“-and then I went into my room and played with my dolls. And I was pretending that we were off on a desert island, but every little island had a machine.”
The little girl, perhaps five, was standing on a stool, arms folded on the table. She had brown hair to her shoulders, watching a woman in her early forties making dinner. The woman was stirring a pot full of corn on the stovetop before stopping to catch some bread out of the toaster.
“What kind of machines were they?” the woman asked.
“Like a food machine or a book machine or an arcade machine, or a zoo machine. I didn’t have to buy anything, because I owned the entire island. And we just played and played and pretended we were the richest people in the world. The food machine was great, because it made those really delicious hamburgers from that fancy restaurant you took me too that first time you picked me up.”
The smallest of smiles crossed the woman’s face, one that went unnoticed by the child. “McDonalds?”
“Yes! It was so good! And the island just gave those hamburgers away, and everyone was happy. Then Felicity came into my room and said-”
“Ah, wait a moment. Did Felicity say you could tell me what she said?”
The little girl crinkled her brow, her eyes tearing from the pot toward the woman’s face. “Why would I have to ask permission from Felicity to say you wanted help with dinner?”
The woman went back to stirring the corn, smiling. “There are some things that people want to keep to themselves. To keep private. It makes them feel uncomfortable when other people know so much of their lives.”
The little girl again blinked at the older woman. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s okay not to understand. But sometimes we still have to respect other people’s privacy.”
“But we need to let other people know what’s going on. It’s what keeps mama safe. That’s what Ms. Nichole said,” the little girl said.
“And I know that too. It’s just something we’ve got to practice. There are some things that are dangerous to keep a secret, but there are also some things that Felicity may not want others to know about herself, and it makes her feel embarrassed,” the woman said.
“But if no one ever reported that Felicity’s mommy was getting beaten by her boyfriend, Felicity would have been in danger. Right? So it’s important people know that she’s safe now. Right? If I didn’t tell anyone that I hadn’t eaten in three days, no one would have brought me here so I can eat. Right?” the little girl said. She sighed, then crinkled her nose again. “It’s more important to tell everyone everything all the time.”
“Ah, Quinn,” the older woman said, ruffling her hair. “Promise me you’ll never grow out of your inability to be bothered about what other people think. That is a skill some adults are still learning.”
The oven beeped, and the little girl, Quinn, smiled wide. “DINNER!” She shouted it with all the energy in her soul. She leapt off the stool and ran to the dining room table. Quinn’s shouts were better than a ringing bell.
Though the phone did start ringing. The older woman finished placing wiped off her hands on the apron before picking the phone up from the base. “Hello?”
Quinn sat happily at the table as the woman picked up the phone. “Hello?... Yes, this is she…” The woman’s face changed from a slight smile to the frown tugging at her lips. “Yes, hello Shauna.”
Quinn waved as another little girl came to the table. The other girl waved before sitting down. An older man walked in.
Stolen story; please report.
“Hello Doug!” Quinn shouted.
“Doug, dear. Can you come here for a moment? Shauna’s on the phone,” the woman said.
“Ah, what does she need?”
The two of them moved into the kitchen as a teenager sat down. A teenager with the same comforting, beaming smile as the older man. “Oh, no! Shauna’s calling? I’m starving! I don’t want to wait for them to be done talking!”
“You’re always starving,” Quinn said.
“Because I’m always growing. What about it, girls? Should I get the casserole?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Quinn said, using her fork and spoon to beat on the table. “I LOVE tater tot casserole!” She said it with all the vigor that she used to scream that dinner was done, her utensils shaking in her fists.
The teenager smiled as he entered the kitchen. When he came back, the smile was gone as he placed it in the middle of the table. A smile Felicity noticed was missing, but Quinn did not.
“Mom says we can go ahead and eat it. They’re not sure when they’ll be done talking to Shauna,” the teenager said.
“Does that mean another kid is coming to our house?” Quinn asked.
“Possibly,” the teenager said.
“How long do you think this one will stay?”
“No idea.” The teenager grabbed Felicity and Quinn’s plates
“Does it ever bother you that you have to share your house with kids?” Quinn asked.
“No.” Slowly, the teenager started smiling again, dishing up the plates.
“What about that I share my private life. Does that bother you? Brenda says some people get embarrassed about their life, and don’t want to share it like how Felicity doesn’t like that I tell people her momma’s boyfriend beat her up-”
“Hey!” Felicity said.
“But does it bother you that I talk about my life?” Quinn asked the teenager.
The teenager finished putting the plates on the table in front of the girls. “No, Quinn. You are talking to Ms. Nichole about it a lot, though, right?”
“Yeah. I am. She wants to hear all about it,” Quinn said as the older couple walked in.
The conversation was over as the teenager glanced up at his parents. “So?”
“A boy is coming to our house in about an hour. Emergency placement. There’s no where else to go,” Doug said, sitting down and dishing himself up. “We’ll get him a tour of the place. Derrin, make sure your room is clean.”
The teenager looked up from his mountain of tater tot casserole. “Your tours never include my room.”
“I know. It’s just a reminder to clean your room,” Doug said, ruffling the boy’s hair before kissing his forehead. Derrin snorted, but allowed it.
“What’s the boy like? Is he staying long? Why’s he coming here?”
Quinn asked more and more questions before Brenda held up a hand. “You know calls with Shauna are never so informative. We just know a five-year-old boy is coming, and even then, we can’t be sure.”
It didn’t appease Quinn’s avalanche of questions. Throughout dinner she filled the room with questions, supposes, and dark wonderings of what his life might have been like to come to Doug and Brenda’s house.
Quinn was in the playroom with Felicity, still asking the questions when a car pulled in. Felicity and Quinn both pressed their noses to the window as they watched a woman help a boy out of the car. Brenda and Doug were waiting outside the front porch to meet him, even though it was starting to get hot.
“I don’t see any bruises on him,” Quinn said, her palms against the glass.
“Sometimes daddies are smart to hide the bruises where kids wear clothes,” Felicity said.
“Oh, yeah. You’re probably right,” Quinn said.
Quinn and Felicity passed stories as the boy, who had nothing but the clothes on his back.
“He kind of looks like he saw his dog die in a car crash,” Felicity said.
“You’re right,” Quinn said, her eyes wide. “Do you think he’s actually five? Remember that one time Shauna told Brenda that Trevor was six, but he was actually ten? That was funny.”
“Yeah. I don’t know, that boy looks five, but then again, you don’t look five either.”
“That’s cause mama drank while I was in her belly,” Quinn said.
Doug was talking to one of the workers as Brenda knelt down to get eye level with the boy and talk to him. The boy’s face remained the same. Wide eyed, haunted, and his mouth remained glued shut.
They were out there for a long while. It felt like an eternity. Then Doug entered the house, and returned with a booster seat, which Brenda took and placed in her own car.
“Time for our instructions!” Quinn said as the car drove off.
Doug smiled as he heard the tail end of that. For anyone but Quinn, they would have noticed how small the smile was on Doug’s face, how the haunted look from the boy seemed to leak into Doug’s eyes.
“Does he prefer girl company, or boy company?” Quinn asked, hands behind her back, shoulders straight.
“Girl company,” Doug said.
“So that means you need to be more careful around him, right?” Quinn said.
“Aren’t you getting smart,” Doug said.
“And how about teenage boys?” Derrin asked.
“Still unsure. But we’ll play it super safe. His name is Theo, and he’s going to stay here for quite a while.”