My new family comes at noon to pick me up. They seemed like nice people at the meeting we had a couple days ago. I’m not sure what the real name for it is but I call it a meeting when a couple comes in ask me questions about myself and decide if they want to adopt me. I’ve been through this procedure for the last fourteen years of my life my whole life. I’ve been rejected about a thousand times before but finally at fourteen years old I find a couple who are willing to take me in as their fake son. I would have a fake mom and dad soon and I was kind of happy. I’ve never had a mom or a dad before at least not that I knew of my mom left me on the stairs of this foster home fourteen years ago. She left a note saying sorry that she left me and a picture of her and I think my dad. She also left her name on the back of the picture Marcia Gonzales in beautiful cursive letters. I wish I could really see her but I don’t know where she is. I made a promise to myself that one day I would find her.
“Come on buddy we have to go,” my new dad said. I finished packing my stuff and headed to the white minivan waiting outside for me. Charleston (my new foster dad) said he was in a hurry for a very important meeting and that Megan (my new foster mom) would watch me for the rest of the day until he got back from work and then we can get ice cream. I couldn’t wait to get ice cream I only had ice cream one time before. Which was when I had my first birthday in the foster home I never had ice cream after that. I still taste the vanilla ice cream in my mouth. I hopped in the back seat of the minivan.
“Ok let’s roll buddy. Is it ok if I call you buddy?” I really didn’t like being called buddy I liked my real name Ethan but I didn’t want to upset him.
“Yeah it’s fine.” I said giving him a fake warm smile. It took us almost an hour to get to my new house. It was huge like a mansion. The whole house was painted a bright yellow it almost hurt my eyes just looking at it. But in a way it was beautiful, there were hills of grass behind the house that went on as far as I could see.
“Do you like it? Asked Charleston he started walking towards the house.
“It’s truly amazing sir.” Can I call him dad? He answered my question.
“You can call me dad if you want buddy.” We reached the door. It was huge almost twice the size of Charleston and he’s almost six five. There was a door bell on the side of the giant door. Charleston rang the doorbell. A butler opened the door.
“Who’s this Mr. Charleston?” He looked at me then to my new dad for an answer.
“This is our new guest buddy.” He patted me on the back. Why did he just call me buddy? That wasn’t my real name. I told him he could call me that but he could have told the butler my real name. Does he even know my real name?
“Welcome buddy I’m sure you’ll feel right at home in no time.” Charleston pushed me inside.
“Come on buddy I have to get to that important meeting I told you about.” He pushed past me and ran up the stairs. The house wasn’t anything I expected it to be. It didn’t look like anything was expensive in the house. The couch and arm chair looked very old and had holes in them. The rug on the floor looked like it has two layers of dirt covering it and so did everything else in the house. The only thing that looked decent in the house was the fire place. The wood was already burning inside the pit. There were pictures of Megan and Charleston together at the beach. They looked so happy. I put my some on the raggedy couch. They didn’t have a TV. I looked around the living room to see if they had it in a corner or something, but I didn’t see it.
“Do you guys have a TV?” I asked the butler who was now trying to dust the table down in front of me.
“No, you don’t need a TV you can always play outside or something.” He said planting a huge smile on his face. I have never heard of anyone who didn’t have a TV. This was weird, they looked like rich people with this big house but they couldn’t get a TV? I quickly erased this from my mind when Megan my new mom walked in the room.
“Hi buddy do you want to play outside or something?” She motioned to the door. How could I say no to my new mom?
“Sure.” I said happily jumping off the couch and ran outside. My mom followed me outside.
“Let’s go into the back there’s more room.” She ushered me into the backyard. She was right the backyard was huge. There were hills and hills going as far as I can see. It was beautiful. Megan went back inside the house while I looked out at the hills. She came back outside with a football fully pumped.
“Go long!” She said. She didn’t look like a person to play football. I ran about three feet.
“Ok throw it!” Megan threw the ball perfect, it landed right in my hand. I threw it back to her clumsier but she caught it. She was about to throw it back when her phone rang.
“Hold on a sec.” She turned around and talked into her phone. About five minutes later she was done talking on the phone.
“I’m sorry but I have to go somewhere very important buddy.” She dropped the football and ran into the house. A few minutes later the butler came outside.
“I’m sorry buddy, but Megan had some where to go and won’t be back for a couple of hours.” He walked back inside without further discussion. I slowly walked back to the house. It was my first day here and they couldn’t even spend time with me, but at least I’ll get some ice cream.
When I went into the house there was a blanket and pillow on the floor. The butler was sitting on the couch.
“Buddy Megan said you needed to take a rest from playing so much football outside.” He patted the blanket on the floor. I walked over to the blanket on the floor and lay down.
“Good boy now I’ll just be in the kitchen making dinner.” He gave me a warming smile. He looked like he was about thirty but was already growing grew hair. He looked stressed out and very tired. I almost felt bad for the guy.
“Ok when will dinner be done?” My stomach gave a loud growl. I hadn’t noticed how hungry I was.
“At seven o’clock sharp like every day,” He walked away into the kitchen. When he left the room I felt lonely. All I had was the layers of dust that seemed to be everywhere. Why aren’t my new parents here? It’s my first day here and there already gone. I’ve this to many times to know what’s going to happen. This happened at the foster home a million times. A couple would come in talk to me say they’d be back and never come back. I felt like that was going to happen with Megan and Charleston. A tear fell down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away.
I could hear the butler humming in the kitchen to a song playing. I grabbed a pair of pants and boxers from my luggage I brought from the foster home. I wasn’t going to be left behind again. I quietly walked out the front door making sure the butler wouldn’t hear me. I got outside and ran. I wouldn’t stop. I had to get as far as I could before Megan or Charleston got back home. I was four miles away from the house when I stopped. I couldn’t breathe; sweat was sticking my hair to my head. I stopped in front of some drug store. I walked inside there was a girl behind the counter chewing gum. She looked at me when I walked in. She spit her gum out and ran to me.
“Are you ok?” She looked worried and started checking my body for marks. She didn’t find any.
“Yeah I’m fine just really thirsty.” My tongue felt like sandpaper.
“What do you want to drink?” She ran over to the other side of the store and grabbed a bottle of water. “Here drink.” I grabbed the bottle from her and started drinking. I couldn’t stop it tasted so good.
When I finished the bottle I thanked her.
“You’re welcome son. Where are your parents?” She looked around as if my parents magically appeared.
“I don’t have any.” Her eyes started getting watery.
“Where are they?”
“I’m an orphan.” She started to cry silently.
“Do you want to come home with me?” I didn’t have to think about it.
“I would love to.” She stopped crying. She seemed like a nice person. She grabbed her purse from behind the counter.
“Let’s go.” She grabbed my hand and walked me outside. “Sorry I don’t have a car my house is only two blocks away from here.” It took us about ten minutes to get to her house. It wasn’t as big as my Megan and Charleston’s house but it was decent. The house was brick with a nice porch. She unlocked the door and held the door for me.
“Thanks.” She nodded her head. Inside was way better then my old foster parent’s house. Nothing was dusty everything looked brand new.
“I just moved in a week ago.” She didn’t have a fireplace but she did have a TV. I put my pants and boxers on the couch (which was way better then the couch my ex – foster parents had). Her house was way cleaner. It seemed like nothing had dust. Her house was very nice. She led me down a hallway and into a room. The room was bear besides the bed that was in the middle of the room.
“You can use this room. It was originally my room but I didn’t like this room.” She walked out the room and down the hallway. She seemed like a really nice lady. I like her, I like her a lot. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay in this house forever. What if Megan and Charleston call the cops? No, they probably didn’t even notice I was gone.
I laid my stuff on the bed. It was nice and soft.
“Are you hungry?” She yelled from down the hall. I just realized I don’t know her name.
“Sure.” I walked down the hall and seen her in the kitchen. She was making tacos. She had two plates on the table. I sat down next to a plate.
“Here,” She handed me a taco with a bunch of meat and cheese. It was a plain taco. That’s weird who doesn’t put lettuce or tomatoes on their taco?
“You don’t out lettuce or tomatoes on your taco?” I gave her a confused face.
“No I don’t eat lettuce or tomatoes.” She sat down across from me. We ate in silence. I finished my taco in about two minutes and went into my new room. I sat on my bed and closed my eyes. I was really tired; it was a long day today. She came into my room about ten minutes later, turned off my light and kissed me goodnight. No one had ever kissed me goodnight before. I felt so loved and wanted. I’ve never felt like that before… it felt good. Right then and there I knew that she was going to take care of me forever. And I know I loved her. I barely knew her, but she gave more love then I felt in fourteen years.