevor sat crying the tears he had been holding in and looking out at the trees they had parked under. 
‘I still don’t know how to stop hiding. Because I don’t know what I want.’ 
‘You don't have to know the answer yet. But can I hear some of your thoughts?’ 
And so, Trevor poured out his thoughts and uncertainties. He explained how torn he felt and how he felt guilty for feeling torn. He talked until all the words he had kept bottled inside were out and then he sat staring up through sunroof at the clouds floating by. 
They let a comfortable silence descended for a while and then took turns pointing out shapes in the clouds above. 
After a while Kate turned to face Trevor. 
‘Thank you for sharing with me. That took courage to sort through your feelings and say them out loud. Know that whatever you choose, it will not change how much Sam, Callie, and I care about you.’ 
Trevor nodded but couldn’t come up with any words he could say that wouldn’t start the tears again. 


After much prodding from Kate, Lynn finally had a similar conversation with Trevor. She told him that she loved all of her children equally and that of course she and Terrance wanted Trevor to come home with them. But she acknowledged that of all their children she and Terrance had failed Trevor the most and that this had been an amazing home for him and his other family were wonderful. And, though it broke her heart a bit to do it, she, also, gave him a choice and told him that his siblings and parents would still love him and be around even if he chose to stay. 
When Lynn relayed this conversation to Terrance it almost led to a full set-back of all he had worked for. He got angry. He had gone to all this work and done so much to bring his family home and he still wasn’t good enough for his oldest son? He was seething quietly, trying not to lash out and scare Lynn away when he felt her hand gently rest on his face and turn his head to look at her. 
‘I know it hurts. But we failed him. Not the other way around. And he is happy and healthy now which is what we want for our children. If he wants to stay, we can give him that. It would be the kindest gift we have ever given him. But it will not change how much we love him, or how much he loves us.’ 
Looking into her sad eyes and seeing that there was no fear in them helped him let go of his anger and he gently pulled her into an embrace. He held her for a long time and her calm helped ground him. 
‘You are right. He deserves a kind gift. I’ll let him know that I will support his choice when I see him tomorrow.’ 
Kate shared this latest trial with David and he teased her that if all the kids in the world had the problem of too many loving parental figures willing to raise them he would be out of a job. He also acknowledged that a great many brave conversations had been had and that as long as people were being brave he had a brave question he wanted to ask. And that is how David and Kate began dating, officially, though everyone else set the date back weeks before when he first started stopping by after his shifts for a cup of coffee and a ‘how was your day?’. 


Decisions were postponed till after Christmas and everyone pitched in to decorate the house from top to bottom. A huge tree was placed near the library, and everyone drew names to see who they would be giving gifts too this year. Terrance, Mary, and David were included in the drawing as well as the residents of the house and everyone agreed that the gifts had to be handmade and/or of limited monetary value. 
Callie drew Kate and began planning a painting for the library that would incorporate each of the people in their makeshift family. 
Sam drew Emily and set about writing a story featuring a quiet, book loving girl who followed her dreams. 
Trevor drew Andrew and convinced Sam to give him the Taekwondo uniform he had outgrown so that he could (with help) hem it to fit Andrew and his newfound passion. 
Kate drew Mary and made her a memory book filled with stories, notes, and photos from Sam and Callie’s first few months with Kate and thank you’s for all the work Mary did to find them a foster family. 
David drew Sam and dug out a box of books that he had loved as a child to pass on to another avid reader
Mary drew Callie and bent the rules by purchasing her gift, an easel that adjusted from sitting to standing to fit the young artist who could never quite stay still. 
Lynn drew Terrance and wrote up a new set of vows including promises of never again cooking fish for dinner on a night he would be home, always turning on the coffee pot before leaving for work, and continuing to find new ways to tell him how much he meant to her. 
Andrew drew Kylie and convinced his dad to help him build a treehouse in their backyard for Kylie who had fallen in love with treehouse play while at ‘the church.’ While it was too cold and icy to do the building now, he drew up the plans and presented her with a rope ladder that he had made that would hang from the entrance once they built it in the spring. 
Emily drew David and spent hours writing a story featuring a daring cop and his epic adventures. 
Cole drew Lynn and convinced Kate to help him make a necklace out of sea glass, his mother’s favorite ‘stone.’ 
Kylie drew Cole and bought him a new soccer ball and the promise that she would practice with him at least twice a week. 
Terrance drew Trevor and gave him the one thing he knew Trevor wanted but would never ask for. Freedom. He had Sylvia draw up the papers and convinced each of the adults to sign them. 
The adults divided the stockings. Lynn and Terence bought/made edible treats, ensuring that each child received their favorite candy, their favorite cookies, and a festive candy cane in their favorite color. 
Kate and David went shopping for small toys/games like yo yos, tops, and fidget toys and one new book each. 
Christmas Eve night, Christmas stories were read, stockings were hung, and carols were sung, and the group stayed up dancing to Christmas music and singing along until the eyelids started to droop. 
Once the last kid was tucked into bed, the four adults filled the stockings and headed to their own beds, Terrance heading to the attic with Lynn, while the girls had a sleepover in Callie’s room, and David bedding down on the couch in the living room so that he would be there when stockings were opened in the morning.


Christmas day dawned bright and cheerful through the frost covered windows, and the children all raced downstairs to find their stockings. While they dumped the contents out and oohed and aahed over their treasures and negotiated trades, the adults brewed coffee, baked cinnamon rolls, fried bacon and eggs, and cranked up the Christmas tunes. 
Breakfast was consumed with great enthusiasm and the dancing to the carols continued until the last of the dishes were cleaned and put away. Then, with bated breath, everyone gathered around the tree and sat down. 
Kate read the Christmas story, about a baby and a manger and no room in the inn. 
Then they each took turns adding to a prayer of thanks for their year and some wishes of good cheer for the year to come. 
They prolonged the moment by singing each person’s favorite Christmas carol and then picked up the hat full of names. One by one David drew out a name and that person received their gift. 
Most were met with excitement and gratitude, and all were encouraged to express that gratitude and appreciation to the one who had spent the time and effort to make or pick out their gift. A few were met with tears. When Lynn read her vows to Terrance as his gift they both ended up crying and everyone else cheered them on as he dropped to one knee and asked if she would stay married to him. 
They saved Trevor for last, and when it was finally his turn, Terrance handed him an official looking document and sat back down. Trevor was disappointed and confused. There had been much more fanfare and showmanship for all of the others. His felt like a let down. 
‘Read it, son’ 
So Trevor looked down to it and tried to decipher the legalese. He didn’t understand most of it, but a few words and phrases jumped out at him. ‘Joint custody, permanent, and both of his parents had signed it. So had Kate. 
He looked up with wide eyes. 
‘Merry Christmas, son. Now you have two families. And you can legally come and go as you please.’ 
The tears started again, and a group hug, that dissolved into giggles when Emily pointed out that they were a human cinnamon roll, and Cole and Andrew turned that idea into their very own bizzare carol. 
By mid afternoon everyone was partied out and stuffed with so much turkey, and all the trimmings, that the children all retired upstairs for quiet time and enjoying their new gifts, books, and toys. Lynn and Terrance headed to their own home for some alone time and to start getting things ready to move the kids back home the following week. 
Mary headed home with a halfhearted promise to stay far away for the next few weeks for the sake of her waistline. 
And David and Kate snuggled up on the couch and talked over the highlights of the morning and their hopes for the next few weeks.


The following weekend, Lynn and Terrance packed up all their stuff and children and headed back home. Trevor could sense that this was a big moment for his parents and so he went, after making sure Kate was serious about saving his room, and holding off on the next chapter of their book until he came back. 
His house was a happier place than he remembered. His mom did a great job of continuing the routines that had brought order to their home for the last couple months. The chore chart was established and posted along with the daily schedule and upcoming events in the kitchen. 
Everyone now ate meals together, and Lynn, using the copies Kate had given her, picked up the bedtime story series from where they had left off. 
Terrance and Lynn  continued going to marriage counseling. They recognized that there were years worth of angst and miscommunications to sort through, apologies that needed to be said, and shared visions for the future that needed to be discussed. As uncomfortable as the sessions sometimes were, they learned so much about each other and about how to care for each other. 
Terrance continued to go to AA meetings and stayed sober most of the time with a lot of support from his wife, David, and his friends at the meetings. It wasn’t easy. And sometimes he relapsed into the cranky and cantankerous person he had been before when one of his support members stood between him and the bottle, but he usually got through the cravings, and he was always thankful for the interventions after the fact. 
Trevor agreed to stay through the end of Christmas break and take care of his siblings while his parents were at work. While he loved his siblings, and got along quite well with all of them, he missed his friends and routines. He missed his music lessons, the late night talks with Sam, and the long walks with the dogs where they would talk about their hopes and dreams. He did his best to keep his siblings entertained and productive, but this put a strain on his newfound love for them. It’s hard to be both an authority figure and a friend. And this made him feel even more lonely. 
He called Sam every day and they planned all the things they would do when he came back. Kate took the phone every once in a while, and gave Trevor suggestions for games and activities to try with his siblings. Callie chimed in often with her thoughts and opinions as well. 
And so December came to a close and the new year began. 


Once school resumed, Trevor thanked his parents and headed back to the church and his established routine. They were sad that he was choosing to leave again, but one blizzardy Saturday in with the children convinced them that he had more than earned some guilt free time away. 
‘How did you and Kate deal with this? There were three more of them there! A whole herd!’ 
‘I honestly don’t know. They certainly didn’t whine this much. And I think the amount of space helped. And there were so many things to do. Some of them enjoyed art. I could pick up some art supplies and set up an area in the kitchen and see if that would keep them busy.’ 
‘Didn’t they used to read? Can we make them read?’ 
‘Yes! I guess we can. 
Cole, get your feet off the couch!
All of you, due to your noise and lack of self control you all have earned an hour of quiet time. Head to your rooms. You may read, rest, or play quietly, but no talking is allowed until this timer goes off. Now move it!’ 
As they all trudged to their rooms Terrance looked at his wife in awe and informed her that she had never looked quite as attractive as she did at that particular moment. 
Lynn took to calling Kate for suggestions a few times a week when it came to behavior. Kate’s classroom management skills were quite useful for motivating and keeping the peace, and Lynn and Terrance were still relatively new to setting and maintaining boundaries, enforcing chore responsibility, and ensuring homework completion. They talked in many of their counseling sessions about how to divide these responsibilities and support each other in quality parenting. As the months went by, it got easier. 


By February, cabin fever had set in and everyone was desperate for a change of pace. Kate, Anne, and Lynn started an every other Sunday afternoon get together. After church they would gather the three families for a potluck style lunch. Afterwards, the moms would have some tea or coffee and chat about their weeks. It was a great time to get suggestions and share parenting advice. The kids were all brought together for social time and often organized games, treasure hunts, or make-believe adventures that would involve all eight of them and give the adults some time to chat.
While work schedules sometimes kept Terrance or David away, all three men often joined. They sometimes sat in the library with their wives/girlfriend and contributed to the conversation, they sometimes joined the children in their games, and they sometimes found projects to work on that would allow them to talk about their progress and struggles as fathers and husbands without as many listening ears. Now that the attic space had been vacated, they claimed it as a project space and put their afternoons to good use replacing the insulation, updating the lighting, and making the space feel like a finished part of the house. 
Every week Kate offered to pay the men for their work, and every week they thanked her for letting them make noise and mess and told her there was nothing really worth paying for yet. 
These afternoons allowed the children to stay close. Noah, Sam, and Trevor felt like they were in charge since they were the oldest and often got together or called each other to plan out the activities.  Since they usually planned something fun, Callie usually let them be, but when they would start to get pretentious or overbearing, she would lead the younger four in a rebelion just to remind them that she could. 
Months passed, and seasons changed. Sam’s adoption paperwork went through and they celebrated, cried, and hugged till Callie told them that if they kept crying she was going to paint them that way. As usual, she managed to tease some levity back into any situation. 
That is, until it was her turn two months later. As she and Kate hugged and cried when her paperwork came back, Sam took a photo and informed them it was so that Callie would know exactly what the moment looked like so she could paint it. She did. And giving that painting to Kate two weeks later caused a whole second round of tears and laughter and hugging. 
In April, David proposed, not just to Kate, but to the children as well saying that he wanted to marry Kate and needed their permission because, while they would certainly not ever have to call him dad unless they wanted to, he would be honored to be a part of their life. They all readily agreed, except Callie who tortured him for a good five minutes about what other names were allowed before throwing her arms around him and declaring him her favorite dad so far. 
Many of the next few Sunday gatherings were spent chatting about and planning the wedding. 
They had decided to get married there in the house that was once a church. Their pastor had agreed to come and officiate as long as they took his marriage counseling course, which they readily agreed to. 
They had chosen Sam and Callie as best man and maid of honor and asked Trevor to handle the rings. They wanted to keep the gathering small; their normal Sunday group plus any family who was willing to come to town for the ceremony. 
Suddenly, and without anyone realizing how quickly it was approaching, it was summer! 


During the summer, Kate opened her home to the eight children each day. On their days off Anne, Lynn, or David would come and help supervise. Kate decided if there were going to be eight 1-5th graders in her home, it was going to be productive. And so, as any other teacher may have done, she created a schedule. 

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
8:00-9:00
Breakfast / Reading
9:00-11:00
Music / Reading
Skill Acquisition
Library
Art / Reading
Field Trip
11:00-11:30
Lunch
11:30-1:30
Pool
Park
Pool
Park
Pool
1:30-2:00
Chores
2:00-2:30
Snack / Rest
2:30-4:00
Free Choice

At first the children rebelled against the idea of being on a schedule during the summer, but by allowing them choice in what skills they were working on, where they wanted to go on field trips, and how to spend the last hour and half before their parents came to pick them up, most of the fights disappeared. The two hours of pool/park time each day won the rest of them over, except Emily, who agreed when told she could bring a book to any activity she wanted. 
The summer settled into a routine. Each child was able to choose a field trip option and then Kate scheduled them in. The first Friday they went to the zoo for Andrew. The next Friday they swapped morning and afternoon activities to go to a baseball game for Cole. The week after that was a make your own ceramics class for Callie, then a walk/run race for Trevor, a creative writing class for Emily, a museum for Sam, the county fair for Noah, and a water park for Kylie. Not everyone loved every activity, but knowing that they each got to choose one made them more patient and willing to try each other’s passions. 
Since Kate took care of the kids all day, Anne and Lynn would each take Sam, Trevor, and Callie for dinner and a movie once a week so Kate would have a chance to catch her breath and work on the wedding planning. 
It was one of these evenings in mid-July when Kate heard a pounding on the front door. Knowing that David was due any minute, she jumped up and ran for the door. However, when she pulled it open with a sunny grin, the man attempting to barge into her home was most definitely not David. 
‘Excuse me, what do you think you are doing? I have certainly not invited you in.’ 
‘Where is my son? I’m here to take him home’ slurred the man. Had he been in his right mind there is no way that Kate would have been able to hold the door against him He was over six feet tall and fairly well muscled. His eyes gave him away. While glassy and overly dilated, they were Sam’s eyes. 
‘I’m sorry, who are you?’ Kate asked, though she knew the answer. She was stalling for time and trying to sort through how to solve this particular problem. 
‘I told you, I’m here for my son.’ 
‘And who is your son?’ 
‘Sammy boy! You in there? This crazy **** is blocking the door.’ He lunged at her, but mostly missed, smacking the top of his head into the door. 
‘I’m sorry, are you Charlie? Sam’s biological father?’ 
‘Who the hell did you think I was? You have other stolen children you are hiding in there?’ 
‘I’m sorry sir, but Sam isn’t here. And even if he was, this is no way to behave in front of him. I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Why don’t you come back tomorrow morning and see if he wants to see you?’ 
‘Who the hell do you think you are? You can’t keep my son from me, get out of my way.’ He swung at her again, but again his chemically imbalanced state interfered with his aim and he ended up punching the door frame. 
Kate breathed a quick sigh of relief as she saw a car approaching. David would be able to handle this. He would know what to do. But her relief turned to panic as she recognized the car as Lynn’s. She was bringing the children back from dinner early. Charlie was going to see Sam. She had no plan yet. The man was drunk and violent. 
Lynn seemed to understand that this was not a pleasant interaction because she rolled down the window but kept the kids in the car. 
‘Kate, I’m calling David. Push the door closed, Kate!’ she called form the car. 
Lynn’s shout got Charlie’s attention and he turned and began lumbering toward the car. 
‘Sammy  boy, you in there?’ he slurred as he stumbled towards the car. Kate had no idea what drugs he was on, but he couldn’t possibly stay vertical much longer. 
‘Close the windows and drive away!’ She shouted. ‘I’ll lock the door and call 911.’ 
‘No!’ screamed Sam from the back seat, wrestling to get out. ‘Don’t send him back to prison. It’s ok. It will be ok!’ 
Callie, was no match for Sam in this manic mood and he soon crawled over her and opened the door. Lynn had no choice but to screech to a halt or risk injuring the boy. 
‘Trevor, go after him. He might need your help. Just stay out of reach, just like you used to with your daddy.’ 
Trevor popped out of the other side of the car and Lynn locked the doors behind them, praying that David would hurry and calling Terrance as well. 
‘Dad?’ Sam practically whispered ‘Dad? It’s me, It’s Sam.’ 
‘Sammy boy!’ Charlie wrapped his arms around Sam and leaned heavily on him. ‘Come boy, we’re leaving’ 
‘But dad,’ Sam countered as Charlie gripped his arm ‘I live here. This is my home.’ 
‘Y’er home is with y’er family, and I’m the only family ye got.’ Charlie snarled ‘Now get moving’ 
He began dragging Sam towards a beat up pickup parked at the curb. 
‘Dad, stop! You are hurting me. Let’s just talk! We can just talk!’ Sam’s eyes were wide. He remembered his mom’s drugged stare, but she had been apathetic and lethargic. That he could deal with. This was something different.
‘Stop sniveling and listen to your father. Get in the damn truck.’ 
‘No dad. You can’t drive right now. You need food, and sleep. Come inside and I’ll get you food and a place to sleep.’ 
Charlie wasn’t listening. Slowly, and not at all gracefully, he tugged Sam towards the truck. Trevor stood watching unsure how to help. He and Kate had slowly approached and were only a few feet away. 
‘Sam, it’s ok, you don’t have to fight him. Just walk towards the truck. Trust me.’ Kate spoke in a calm and quiet voice. 
Sam took a deep breath and slowly walked towards the truck. Now that he was walking in the right direction, Charlie’s grip loosened a bit, as Kate had hoped it would. She gestured Trevor to stay back and stepped up to within an arm's distance of Sam. 
‘Grip break, Sam’ she whispered as she stepped forward again. 
Sam spun, twisting under his own arm to break Charlie’s grip. Before Charlie could react, Kate stood between him and Sam. He lunged at her again and she lept back out of reach. Trevor had pulled Sam back to the steps where the boys were deciding whether to go back for Kate or do as she asked and get inside. 
Thankfully, at that moment, another car screeched to a halt and David jumped out with Terrance who had gone and gotten him from work. The two inserted themselves between Charlie and Kate and eventually managed to wrestle him into the car by informing him that either he got into the car so they could drive him home or they would call his parole officer. 
Lynn and the children joined Kate, Sam, and Trevor inside. Sam was shaking now and apologizing again and again for making things worse, so Lynn put on a movie for the younger children and made some calming tea while Trevor checked every door and window on the property to make sure they were locked and Kate held Sam and hummed his favorite songs. 
Once the tea had been passed around and Sam and Trevor had joined for the movie watching, the mom’s gathered bedding from around the house and passed it out for a living room sleepover. Cinder, sensing the tension in the house, alternated between comforting Sam and patrolling the house. 
Kate paced nervously until David finally texted to say that he was parking and would be right in. She opened the door and Cinder lunged outside to check the surroundings. Deciding that David was ok, Cinder trotted back inside to Sam and Kate pulled him through the door and into her arms.
‘Thank you David. Thank you. How did it go?’ 


How it went, would have been better described by Terrance. As Terrance had pointed out months earlier that year, prior to Charlie’s incarceration the two had been friends. They had worked construction together, and ended most days in the bar together. The two had had their sons at the same time and had even gotten them together a few times when they were quite small, so small that neither boy remembered it. 
After David and Terrance got Charlie in the car and he calmed down enough for them to drive, Terrance took charge. Terrance had David take his car back to ‘the church’ saying he would take an Uber or text for a pick-up when it was time. He helped Charlie upstairs to his apartment. 
Charlie got his anger back as he recognized his apartment and realized he had not brought Sam with him. He started picking things up and throwing them at Terrance. A pile of junk mail fluttered to Terrance’s feet, and a phone base landed near the mail, while the phone crashed into the wall. 
‘Charlie, get ahold of yourself. You don’t own enough things that you can afford to break them all, and you don’t have enough friends that you can afford to send them away.’ 
‘What friend?!? You helped them! You helped them steal my son!’ 
‘Charlie, sit your butt down in that chair and listen to me. You wouldn’t listen before and you ended up in jail. Now sit your stubborn thick headed self down and listen before you end up there again!’ 
In the end it took hours for the drugs to wear off. Charlie ate and slept and ate and slept, and Terrance dozed in a chair in front of the door waiting for Charlie to sober enough for a conversation. He texted David updates every few hours to say all was well. And he waited. 
Early the next morning, David and Kate shuttled vehicles to bring Terrance his car, along with some food and coffee. The smell of hot coffee finally roused Charlie enough to be surly but  aware. Kate and David left again to give Terrance the space he wanted to help his former friend. 
‘Morning Charlie, coffee and breakfast are in the kitchen. Help yourself.’
Charlie looked confused, though whether the confusion was about how Terrance ended up in his apartment or how there came to be quality food and coffee in the pigsty of his kitchen, who can say. 
Eventually he had eaten, consumed several cups worth of coffee, and could no longer avoid the living room. 
‘So, you here to remind me what I got up to last night?’ 
‘That’s one of the many things I’m here for. Last night you went to your son’s home, assaulted his adoptive mother, and tried to physically drag him away. You were going to kidnap a child, put that child in that beater of a truck and dive him across town while higher than a kite. Four adults and seven children witnessed this and could have called the police and had you back in penitentiary by now. And the only reason that didn’t happen is because Sam begged them to wait, and I volunteered to see to it that such behavior does not ever happen again.’ 
‘I wasn’t higher than a kite. I was fine. And I would’na had to punch the lady if she would have let me talk to my son.’ 
‘You didn’t punch her. You tried. But You missed. You punched her door frame. You also headbutted her door. But I guess you did that on purpose since you weren't using last night.’ Terrance rolled his eyes at Charlie. 
‘Maybe I had a little something to take the edge off. I hadn’t seen Sammy boy in years! I was nervous.’ 
‘Well, you screwed up. Sam is terrified of you now. You physically drug him across the yard while he begged you to let go.’ 
‘He shouldn’t have asked me to let go! I’m his father!’ 
‘No. You aren’t. You used to be. Once upon a time. But you made choices. And one of the best choices you ever made was giving Sam up to that wonderful woman. She is his mother now, and legally, you are not his father anymore.’ 
‘But he’s my kin! He belongs to me!’ 
‘Oh Charlie. I know it hurts. Sit down now. I need to tell you a story.’ 
And so Terrance poured out the story of the last year of his life. He told how he had been a terrible father, but had never admitted it. He told how he had blamed his failures on his wife, on his kids, on his job, and on his poverty. He told how he had buried his pain in the bottle and taken out his anger on those he loved. He cried a bit as he told of the day that he attacked his own son in an effort to prove himself to be a good father. And he hung his head in shame as he told of how his son had run away from home and found a woman who cleaned his wounds, fed him, and made him feel safe. 
He told how he had continued to lash out until the entire rest of his family had also fled to that woman who taught them how to be whole again, to be happy and productive and to care for each other. 
He told how he had gone on drunken rages and demanded to see his family, but a kind man came and sat with him every night on the front steps and listened to him rage. He told how he had finally accepted help and gone to meetings and counseling. He looked Charlie in the eye when he proclaimed how many months he had gone without a drop, and he sat up straighter when he spoke of all the work he did to prove to his boss, his wife, and his children that he was a changed man. 
‘Through all of that,’ he said, ‘I think the hardest thing I’ve ever done was when I signed the paper giving that woman equal legal rights to my son. But she was the parent he needed when I was not. I let him down and she picked him up and taught him to be a man. He’s a good kid now. He gets good grades, he’s good at sports, he helps his mom with the younger ones, and he smiles, all the time. 
‘I know you love your kid Charlie. Deep down, I know you do. I remember how proud you were of him when you would come in each day with pictures or stories. Use that love, Charlie. If you truly love him, you will want what is best for him. And this’ he gestured towards the filth that was Charlie’s apartment, ‘this is not what’s best for him.’ 
‘Damn it Terrance. That whole sob story to end with ‘give up?’’ 
‘No. Don’t give up. Be better. Do the work. Put in the time. Become someone your kid could be proud to call dad. THEN go see him.’ 
‘My own flesh and blood is too good for me now?’ 
‘You are using anger to deflect the issue. You and I both know that the rational part of your brain gets it. There is no way you can ask your son to be part of your life if you are just going to go back to prison tomorrow, next week, or next month.’
‘Whatever man. Never thought Terrance would go soft, but here you are all preachy and clean. Get out of my house.’ 
‘Sure. If that’s what you want. But here is my phone number. If you ever decide you want to go straight, call me. I’m here for you.’ 


They all expected Charlie to make a reappearance, but he didn’t. David asked his buddies at the office to do drive bys at night to keep an eye on the place, but all was quiet. 
Sam was torn. He was incredibly glad there were no more scenes, but we worried about his dad. Was he ok? Was he strung out like his mom had been? Did he need help? Old wounds were open again, and he became more withdrawn as he wrestled with these questions. 
Kate scheduled some counseling sessions for him and he began to talk about these issues and grapple with what his role and responsibilities are and are not. 
Terrance continued to call and check in on Charlie, but every call was rejected. 
Sam even tried to call once, while sitting with the counselor. He had practiced what he wanted to say and had gotten the number from Terrance. His call was also rejected. Charlie clearly wasn’t wanting to talk to anyone. 
Things quieted down again and wedding planning again moved forward in most of their minds. Lynn put her housekeeping skills to use setting up and arranging furniture, Terrance used his construction skills to craft an arbor, Anne convinced rose bushes to climb the arbor, and Steve put his baking skills to use and created a delicious smelling red velvet cake that he let Callie and Andrew help him decorate with a generous layer of cream cheese icing and some frosting flowers and pearls. 
On the big day everyone dressed up, even Cinder and Mya wore bows for the occasion. Kate’s parents and her brother had driven in from out of state to walk her down the aisle. David’s parents and sister were there, and Mary made it just in time for the start. 
Callie and Sam, in new outfits, stood on either side of the arbor as the best man and maid of honor. Trevor stood to Sam’s left with two boxes of rings and his guitar, on which he played the processional. Everyone else gathered around for a short, sweet, and not overly formal ceremony where the two pledged their love to each other till death parted them, read to each other their favorite passages from the Bible, and prayed together asking God to bless their marriage. Before the official announcement of their marriage, the floor was opened and each person present was offered the opportunity to wish them well in their marriage, share a prayer, poem, or give a word of advice. Once everyone had had their say, Pastor Isaac pronounced them husband and wife and a bubble war broke out among the children. Steve had put another of his skills to work and conscripted Noah as his assistant. The two had taken many beautiful photos and a simple video of the proceedings that Kate and David would cherish for the rest of their lives. 
The party, mild as it was, lasted all afternoon, with plenty of cake to go around, and a build your own burrito bowl bar once the sugar crashing started, which inevitably happens when one indulges in a bit too much cake. 
With bellies once again full (and some nutrition this time) the party continued. They had to move indoors, however, when the rain started, and settled in for board games, music, and conversation. 


Weeks passed. The transition of David moving in went surprisingly well. He had been around so frequently on his off time before, and spent so much time at work, that there hardly seemed to be any difference to anyone except Kate and David. 
The two of them made it through all the little bumps and hiccups that come with sharing a space when one is used to having a space of their own. They came to agreements about where dirty clothes went and how toothpaste was squeezed, what could be left on counters, and how the bed was to be made, and all the countless other things no one thinks could ever cause an argument until one has tried living with someone who does things differently. 
With a great deal of patience and forgiveness on both sides they worked on compromising and communicating and found they quite liked coming up with new ways to accomplish mundane tasks. 
Sam, Trevor, and Callie enjoyed having David around as well. Kate was creative and fun, but she tended to follow a schedule and be quite organized. David broke up routines and introduced just the right amount of chaos to keep them on their toes. They could never be sure if he would be home for dinner or out on a call. He would come home with the most interesting stories that would fuel their imaginations for weeks to come, and sometimes he would propose trips out of the blue when he had a day or two off. 
He took them camping in the mountains and Kate taught them all how to cook full meals over a campfire. She had been a camp counselor in her college days. 
He took them to an amusement park and they learned that his one fear was heights, but he didn’t mind so much if they were moving fast, so they stuck to roller coasters and other adrenaline filled rides. 
He took any who wanted to come outside in the evenings for a jog, taught them how to throw a spiral, or practiced batting and catching. Kate missed their quiet post-dinner reading and music, but loved the huge smiles that decorated their faces when they came in sweaty and full of stories about their latest escapades. 
One day off he rounded up the entire summer crew and drove them out to a friend’s ranch where the two taught them the basics of archery and helped them practice hitting targets on hay bales. 
He had always wanted to be a dad and loved having kids around to do all the things he had loved doing with his father, uncles, cousins. 
Another of the things he had loved was fire of any kind, and so evening story time was moved out to the fire in the yard at least a couple times a week where they would stare into the flames and imagine the characters embarking on their epic quests. 
July turned to August and soon summer drew to a close. 


With the start of the school year came a great many changes. Sam and Trevor were starting middle school and would be in the same building as Kate. Callie was still in Elementary. All three were starting new extracurriculars after school. 
Kate was still in charge of a tutoring club on Tuesday and a service club on Thursday. Sam and Trevor both signed up for these two clubs since they had enjoyed their unofficial role in them so much the year before. 
Trevor signed up for sports every Wednesday and Friday and guitar lessons on Monday. After a rather long and grueling day of tryouts and placements he was able to get a spot on a fall cross country team, winter swimming team, and spring soccer team. 
Sam also successfully signed up for cross country and swimming but chose not to pick a sport for the spring season. Instead he signed up for a writing club for the spring season. He was able to get a piano lesson for Monday to round out the week. This meant he had to drop Taekwondo, but he hadn’t made it to very many practices over the summer, and his enthusiasm had waned. His confrontation with his father had shown him that it had never been about his inability to hit or kick, but rather the fact that he simply couldn’t make himself hurt someone on purpose.
Callie signed up for art club on Mondays, book club on Tuesdays, athletics on Wednesdays (where attendees were split into teams and practiced a variety of sports depending on the weather and season), came to the Middle School for the service club on Thursday, and took singing lessons on Friday. 
With every afternoon accounted for, Kate was able to plan to stay in her classroom every afternoon until the late bus and get most of her planning and grading finished. At 5:00 she would make the rounds and pick up all three kids and they would head home for homework, dinner, chores, and relaxation. 
Middle school also brought about some choices about what classes the boys would take. They spent hours talking through their options. In the end, Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, and PE were required which left them with only a handful of choices. 
They got to choose between drama, choir, band, and art for their two arts classes. Trevor chose drama and choir. He had enjoyed acting in the school play in fourth grade, and had enjoyed his role in the church Christmas play that year. He hoped to get into the school musical in the spring and thought these two options would be helpful. Sam chose choir as well, but drama was a bit out of his comfort zone, so he chose art instead and teased Callie that she would have to be his tutor and help him figure out how to draw something other than stick figures. She, of course, accepted with enthusiasm.  
They also got to choose a design class, either computer based, or hands on. The descriptions were fascinating. The computer based class would learn the basics of coding to design and build their own computer game and would learn the basics of video editing to produce their own mini documentary. In the hands-on class, students would spend the fall learning how to use hand tools and power tools that they would use to construct simple items that they would design. In the spring the class would design an improvement to the school grounds and work together to craft it.  Both classes would showcase these projects at the spring design festival. Of course, they wanted to do both so badly that they finally decided that they would flip a coin for who would sign up for which one and then they would teach each other anything fun they learned. Trevor got the hands on class and Sam signed up for computer based. 
Finally, they got to choose a second language. They had the standard options of Spanish and French. The district was considering adding Chinese but had not yet done so. They decided they wanted to be in the same one, but had no idea which one to choose. Trevor’s dad suggested that he wished he knew more Spanish since about a third of his crew was bilingual, and so their final course decision was made. 
Callie, of course, took all the same classes as anyone else in her grade. She only bemoaned this fact for an afternoon before being proactive and planning out her middle school schedule for when it was her turn to have a choice. She decided that she would do drama and art. She agonized over this decision since she also wanted choir, but decided that as long as she kept taking her voice lessons, she could take drama instead. She also chose to take hands on design, and would take Spanish as well so that they all three could practice together. The fact that these classes were well into the future didn’t bother her one bit. She liked to know where she was going. 


As the school year settled into a steady rhythm, the only issue that brought a break from their peace of mind was Trevor’s schedule. He generally stuck to weekdays with them, and weekends with his parents and siblings. This would cause problems every now and then if David had Saturday off and planned something fun because Trevor would, of course, want to come, but would feel guilty about not spending time with his parents and siblings. 
They solved this problem as often as they could by inviting Trevor’s family to come with them. But inviting them meant also inviting Noah’s family, and there are only so many activities that can accommodate a group of fourteen people. 
Trevor and Kate had an open and honest conversation about how this all made him feel like he was being pulled in multiple directions all the time. She explained to him that they would never be mad if he chose his other family over an activity that they had planned, and acknowledged that knowing that didn’t necessarily make the decision easier to make. She also suggested that this was really a rather fantastic problem to have. How many people are so loved that they have this many people desperately wanting to spend time with them? He laughed at that, but it did help him to think of it that way. She also, however, spoke to David and informed him he could not plan more than one a month. The one a month could take the place of their weekly coffee and the whole group could be invited. But more than that would put a strain on the relationships. 
Knowing that she was much more in tune with the emotional state of those around her than he was, he agreed, with the caveat that next summer the five of them would run away for a week entirely on their own and do whatever they wanted without having to ask anyone else. The whole family was a fan of this particular plan. 
And so things progressed rather well. The children did well in all of their classes, and studied hard for the ones that were challenging. Callie had to be called on her lack of application to her math homework when she was caught doing more doodling than calculating, but for the most part, the children continued to love school. 
David continued to practice sports with the children after their homework and chores were finished, and Kate continued to insist upon music practice and reading time as often as possible. 
Nothing dramatic or noteworthy happened until mid October. 


One cool, crisp, morning, Terrance saw a man watching the build site he was working on from beneath a canopy of yellowed leaves. When the man didn’t move for ten minutes or so, Terrance informed his crew he was stepping out for a few minutes and went to investigate. 
Sure enough, it was Charlie. 
He looked terrible. His cheeks were hallow, his eyes were glassy, and his skin was pale. He had lost at least ten pounds since the last time Terrance had seen him, and his hair was several inches longer and didn’t look like it had been washed in weeks. He was so different Terrance might have questioned if it really was him, except for the tattoo on his wrist and the set of his jaw. 
‘Charlie. It’s good to see you.’ Terrance spoke low and slow, afraid he might bound away at the slightest movement. 
Charlie started at him almost hungrily but didn’t speak. 
‘You look like you could use a strong cup of coffee and some breakfast. Join me for my morning break?’ 
Terrance did not get fancy breakfast breaks at his construction job, and they both knew it, but his forman was a friend, and would understand the necessity of an hour off this morning. 
Charlie slowly nodded and Terrance set off down the sidewalk, slowly, so that Charlie could keep up. 
He didn’t speak again until he had them settled in a booth at the local diner with steaming mugs of coffee in front of them and the breakfast order in. 
‘What can I do for you, Charlie?’ Terrance asked. He was still afraid that Charlie might get up and leave at the slightest provocation, but he could also tell by the starved look and how fast he was gulping down the burning hot coffee, that Charlie would probably not be so likely to leave until some serious calories had been consumed. He likely hadn’t eaten a full meal in weeks. 
‘Food’ grunted Charlie
‘Yes, it’s coming, as soon as we talk, and he will refill your coffee momentarily, but what else can I do for you.’ he said, raising an eyebrow and staring steadily at the man. 
Once the mug was empty and had been refilled, Charlie finally looked up. 
‘I need help.’ 
‘What kind of help are you wanting?’ 
‘All of it. All the stuff you said.’ 
Terrance let that hang between them and waved over the waiter with the plates of food while Charlie gulped down the second cup of coffee. With plates of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and pancakes in front of them, silence rained except for the clicking of utensils against the plates. 
As Charlie scraped his plate clean, Terrance was able to make eye contact again. 
‘I’ll help. With all of it. But it won’t be easy for you. You will have to commit to some pretty serious changes.’ 
And he slid his untouched plate across the table to Charlie. 
While Charlie attacked the second plate at a slightly slower speed, actually taking a second to taste a few items before swallowing them, Terrance pulled out his phone and made a few calls. 
He let Tom, the foreman, know that something had come up and he would be gone the rest of the day. He agreed to work Saturday instead, and asked Tom to come for dinner the following night. 
He called David and Steve and said he would be spending the day with Charlie and asked if they would come over this evening. 
Then he called Lynn and let her know that Charlie would be coming to stay and would be taking Trevor’s room, and if she would be so kind as to sort that out after work he would be much obliged. 
Lynn, of course, let Anne and Kate know right away and asked for their help sorting out Trevor’s room since she worked till five that day. It was a Monday, so Kate was free at 3:30 and she and Anne had the room sorted and picked up all the children at five and took them all to the ‘church’ for homework and dinner time. 
Meanwhile, Terrance and Charlie had stayed busy. They had first gone back to Charlie’s where Terrance demanded that Charlie shower and change into the cleanest outfit he had. While Charlie got clean, or cleaner anyway, he packed anything worth keeping into one garbage bag, and everything else into the other. Then tossing out the garbage, and tying the bag of ‘to keep’ items into the back of the truck, they paid off the landlord and left. 
Next Terrance took Charlie to the barber and had his matted hair and scruffy beard attended to. 
By then it was a little after one and they went to another dinner and loaded up on chili and cornbread. 
By mid afternoon they were entering a basement door of a church for quite possibly the hardest step of the process, an AA meeting. As expected, Charlie balked at the idea of going in, and had to be reminded that he had asked for ‘all the help’ and had agreed to do what was necessary. And in a very firm and slightly ominous tone Terrance informed Charlie that this was ‘quite necessary.’ 
Charlie sat in sullen silence during the meeting, which was not a surprise to Terrance. He, himself, had been rather sullen during his first several meetings. While this meeting was not the one he usually attended, since it was still working hours, he had come to this meeting a great many times while unemployed, and these people had helped him get through one of his darkest times. And so, Terrance participated enthusiastically, and greeted a great many of them as old friends. 
While Charlie would certainly not have admitted it, he didn’t find the meeting as bad as he had assumed it would be. 
After the meeting, Terrance took Charlie shopping. Idle hands have a way of straying, so they went to the hardware store and fitted Charlie out with a tool belt, some work gloves, some basic hand tools, and some work clothes that would stand the wear and tear of climbing and crawling on rough surfaces.
Once he was fitted out, Terrance took him to the house and put the two of them to work in the backyard. Charlie had been a decent construction worker back before he had gotten in trouble, and Terrance wanted to see if he had maintained any level of skill, and how much, if any, muscle was lurking on his bony frame. 
The two used the few pieces they have been gifted and a pile of rough lumber that Terrance had accumulated to build a sturdy base for a treehouse. They attached the ladder, and sorted the remaining lumber into wall pieces, roof pieces, and trimming. 
When they were finished, it was dinner time. They had both worked up a sweat, and Charlie had only swore and whined for the first hour until his mind had really gotten into the project. Wiping their brows and moving to the spigot by the backdoor, they washed up and headed into the house to the smell of ham frying. 
Lynn, David, and Steve were in the kitchen. Paul was fishing a giant pan of scalloped potatoes out of the oven, David was frying the ham on the stove, and Lynn was putting the finishing touches on a massive salad. 
Terrance gave Lynn a kiss on the cheek and took the salad to the table while he introduced Charlie to the group. Charlie was wary in the presence of so many strangers. 
He had met Lynn a couple of time when the children had been small, but those had been brief encounters a decade ago. He recognized David, but could not place how or why he knew him, and he had no idea who Steve was. 
Everyone smiled and shook hands and was friendly, so Charlie did as he was told and played nice. He shook hands, grimaced back in what he must have thought was a smile, and moved his gaunt frame in the direction of the chair he was pointed to. 
Dinner was, of course, an entirely awkward affair. But everyone had gone into it knowing it would be and didn’t let the awkwardness get to them at all. Everyone except Charlie, who was justifiably on edge. He hadn’t had a drop of liquor or a touch of anything stronger all day, and while that may have been what he desperately wanted this morning, his body was having other opinions about that right about now. Though he had to admit, he had not felt this full in ages, and the food was delicious. 
He complimented Lynn on the cooking and she laughed and informed him she was the worst cook in the family. She pointed the compliments to Steve, who could make a devine meal out of the most measly ingredients, and to David who’s cooking skills might be limited, but was a quite excellent grill master. 
‘We always eat so much better here when Terrance invites his friends over’ she said with a smirk. ‘I do, however, make a pretty decent cup of coffee.’ and she poured them each a cup, waved farewell, and headed across town to collect the children. ‘I’ll be back in about half an hour, and I’ll show you your room.’ 
Once she had left, Charlie had turned questioning eyes on Terrance. Certainly, now, he would explain the presence of the two strangers who looked perfectly masculine, but apparently were master chefs. 
‘Charlie, as Lynn mentioned, these are two of my closest friends. David is a police officer. Sit back down Charlie, he is here as a friend. No one is arresting anyone right now. You two have already met, anyway. He’s the one who helped me get you back to your apartment after you attacked Sam.’ 
Charlie obediently sunk back down into his chair and glared at the table. He had very little memory of that night, and none that made him look good. Go figure that Terrance would make him play nice with cops and relive his most shameful moments on the first night. 
‘And this is Steve. Aside from being an excellent cook, he is part of my small group. The three of us get together once a week for devotions and help keep each other accountable. While you are staying with me, you will be joining these meetings. These are excellent men who refused to give up on me when I gave up on myself. They helped me, and if you let them, they can help you as well.’ 
The two asked about future plans. Charlie hadn’t thought much past going to Terrance for help and had no answer for this. Terrance informed them that he was going to have his boss over for dinner the following evening, and that, with any luck, he could convince him to take Charlie on in a probationary capacity. They could use an extra pair of hands around, and Charlie had some well trained hands that needed to be broke back in. 
Terrance also explained that he would be taking Charlie to AA meetings, to small group, and to church. These, he said to Charlie, were non-negotiable. Charlie nodded and went back to glaring at the table. He understood perfectly well that he was not going to be able to be in charge of his own life for a while. That was for the best since being in charge of his own life had led him to be starved, unemployed, filthy, and friendless. But it didn’t mean he was going to be happy about it. 
David proposed a fishing expedition for Saturday, just the four of them, and Steve, who had the following day off, promised to come over and work on the tree house with Charlie. While it wasn’t stated, it was fairly clear that none of them thought it a good idea for Charlie to be alone while Terrance was at work. Part of Charlie agreed with them. Goodness knows if he had a cent in his pocket he’d be halfway to the nearest bar already. The other half resented them treating him like a child. But then again, he had nowhere else to go, didn’t have two pennies to rub together, and was feeling ridiculously tired after three full meals in one day. 
Lynn sent the children to the backyard to check out the new platform for their treehouse and David and Steve departed. Lynn showed Charlie to his room and, while he set down his belongings on the dresser, said a few things that needed to be said. 
‘I’m glad you are here, Charlie. Terrance cares about you, and so, for his sake, I do too. He says you are ready to leave the past behind you and get clean, and I hope that’s true, but let me be entirely clear. You bring anything into this house that jeopardizes my husband's sobriety or the safety of my children and you are gone. Irrevocably. It has been a long, hard journey to get us to this point and I’m not going back.’ 
With that, she handed him some fresh towels and a bathroom caddie that Anne and Kate had prepared and sent him in the direction of the bathroom. 
Terrance collected the children and sent them about their evening chores and bedtime routines, and by the time they had put the last of the kids to bed, Charlie had been sawing logs for a good hour already. Clean, fed, and not used to being so physically active, he had fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. 
Terrance knew from experience that the next couple of weeks were going to be incredibly hard on all of them. He suggested that Lynn pack some go-bags and that if at any time things seemed to go sideways she and the kids would head to Kate’s. She agreed to do so as a short term solution, but also made her position clear to Terrance. If at any point it became necessary for her to grab the go bag and the children, she would be calling the police, and Charlie would be gone. 
Terrance struggled with agreeing to these terms. He knew how many times he had not been fit to be seen by polite company while he was recovering, and he knew that despite his best efforts, Lynn had been sheltered from much of that. He firmly believed that the best place for Charlie was here with them where he would be surrounded by people who would hold him accountable, but there were going to be rocky patches. He would just have to try to cross those bridges when they came to them. 


Trevor and Sam, were, of course, informed about the changes going on over at Terrance and Lynn’s. Sam considered going to talk to his father, but he wasn’t really sure what to say. He honestly didn’t know the man anymore and truly thought of David as his actual father. He had seen Trevor’s struggles with having two sets of ‘parents’ and wasn’t sure he even wanted to reconcile with his dad. 
Trevor’s ‘problem’ was solved as well. With Charlie in his room, he felt absolutely no guilt about staying at ‘the church’ both during the week and weekends. Plus, he felt that Sam needed him around more than ever. Especially with how much David was gone in the evenings. The weather was turning chilly which would have driven them indoors naturally anyway, but the sudden shift back to quiet and calm evenings instead of the shrieking laughter of their sports attempts made the transition seem more solemn. 
Kate noticed the difference as well, and as often as time allowed inserted a board or card game between chores/homework and bedtime story to get everyone laughing and talking and keep their minds occupied. 
The first day had been rough. Steve had arrived before Terrance had left for work, and Terrance had set them to task on the tree house with strict instructions about what he expected to find when he returned. Steve had brought plenty of food and iced tea for a picnic in the yard to make sure that they had little reason to wander elsewhere. 
David and Terrance both stopped by during their separate lunch breaks to grab a sandwich and tea and weigh in on how the tree house was shaping up. In this way, Steve was able to keep Charlie out of trouble for the duration of day one, and while his temper was barely bearable by the time Terrance got home from work, he was now three days sober and clean (the day before he had went looking for Terrance had been spent more or less unconscious and, thus, clean). 
When Terrance got home he bristled up to match Charlie’s bristly temper and shouted him into a shower and clean clothes. Lynn arrived home about the time the two stomped clean and clothed back out of the showers and interrupted their attempts to continue their shouting match with a quiet, syrupy sweet, statement that she hoped everyone was sticking to their promises and that she was really not looking forward to having to make any phone calls this evening which sent both of them scurrying to the car for their AA meeting subdued. 
Charlie tried to badmouth Lynn in the car, he was not a fan of being scolded, but he found that this was a rather touchy subject. Terrance pulled over the car and in a low, dangerous, voice suggested that if Charlie had anything unkind to say about the woman who was feeding and sheltering him he could get out now and find someone else who wanted that thankless task. 
Charlie would have usually risen to the bait and stomped himself down the street, but he really did not have any other place that he could go. And as much as he wanted a beer, or something stronger, there wasn’t a bar in town who would give him one without him paying off his sizeable tab. So he sat, and muttered an apology and they continued in sullen silence to the AA meeting. 
The meeting helped to raise Terrance’s spirits. While the meetings were always a reminder of how low he had sunk, they were also a reminder of how many people had cared to help, and of how far he had been able to climb since he accepted their help. 
On the way home, he reminded Charlie that the foreman was coming for dinner and that this was a huge opportunity for him. If he impressed the foreman enough he could be offered the probationary position. While this position did not pay (it was more like an internship) it would connect him with people and companies in the construction business and garner him references if he did a good job. If he completed the three months, and stayed in good standing, there would be several companies willing to hire him for a paid position even with the conviction on his record. 
Charlie knew this was a big opportunity, but he was having a hard time feeling any kind of gratitude. He was angry that he had been scolded, upset that he was being treated like a child, afraid that he wouldn’t get the position, and, as always, felt that everyone would be better off if he wasn’t there. The mixture of anger, fear, and self loathing are never a good combination. 
Again, it took a person that he would not have expected to get him out of his funk. Just as a few quiet words from Lynn had shut him up earlier, the shouts of joy, smiles, and sincere thanks of the children who were absolutely in love with their new treehouse managed to tease Charlie out of is ill humor in time for dinner. 
The children continued their enthusiastic praise, peppered with polite suggestions for further improvements, for much of dinner until Lynn rounded them up and took them to the living room to finish homework before dessert. 
Finally free of the cacophony of four exuberant and enthusiastic children, the three men were able to talk. Curious, Tom asked to see the treehouse that had drawn so much praise. While the lumber was certainly rough (it had been scrap pieces), it was sturdy, the nails were well placed, and the wielder of the hammer had not left careless dents around each nail. Clearly the person who built it knew a thing or two about how to put hammer to nail. 
With a few other insightful questions about skill and availability, Tom suggested that Charlie come the next day. He was fully aware of what Terrance was doing. It was the same thing he had done for Terrance when Terrance had finally dried up. Charlie, however was an unknown quantity, and he was a bit less sure this time. He did not personally have the time to oversea this probationary crew member, and he sensed that putting him under Terrance’s care would complicate matters more than help them, so one the way home he called up Julio, one of the longest standing members of his crew, and let him know he would be on babysitting duty the next few weeks. 
‘Work him hard, see what he can do, but don’t let him get out of sight. He’s drying up, and he doesn’t look like he’s done fighting it. I imagine there will be a few rough days. You have Tomson and Vasquez on your end of the site, yes? Feel free to deputize them. They are solid and can help both with the training and babysitting. If he’s worth his salt, we keep him. If he can’t carry his weight, we don’t.’ 
By the time Saturday arrived, Terrance was almost glad that he had agreed to work in order to make up for his Tuesday off, and Charlie was excessively glad to be escaping the cramped house and noisy buildsite and going anywhere with anyone other than Terrance, Lynn, and Julio who had watched him like a hawk all week. Steve, the real fisherman of the group, had a small boat and a few rods as well as a rather impressive collection of tackle. Since he was handling all that, David volunteered to provide the food and was laughed off until he hinted that Kate and the kids were going to oversee his cooking attempts and help out. 
They group left bright and early, or, I should say, dark and early. They were out on the lake about the time the sun was peeking over the horizon. They had all dressed warmly, and along with the food were several large and well insulated thermoses of coffee and a large bin of fresh baked cookies. They allowed silence to reign as they sipped, munched, and cast. 
After a couple of hours Charlie began to understand why Terrance liked these men. They were nothing like the men that he and Terrance had been friends with back in the day, but there were some things he liked. They knew how to be quiet. There was no need for words as they stared into the water and enjoyed the peace of the day. They were not half as sissy as they appeared. It was incredibly chilly out on the lake and neither had muttered a single word of complaint the entire morning. And they both, as it turned out, had a sense of humor. Neither was afraid to make fun of himself when he did or said something particularly stupid. And little by little, without him really being aware of it, they were winning Charlie over just by being themselves. 
Of course, there was a long way to go. Charlie had absolutely no love for cops, as is the case with most ex cons. And he struggled to understand a man who would rather cook than wield a hammer. But it’s hard to hold on to prejudices like that when one is listening to the steady lapping of the water against the side of the boat, the call of birds flying overhead, and the whirring of the reel as a fish grabbed the hook. And it was even more difficult to remember it when one of them managed to land a fish and the others jumped in to help net it. 
Having half a day away from each other was just what the doctor ordered for Terrance and Charlie as well. When Terrance joined them early in the afternoon with several more thermoses of coffee and an invitation for hot chili for dinner in a few hours, all frustrations were forgotten and he joined in the fun with a great deal of enthusiasm. 


Things didn’t magically become easy. Unfortunately they rarely do. Charlie still felt constrained by the lack of freedom that was helping to keep him clean and he still fought against it far more often than he knew he should. As such, Julio still had to keep a watchful hawkeye on Charlie, and threaten to report him when he found him trying to sneak away, Lynn had to remind him of the deal every time he tried to leave the house in the evenings, and David dogged every step he took when he left the house making sure he didn’t associate with anyone who wasn’t willing to talk to a cop. 
But every once in a while, the four of them would escape from reality and manage to just be four guys hanging out and having fun. Though this usually involved fishing poles or hammers. A great many improvements were made to the little treehouse in the backyard, and a few neighbors asked for some of their own. All money from these was put in a fund that would eventually be Charlie’s once he could be trusted to have access to cash. Even he, in his more honest moments, understood that it was best at this point to not have the temptation. 
The AA meetings became more useful to Charlie as he first began to be willing to listen to others, and later to start considering speaking. He didn’t open his mouth and actually tell any of his story for well over a month. And by then most of them had guessed most of his story by how he did or did not react to theirs. But those that attended were patient and understood that each person had to be willing to share their own story in their own time. 
Sam did, eventually, talk to Charlie as well. He and Trevor came over for dinner one night and the conversation was kept polite. An onlooker would not have had any idea that Sam and Charlie had any connection to each other at all, unless of course, the onlooker looked at their eyes, which were twins of each other. 
A few weeks later, Charlie called and talked to Sam on the phone. He reassured Sam that he wasn’t going to take him away and that he understood that Sam liked his family, and that he was happy about that. He’d practiced that conversation with Terrance and Steve a great many times before he said it. He still resented that Sam preferred Kate and David to his own flesh and blood, but he had come to realize what Terrance had tried to tell him. Sam was far better off where he was, and the two of them had taken care of Sam when Charlie was unable to do so. 
And so, the rest of the fall passed by fairly quietly. The children all dressed up in costumes at the end of October. Most of them chose their favorite book characters, and Callie challenged them all to create their own costumes. She spent hours helping design, pin, and sew, and Andrew, again, became her faithful assistant. 
The leaves changed from yellow to orange and crimson, and eventually fell from the trees, and the nights became frosty. 


One morning they all woke to delicate frost creations covering their window panes and their thoughts turned to Christmas. 
Most votes were for a Christmas just like last year where everyone gathered together, names were drawn, and presents were hand-made. In the end, everyone agreed and all the names were put into a hat. Charlie’s was added, and Mary’s was taken out. She was going to be away during Christmas, visiting her family down south. 
One evening, while everyone was hard at work in their own rooms on their secret projects, the phone rang. Mary was in need of Kate’s foster services again. 
Talya and Kale, ages two and four, were in need of a place to stay for the next few weeks while chain of custody was established and judges rulings were waited upon. 
With Christmas vacation two days away, Kate was able to get a sub for two days and be home until after the new year, by which time, their situation should be arranged. But this did present a bit of a hiccup to their Christmas plans. A two year old certainly wasn’t going to be making any presents on his own, and yet, he certainly should be included in the fun. 
Andrew, came up with the plan that was finally adopted. The children all numbered themselves off by age. Odds would, in addition to the gift they were already assigned, make something for Talya, and evens would make something for Kale. When Cole complained that this would mean that Talya and Kale would receive four presents while everyone else only got one, he was reminded that Talya and Kale did not have a family or a home and he quickly agreed that this was a good plan. 
The holidays were not as quiet as anyone had anticipated. As anyone has ever spent time with small children knows, they are not usually a fan of following plans, playing quietly, or sustained periods of reading. They kept everyone on their toes, but the laughter was almost constant. Talya told everyone exactly what she was thinking at all times, loved to be in charge, and was quick to include everyone she saw in her games. 
Kale, was a more quiet, observer, but he had a smile that would light up a room, giggled at the slightest provocation, and was a huge fan of music. He would wriggle around in what he clearly thought of as dancing every time the older children practiced their instruments, attempted to sing along with Callie whenever she sang, and crawled around after the dogs as if he was one of them. 


Christmas morning dawned sunny, and the light streamed through the frosty glass of the windows. 
The tree had been set up in the middle of the large downstairs room again this year, and all of the comfy chairs in the house had been arranged in a half circle around the tree and fireplace. 
Stockings had again appeared during the night, filled with treats, books, and small toys. This year, Anne and Steve handled the treats, Lynn and Terrance handled the toys, and Kate and David handled the books, and each stocking was stuffed so tight they looked ready to explode. 
Steve and Charlie handled breakfast. Steve had been teaching Charlie how to cook, and Charlie found he was actually not too bad at it. Recipes were like following the directions of a foreman. If he just did what the recipe said to do, the food usually turned out pretty well. 
Once everyone had eaten their fill and helped to clean up, they all gathered around the tree for songs, prayers, and the Christmas story. This year this time was filled with far more levity as Kale wiggled around to every song, and Talya danced in circles by the tree pretending she was a ballerina. 
After everyone had sang, and laughed, and shared to their heart's content, they drew names and did the presentations of the gifts. 
Cole received a voucher to an athletic camp from Terrance. It would take two full weeks of summer and he had been begging for months. There were tears and hugs following that gift. 
Steve received some new fishing lures that Noah had designed in hands-on design class. 
Charlie received a cookbook and an apron from Emily. She had compiled all their favorite recipes and enlisted Callie’s help to paint the apron so that it read ‘Mister Chef’ and was covered in miniature tools. 
Anne received some new scrubs that Andrew had hand dyed in all of her favorite colors. He had attempted some embroidery as well and had stitched ‘world’s best nurse’ around one of the cuffs. 
Emily received a hand knotted hammock from Trevor and a promise to help hang it so that she would have a shady place to read in comfort when the weather was nice. It looked a bit like a wadded mess of rope and Emily was a bit unimpressed until Charlie and David strung it up between them and rocked her back and forth while pretending to be rather obnoxious trees. 
Noah received a portable soccer goal from Cole that Terrance and Charlie had helped him build. And the two spent a good portion of the afternoon shooting goals in the upstairs hallway where there was nothing to break until they got told off for waking the younger children during nap time. 
Terrance received a tin of his favorite cookies from Steve along with a fishing pole of his own with the teasing statement that now he could stop tangling up all of Steve’s lines. 
Lynn received new curtains from Anne. She hated the old heavy puce draperies that had been on the window when they had moved into their house, but had never found the time to do anything about them or the justifiably expendable cash to replace them. She had admired the light and airy curtains at Kate’s house multiple times, so Anne had bought similar fabric, had Terrance measured the windows, and using her sewing machine, spent a couple afternoons cutting and sewing the semi-translucent fabric into the proper shapes. 
Kylie received a painting from Callie that featured Kylie as a warrior (her character from their tree house games) posing fiercely and awaiting the hordes of invaders. Kylie spent the the rest of the morning striking that pose, attempting that fierce face, and ordering others to ‘begone before I draw my sword’. While this was incredibly amusing at the beginning, it got old for everyone except Kylie, and Kale, who would erupt into giggles each time, quite quickly. 
Andrew received a handmade box from Kate that she had recruited Callie to help her design and fill with paints, brushes, and small canvases. When closed it looked like a slightly tall and squarish toolbox, but when open, the lid acted as an easel, the top was filled with a lift-out paint tray above a small stack of blank canvases and the drawer organized tubes of paint and brushes. He immediately set to work trying to paint the tree and failing spectacularly due to Talya’s ‘help.’ But he laughed and went along with her ‘help’ knowing that he could always start over later. 
Kate received a throw blanket that Lynn had made for her since she was almost always cold and loved snuggling under a blanket, even in warm weather. 
David received a huge mug from Sam that had been painted to say ‘David’s’ and a joke that maybe that would be enough coffee to wake him up in the mornings. While that was doubtful to anyone who had seen him when he first woke up, the coffee beans inside filled the air with a delicious scent, and David promptly went to grind them and brew some coffee for the adults. 
Trevor received a single swimming flipper from David which made no sense at all until he turned it over and saw drawn on the back a scavenger hunt map that would keep all the children busy for a few hours before they finally discovered a flagged off area in the backyard where a pool would be dug in the spring. It would turn out to be the do-it-yourself project that finally convinced David, Charlie, Terrance, and Steve that sometimes it’s best to call in an expert. Which of course they did after months of attempting to do it themselves. 
Sam received a trunk from Kylie that could be stood on end and opened to be a shelf or laid down and closed to keep things in. The shelf dividers could be removed when it was being used as a trunk to allow it to hold larger items. Kylie had recruited Charlie, who she had adopted as her assistant in most things, to help her craft it. And while they designed it to be versatile, no one doubted that it would usually hold books. Sam had Trevor help him haul it upstairs and proceeded to move all of his favorite books onto it’s shelves. 
Callie received several hand carved frames made to fit her canvases from Charlie and the promise that he would show her how to fit the canvases into the frames. 
Talya received a doll from Trevor, a coloring book from Andrew, a story book from Sam, and a ball from Cole. 
Kale received a set of fingerpaints from Callie, a block set from Noah, a large toy truck from Kylie, and a cloth book from Emily. 
The rest of the day was spent in playing with the new toys, unraveling the scavenger hunt, cleaning up the giant mess that Talya made with Kale’s finger paints, and just enjoying the festive spirit. As everyone drifted back into the main room late in the afternoon hot cocoa was passed around and the children roasted marshmallows in the fireplace while the grownups took turns telling stories of memorable Christmases gone by and the kids chimed in with hopes and wishes for future Christmases. 
All in all, it was a wonderful day, and everyone slept well that night, though whether that was from the exuberance with which they had approached the day or the sugar crash from the marshmallows and cocoa was anyone’s guess. 


The new year brought new changes as Kale and Talya left them to go join their new family. The house felt oddly quiet without them. And the three days before school resumed passed surprisingly quickly. 
With the return of school came the return of business, routine, and just a bit of drama. 
Both boys were swimming now and were progressing rather well. Neither of them had been particularly proficient swimmers before. While they could both stay afloat rather well they had needed to learn specific strokes, how to time their breathing, and build their lung capacity. 
Swimming helped them escape the more dramatic aspects of their day. 
The drama came with, well, drama. The tryouts for the spring musical were a couple of weeks away and excerpts of the scripts, a couple of songs, and a video of choreography had been released on the school webpage for interested students to begin preparing for auditions. 
This years musical was to be Peter Pan Jr, and every boy who was interested in theater at all wanted to be Peter. And every girl who was interested in theater wanted to be Wendy. They all knew there were other perfectly good roles, but the only one the boys considered to be decently good other than Peter was Captain Hook, and the only one the girls considered to be decently good was Tinkerbell, except that she didn’t even get any lines. 
And so, both boys took to wandering away ‘nonchalantly’ in opposite directions after dinner and pretending they had no idea what the other was doing as they both practiced their lines, practiced their choreography, and tried to learn the songs without anyone hearing them. 
Finally Callie and Kate put an end to this nonsense. 
‘Seriously, please tell me you aren’t doing it again?’ Kate moaned rolling her eyes as Trevor inched towards the laundry room and Sam inched towards the stairs. 
‘What?!’ both answered attempting to sound far too innocent. 
‘She’s right. This has gotten a bit ridiculous’ responded Kate. 
‘What?’ both boys asked, now a bit more sincere in their confusion. 
‘This’ Callie said, rolling her eyes even harder and gesturing to them standing on opposite ends of the rooms. ‘You both are preparing for the musical auditions. You know it, he knows it, I know it.’ 
‘Yes, we all know it’ smiled Kate.
‘And you are doing an absolutely awful job of it!’ said Callie with an air of authority. ‘Absolutely dreadful.’ 
At this the boys jaws dropped and they took a few unconscious steps back towards the kitchen. 
‘True,’ responded Kate thoughtfully ‘though it is not as if one can do the choreography correctly when sandwiched in front of a washing machine or learn the songs properly when whispering them to keep anyone from hearing you.’ 
‘What they need is a director’ Callie said, turning to look at Kate.
‘And a vocal coach’ Kate said to Callie. 
And both looked at the boys who were now inches away and raised their eyebrows. 
‘So, what do you say? Ready to stop hiding and start actually learning this stuff?’ Said Callie with a deadly serious face. 
Both boys looked to each other, shrugged, smiled, and the awkwardness was over. 
Callie worked with each of them on the songs and helped them to figure out how to sing them with the proper emotions coming through. 
Kate worked with each of them on their lines and within two days they had the words memorized and had moved on to adding in gestures, facial expressions, and movement. 
David worked with them on the choreography. This surprised the boys at first, but Callie had been attempting to yell steps and directions at them over the music when David had busted out laughing, sent Callie to finish her homework, and taken over. He, as it turned out, was not a half bad dancer, and was able to help the boys find the rhythm within the steps. 
Having set aside the dramatic secrecy, both boys really began to bloom with their dramatic readings, singing, and dancing. There was an underlying tension as they both understood themselves to be in competition with each other for the role of Peter. But Callie often reminded them, anytime they became quiet or awkward, that absolutely anyone else at school could be practicing just as much as them and an eighth grader would probably steal Peter right out from underneath them so it wasn’t worth letting it ruin their friendship. 
While this, more or less, solved the drama at home, it continued at school. Matthew, Thomas, and Benjamin in their year were all trying out as well, and Thomas, especially, found excuses to bring it up and to enquire into how the other’s were progressing every single day. They had no idea which seventh and eighth graders were trying out, though Thomas constantly was speculating and gossiping about who had told whom else that so-and-so was auditioning. 
Even escaping being around Thomas did little good. Kayla and Bethany were convinced they were the top girls in the running and were constantly vacillating between sucking up to whichever boy they thought might stand a chance at the role of Peter and shunning them all entirely for not being good enough. 
The whole middle school (and most of their families) heaved a sigh of relief the day of auditions that at least now, a decision would be made. 
Except it wasn’t. 
There were call backs. 
And then more call backs. 
No one remembered it ever taking this long to decide, and even the teachers began grumbling about it. Even their non-drama inclined students were hardly focusing on the lessons because they were busy gossiping about what could be causing the delay. 
Eventually, however, the drama director made the casting decisions. 
And the role of Peter, unsurprisingly, went to an eighth grader. As did the role of Captain Hook, and Wendy, several of the pirates, the chief, Tiger Lily, and the mermaids.
The seventh graders claimed Mr. Smee, several more lost boys and pirates, many of the tribes men and women, and Mr. and Mrs. Darling. 
The sixth graders claimed nanna, John, Michael, Tinkerbell, and a few more non-speaking lost boys and pirates. 
Trevor was cast as John, and Sam as Michael. Thomas, who had been so dramatic was an unnamed pirate. Matthew was nanna, the dog, and all were convinced he would be absolutely wonderfully hilarious. And Benjamin was a lost boy. Bethany and Kayla were offered roles as pirates but turned them down because they would have had to pretend to be boys. They were highly offended that the directors had not seen their star quality. The only one to commiserate with them on this fact was Thomas who also felt his talents had been overlooked. 


Trevor and Sam were sad, at first, that they did not get to be the adventurous Peter and fly through the skies, but they quickly came around when they read the scene where the two of them lept around the nursery sword fighting and pretending to be pirates and Pan. It would be just as fun! In fact, in the end, the two probably had far more fun in their slightly less important roles than they would have had were they trying to play the title role. 
By the time the show rolled around swimming had ended and Trevor’s team was honing his soccer skills while Sam’s club was putting his creativity to work writing stories with the writing club. Both boys, had, however, missed several sessions. Musical rehearsal was generally on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday in order to avoid the sports practice times, but the two weeks leading up to the performance they had rehearsal every day. 
The whole group was planning on attending the play. Noah had not chosen to audition, but Sam and Trevor were not his only friends performing and he was eager to see how everyone did. David, Steve, Charlie, and Terrance had all helped with set construction. Kate, Callie, Andrew, and the rest of the service club had helped out with the building and done a good deal of the painting. Anne had offered her skills as a seamstress and spent many hours working on costumes. She had borrowed Andrew and Callie for a Saturday to be her assistants and help out since the two of them loved sewing. And Kate was an assistant stage manager, which basically meant she kept the actors and stage hands on task and focused during rehearsals and performances. 
Callie threatened a few times to not attend, saying that she had heard every word in the script far too many times to be interested in going to the play, but she only said this in her grumpy moments. In truth, everyone knew she was as excited as any of the others. She may have known the script forward and backwards, but there were sets to see (even though she and Andrew and the service club had helped to paint them), and costumes to drool over (ideas for future costumes… she would definitely bring her sketch pad), and the lighting and the sound… she loved performances and wouldn’t have missed it for the world. 
The show was sold out both nights. Who wouldn’t want to bring their children to Peter Pan? But Kate had made sure to book everyone’s tickets well in advance, and they filled into the crowded auditorium before the show. Since Kate was working backstage helping to manage the students and keep things moving on time she wasn’t able to sit with the rest of the group, but even without her, Sam, and Trevor they took up most of a row. 
The show was wonderful, a truly middle school production. The sets, costumes, and even lighting gave it a feel of polish. The flailing of swords, forgotten lines and whispered prompts, and wiggling spotlight (the operator was dancing along to the songs) reminded the audience that those involved were pre-teens. The pure enthusiasm warmed the hearts of the audience, even when it meant actors forgetting themselves and grinning in pride over remembered lines when they were supposed to be distraught over Tinkerbell’s impending death. 
All in all, very few regretted coming and a great many said it was the best show they had seen in years, and most involved found they didn’t care one bit either way. They had enjoyed themselves immensely and had formed bonds of friendship across grade levels and social groups that just might last, and they had been part of something bigger than themselves. And that, would ensure that almost all of those involved were already determined to try out the following year even though they had no idea what that show might be. 
The family and friends who waited to congratulate them were as proud as could be and the clicking of cameras and poses and smiles and group hugs lasted for at least an hour after the curtain had closed before finally the last of the actors was chased out of their costumes and home with strict orders to sleep and rest so they could do it all again the next day. 
And so, they fell in love with theater. 


It is a great thing to be able to try and love so many different things. Some people live their lives afraid of trying new things, afraid of what people might think of them if they do, and they let this fear keep them from finding surprisingly fulfilling experiences that bring joy and teach them so much about themselves. For Trevor and Sam, this year, it was drama. The previous year stories and music had taught them a great deal about themselves. 
The next year Trevor would come to love the team aspect of sports even more and choose to devote hours to practicing with his teammates. Sports would remain a large part of his life throughout high school, but so would theater, and that duality was something that confused most of his friends on each side. In university he chose neither and instead studied medicine, inspired by the care doctors had shown to his mother when she had fallen ill with cancer. 
Sam would fall even further in love with the power of the written word and would join a journalism club, seeking to change the world one reader at a time. While he found research and writing to be quite rewarding, and enjoyed writing historical essays digging into the cultural context of moments in history (Trevor constantly reminded him he was a nerd in these moments) he always felt there was something else he was meant to write and searched for it for years until he wrote a series of novels, alternate histories, about how different the world could have been if only those in power were not the ones who sought it. 
Callie would discover the world of musical theater in the same way her brothers did and would rule the stage for years while her art took a back seat. But after a particularly nasty breakup, she would find solace in drawing again and her rediscovered passion for art mixed with emotional maturity and grief added layers of depth to her art that allowed her to take that passion and truly communicate wordlessly with others. 
Kate and David had a baby. Two of them, actually, and the twins kept them incredibly busy. They also made them humble. They had lucked out with incredibly grateful and complaint children in Sam, Trevor, and Callie, and had to face the fact that they knew very little about raising babies. Luckily, while they had been the experts of the pre-teen years, Lynn, Anne, and Steve were more than willing to share what they knew about baby proofing a house, the teething process, and the never ending battle of attempting to set boundaries and routines for toddlers. While they may not have loved every potty training or temper tantrum moment, they had no regrets, and Christopher and Sarah both were wonderful children with a whole family of role models to look to for guidance. 
Lynn, as mentioned before, was diagnosed with cancer. It had latched itself to her brain and by the time it was found, there was nothing that could be done other than try to extend the time she had left and make her as comfortable as possible. Those were dark days for the group, but she faced it with a remarkable amount of peace, and even joy. She had her faith, and the love of her family. She was perfectly content to go as long as her family promised to take care of each other. 
Terrance was a wreck when Lynn died, and it was Charlie and his new wife who were able to get him through it and who stepped up to be parents to Cole, Kylie, Andrew, and Emily while their father was grieving. 
Cole threw himself into sports to distract himself from the pain and was the quarterback of the football team. He chose not to go to college, but instead went to work for his father in construction and was, after some time, a quite competent builder and a highly sought after crew member who knew how to work with others as a team. 
Kylie turned a bit mean without the influence of her mother until Anne sat her down and told her exactly what her mother would think of her behavior. It wasn’t that she became a bully, she just lost her filter and took her anger at the world out on everyone around her. Anne, who had always wanted a daughter but had only been able to have the one child, adopted Kylie as her goddaughter. At first she tried to teach her how to sew or cook, but Kylie was distinctly uninterested. However, when Noah came home from practice with some nasty scrapes and Anne set to bandaging him up they found a topic of interest to Kylie and Anne was able to teach her basic first aid and get her a job at the veterinary clinic helping injured animals. 
Andrew continued to love all forms of artistic expression. He cooked, sewed, painted, drew, and sculpted, and was often teased for his ‘feminine’ interests. But, while Andrew was quite sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others, he also had a spine and refused to let other’s uneducated opinions determine what brought him joy. He found those who appreciated his talents in culinary school and eventually opened his own small town cafe where he made meals with as much flavor but half the grease and was able to hang his own artwork on the walls to brighten the space and bring himself and his patrons joy. His cafe became quite a hit and he was asked to expand and open additional locations, but he liked to keep things small, and be personally involved in the creation and distribution of his food. 
Emily continued to be a scholar. She loved studying, and reading, and several hinted that perhaps she would be a teacher someday, but a love of learning does not necessarily mean a love of sharing that learning with others, and Emily would much rather spend time with books than with people. Nothing held her interest so well as a story, and she found she rather liked editing stories and being the first person to see a story beginning to unfold. She was a rather good editor too, and Sam brought his stories to her when he was ready to share them. 
The children, as often happens, scattered geographically upon graduating, but they always kept in their hearts those years when they had been so close and so happy. And as often as possible, they came back to ‘the church’ for Christmas, or even a summer barbecue, and all knew they were always welcome.