I want to so badly run and jump on it. But that would mean leaving Samuel, and I don’t think I am ready to just yet. The whole room is like a dream.
I look back to Samuel, who is still watching me. “It’s all for me?”
“All for you, Eden. And the best part is”—he pulls me into a hug and whispers in my ear—“my room is right across the hall.” He kisses my cheek, then twirls me around.
My head falls back as I giggle.
My big brother is going to be right there across the hall. It makes me more comfortable knowing he will be right there if I need him. All of this, the house, the room, Samuel, it all makes me smile bigger.
His hands grip me tighter as he spins me around faster.
I am safe. I am finally safe.
3
ElliottEden
Age 10
The first week here hasn’t been so bad. It is a little weird to be in such a big house, but I am trying to adjust to my new life and home the best I can.
I hang out with Samuel most of the time, and he is nice to me. Sweet, even.
He plays with the dolls he says he picked out for me in my room. We play family. I am the mommy, of course, and he is the daddy. He says we look a lot like Barbie and Ken in real life, and that makes me giggle. He is right. Me, with my blonde hair and blue eyes. Samuel’s hair and eyes are like mine but more intense. His hair is basically white, and mine is more of a dirty-blonde. And his eyes... my blue eyes have nothing on his. He says he loveshow deep blue mine are. But his... his are like glaciers. They don’t seem real sometimes.
If we aren’t playing with my dolls, he is running around the yard with me, or we are cuddled up, watching a movie in his room. He lets me watch all the Disney movies I want. Princess movies all day if I want to. He says he doesn’t mind because I am with him, and he knows they make me happy. He is a good brother like that.
I thought it would be difficult to bond with him, since he is a teenager. I don’t know if he thinks I am too much of a little kid for him, but he has been the only one to make me really feel at home.
Even when his one friend, Joshua, comes around, he always makes sure I am okay or forces his friend to hang with me as well. Joshua doesn’t want to be hanging out with a little kid. He makes it obvious by the way he looks at me. When Samuel tells him I will be along for the hangout, Joshua sighs. But he sits there on the couch with Samuel as I watchThumbelinafor the millionth time in Samuel’s arms. They are always chatting with each other about school and whatever other people I haven’t ever met before. I don’t mind because it means my big brother is nearby.
As for my new mom and dad, Mr. and Mrs. Donovan, they are always busy. Well, Mr. Donovan is. Mrs. Donovanmakesherself busy. I am hoping to spend more time with us all together as a whole family. It just hasn’t happened yet. Except at dinners.
We always have dinner together. It’s one of my favorite times of the day, aside from being with Samuel. I used to have to wonder when I would eat again, but here, I get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. The snacks, I can havewheneverI want. I don’t know how they have this much food. Must come with the territory of having a house like this.
I bite into my granola bar, walking slowly back to my room, looking at the walkway. The walls look freshly painted, even though Samuel tells me they have lived here his whole life. I wonder if the people who work here have to scrub the walls to make them look this clean all the time. I frown. I wouldn’t want them to have to do that all the time just for walls to be clean. That would be a big chore.
“Eden! Is that you?”
Samuel’s voice echoes out of his room. His door is cracked open, and I walk over to it.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
I put my mouth to the opening as I reply. I know better than to enter someone’s room without permission.
One time, at a foster house, I walked into one of my foster sister’s rooms. I was just trying to let her know dinner is ready, but she didn’t like it. So, she punched me in the shoulder, pushed me into her closet, and blocked the door. I was there all night. I missed dinner and got in trouble for sneaking into her room by my foster mom the next day.
“Can you come here?” Samuel shouts again.
I push the door open so only my head could fit but don’t see him anywhere. His bed and desk chair are empty. “Where are you? I don’t see you.”
“In the bathroom. Come.”
Water splashes behind the door.
I look at the door at the other end of his room, where a light is shining under it. We both have bathrooms in our rooms, but I have never been in his before. I knock softly before opening it wide.
I know he says to come in and is giving me permission, but it feels like I am still breaking the rules. The sicky feeling in my stomach swirls around.
