Sheltered Love

Chapter 2

"Indigo, are you awake?" Journey's sweet voice asks in the stillness of the night from her bed above mine - we're sleeping in bunk bed's. 

"Yeah, I'm still awake," I murmur. "What's wrong, J?" 

I already know what's wrong - it's also the same reason that I'm still awake at 2 a.m. when we should be sound asleep since we went to be at 10 p.m. last night. 

"I'm scared, it's really dark in here," she whispers, her voice is quivering in fear; we're both terrified of the darkness and of the night. 

"Do you want to sleep down here with me?" I gently ask; she doesn't verbally reply, but soon enough she's climbing down the ladder, and climbing under the covers with me. Thankfully, she doesn't have my other fear of thunder and lightening. 

Once she's settled, I pull the covers over us, and we eventually fall asleep. I stay asleep until I hear a loud bang on the wall with the door, and my eyes fly open in fear. My breath hitches as I wait to hear if anything else happens, and I check on Journey, and she's still blissfully sleeping. Carefully climbing off the bed, and silently walk to the locked door to see if I can hear anything else. As I stand by the door, there's another loud bang in the hallway, followed by yelling by a man, I think, before everything falls silent. Cowering away from the door, I decide to sit at the desk chair and listen. 

Ten long minutes later of absolute silence, I glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand, which reads 7:38 a.m. I guess I'll change into my new outfit before waking Journey, so we can have breakfast before heading to the library to use the computers for her schooling, and for me to see if I can find our granparents. Quickly dressing, I will wash our clothes when we come back later today. Beck told us last night when he showed us to the showers that their is a small laundry area that is available for use by everyone at the shelter. He said the shelter provides the laundry soap and fabric softener to be used. 

"Journey, it's time to get up," I whisper while gently shaking her shoulder.

"Okay," she mumbles while rubbing the sleep from her eyes with a loud yawn; turning around once she's off the bed to allow Journey to dress, and she places her clothes in the mess bag with mine that was given to us by Beck last night, too. 

Sitting down at the table with our breakfast tray's, I pick at mine while Journey tucks into her's. I always pick at my food until I know she's full. I will always make damn sure that my sister is full with good food before I eat, and I always will. She's my baby sister and I need to take care of her until the day she is fully able to care for herself, and even after that if she needs my help, I will do everything in my power to help and care for her. We're all each other has. 

"Hey, Indigo and Journey, can I see you in my office, please?" Beck asks as we take care of our empty metal trays.

"Sure, is everything okay?" I timidly ask while we follow behind him to his his office. 

"Yeah, I think so," he replies opening his office door to have us enter before him. 

I stop in my steps when I see an older couple sitting in the chairs in front of Beck's desk as they turn to face us. They look vaguely familiar and then it clicks with me as to who they are even though Journey and I haven't seen then in seven years, so I doubt Journey will remember them. 

Granma gasps with wide tear filled eyes as she places her right hand over her open mouth; "Indigo, Journey, is that you?" 

"Mrs. MacLean, we'll sort everything out, I promise," Beck says shutting the door behind him. 

"How did you figure this out? How do you know they're related to us at all?" I demand of Beck, though I'm 90% sure they're mum's parents; Beck explains everything to us while Journey and I sit on chairs against the wall.  

"Your mama's name is Ivory Louise MacLean, she's 32-years-old, around 5'5" tall, with long blond hair and blue eyes," granpa says as if this will prove to me as to who they are, but I just stare blankly at him since he described a lot of woman. 

"We brought pictures with us that we have of her, and of the two of you when you were younger," granma says while digging through her purse before pulling out a large stack of pictures that she hands to me. 

Looking through these with Journey when we're half-way through when I stop to stare at a picture of mum, Journey, me, and our dad. I'm sure Journey doesn't remember him, or our grandparents. Rubbing the tip of my left forefinger lightly over his face, and I can't help but wish he was still alive because if he was then perhaps mama wouldn't have done drugs, or if she had, then he could have cared for us. 

"Indigo, who is he?" Journey softly asks, pulling me from my thoughts. "He looks like you."

Bringing my blurry eyes to her confused baby blue eyes, the only thing I shared with mama and Journey; "That's our dad. Um, he died when we were little before mama got sick."

"She was sick? What was your mama sick with?" granpa sadly asks. 

"She used drugs, that was her sickness," Journey growls, much to my shock as I tried hiding that fact from her. "She loved her drugs more than us, and she let that kill her, and left us alone to fend for ourselves." 

"When, did she, uh, when did she die?" granpa manages to ask as granma seems to be unable to speak. 

"Three months ago," I say blankly, void of any emotion. "I went out that morning to try to get some money to buy some food for Journey and me since any money that mama got went to her drugs. When I returned home, I found Journey sitting in front of the television watching a show, and mama was in her bathroom lying in the bathtub, dead with a needle stuck in the inside of her elbow."

After several and tense minutes, Beck breaks the tension by saying; "I have to ask a question that has been bothering me since you two showed up last night. Indigo, how old are you actually?"

"I'm 16-years-old, but I was honest about Journey's age," I reply with a smile. 

"I figured you weren't being honest with me about your age," he grumbles with a smile that says he truly wasn't mad. "Go pack your stuff, and yes, take the stuff you got from here. Come back when you're done, so you can go home with them. They've signed legal paperwork already to be your legal guardians."

Ten minutes later, we've gathered our belongings, and are back in Beck's office to leave with our grandparents. Hugging Beck tightly as I whisper my thanks to him for his help.