Two Arts

Epilogue

"Come on, pick up," I whined at the loud tune of the call ringing through the car's sound system.

New York City traffic was always bad, but particularly if you were trying to get somewhere.

"Hey love, is everything okay?" Sadie sounded short of breath like she had run to her phone.

"Yes, just freaking out, when are you coming home?" I looked at the rearview mirror and ignored the motorcyclist flipping me off for being in the correct space on my lane and not crammed into the bike lane just to let him pass me.

My eyes fell on the brand-new booster seat instead. My skin crawled.

"It's going to be just fine, you're going to be just fine, she's going to be just fine," She repeated calmly. A mantra. "I'll be home for dinner, I wish I was there though."

"We've never taken an eight-year-old before," I could feel my heartbeat speed up at the thought.

"You know that Miss Menken wouldn't even bring it up to us if she didn't think it was her best option," Sadie reasoned.

Or her only option.

We had gone over it many times already.

"Jaxon said he wanted to bake cookies for her, is he going to burn down the place?" Sadie tried to distract me when I didn't answer her.

I chuckled to myself, "He won't, we talked about the mac and cheese accident, he's mortified."

I could still smell the microwavable cup on fire after he had forgotten to put water in it.

"Are you taking him to see his mom this weekend?" Sadie checked.

"Yeah," I sighed, "It's a busy weekend."

"We got this," She reassured me.

"We do," I tried to convince myself.

"Good afternoon Ms Sparrow," The woman greeted me as soon as I entered her office.

"Miss Menken, Angelica is just fine," I said probably for the millionth time.

My eyes immediately darted to the child, a scrawny-looking kid with dark skin and big brown eyes.

I hoped that the fear I could see in the child's eyes didn't match mine. I had to pull it together and be the reassuring one of the two.

"Hi," My tone softened, "Nice to meet you, I'm Angelica, what's your name?"

I so wished Sadie was there. She had always been the first one to speak when we had picked up any of our kids.

The child's eyebrows furrowed. I watched as their lips parted just to fall shut again.

"She's Isabel," Miss Menkin jumped in to fill in the silence.

The kid grimaced at the sound of their name.

Maybe not Isabel after all.

I took notice of the blue T-shirt with trucks printed on it and the way-too-large jeans with rips on both knees.

I sighed and nodded, trying not to stare at the small trash bag where that child's entire belongings and possessions lived. I hated the trash bags.

The meeting was brief and light, we had gone through the process enough times by then.

Go in empty-handed, get out with a child.

We were due for a new placement as Jaxon had been our only child at home for a while. The place was starting to feel empty.