Pinfeathers

Chapter 5 - The Patient

---

Chapter 5 - The Patient

---

Miela rested her forehead against the glass window of the shuttle, allowing her eyes to close for just a moment. The rain outside faded into sound as her thoughts took her focus off the freezing surface pressed against her skin. 

Raph and Zoe should be home from school by now, hopefully they managed to get dinner sorted for themselves again. A pang of guilt tightened her lips. Assuming they made it home.

Miela tried to reason with the guilt that she was doing the best she could, but she never won that argument. She was their mother. She was supposed to be able to look after them, not leave them to fend for themselves most nights while she was off giving her attention to other kids at the hospital, but she didn't have another choice. The three of them needed the colour, and badly. The bills were piling up in a way that she wasn't sure how much longer they'd keep their heads above water. 

Miela sighed and opened her eyes, letting them scour a droplet of water for details. 

They both have dreams of getting out of here, too. Moving to somewhere else in Sirah. I know how Raph hates the dark, and the power around here is less than steady...

Her thoughts drifted around the subject of Raph in the few remaining minutes left until her stop. He'd been quiet last night, disconnected from the game like his mind was somewhere else. Miela hadn't quite figured out what was going on with their new friend just yet, but she had clues. Not from school or the neighbour hood, searching for food in a dumpster... she suspected the black-haired girl--Athira, wasn't it?--was a runaway. 

It didn't leave the kid with many options. A child living by themselves in this part of Sirah wouldn't last long on the streets alone. If they didn't want to die, they joined one of the 'families', the word's meaning having been perverted to refer to the local thug gangs, where she'd be trapped and exploited for the rest of her life. That, or they tried to fend for themselves, and Miela had seen enough cases at work to know that never ended well. Violence, disease, malnourishment... the possibilities of how it went wrong were endless. 

As she stepped off the shuttle, her shoes touching the wet concrete, a painful thought crossed her mind. One that, no matter how much she wanted to give it a shot, she couldn't see a way to make it work for any longer than a few months. Regardless, it sat at the forefront of her mind, weighing down on every step she took towards home. 

I could always take her in. 

If down to that simple choice, she'd do it in a heartbeat. The kid had saved her own without the prompt of reward. Zoe loved her--that was obvious. Raph was being Raph, wary and suspicious of everyone he came into contact with, but they just didn't have the colour to feed another mouth. They didn't have the colour to send another brain to school or clothe another body. 

Maybe there'd be someone at work... Miela caught herself, stopping the thoughts in their tracks as she reached the bottom step of the apartment complex entrance. No. You're getting ahead of yourself. You don't even know her situation yet, and you're already a bleeding heart. 

Miela shoved a hand in her bag, fishing around for the card to open the doors--some new measure they'd installed in the last month to keep their promise of 'increased security' in the hopes of attracting new tenants. Her fingers found the plastic edges as she flipped it around, about to press it against the scanner when a small bundle shifted in the corner. 

The bundle looked up, and a face stared back at her. Recognition sparked across Miela's brain as grey eyes searched hers, surrounded by quivering skin.