Chapter 9: Your Reality
It was Wednesday, my second day with Mike and Ginny Anderson. Even though I had enjoyed my two days with them, my heart was still anxious. I had not heard them say anything about what they planned to do with me. Were they trying to gain my trust only to turn their backs on me? Were they planning on turning me over to the police? Would I end up back in foster care? Had they said anything to Pastor Harris?
"Keon, Keon. Are you all right?" Ginny asked, shaking my arm.
"Oh, me? Yes," I said, picking up my fork again.
We were all sitting at the table in the kitchen, eating our Wednesday evening meal before going to church for the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study hour. I glanced at the cuckoo clock; it was 4:30. Mike and Ginny's daughter, Anne, was sitting beside me.
"You seem a hundred miles away," Ginny said. "Is something wrong?"
"No," I said, taking a bite of my garlic bread. "I was just thinking."
"Well, eat up. We must get going. I have choir rehearsal from five until six fifteen. You can join the others in the fellowship hall, and if you feel like eating again, you can eat with them. Tonight they're serving chicken nuggets and salad."
I nodded, too busy chewing my food to answer. Little did they know, I was already familiar with their Wednesday evening dinner, having joined a few of them and somehow, on two occasions, managed to take my plate of food back to the charity room when no one was looking.
"You can stay with me while Ginny rehearses, or you could hang out with the teenagers," Mike said.
I chose to stay with Mike. He and Ginny did not introduce me as the runaway kid hiding in the church's charity room. Instead, they told others how my grandmother had died and I was spending a few days with them. I looked up at them with grateful eyes. Ginny smiled at me. I rewarded her with a smile of my own. She understood.
"You made it seem like you knew my grandmother," I said to Ginny and Mike on our way back home from church.
"Well, I don't need to know all the details. It's our secret. Is that all right with you?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," I said smiling.
"By the way, Keon," Mike said. "What school were you going to? I'm sure you would like to continue going to your school. Or we may need to transfer you to another school closer to us. We'll need to get your records."
"Hillsdale Middle School," I said. I loved going to school. If they are talking of putting me in school, then maybe they have plans for me staying with them, I thought.
"Tomorrow we'll go to the bookstore and pick up a few workbooks for you," Ginny said.
"Mom, you can sign him up with a tutoring service online. Remember you had me sign up with one when I was having problems with my math," Ann said. She had been sitting beside me quietly reading her Kindle.
"We sure can. Now why didn't I think of that?" Ginny asked.
"That sounds good!" I said excitedly.
The following morning, after Ginny and I returned from the bookstore and had settled down in her sewing room, I eagerly tackled my school books.
Over a late lunch, Ginny asked me the one question I was hoping they would not ask. "Keon, tell me how you ended up in our charity room. I promise no one will know except Mike and myself."
I swallowed as I gathered my thoughts, not knowing where to begin. Ginny, who had joined me at the cutting table, was doing some embroidery work on a couple of pillowcases she was sewing for one of her customers. It was to be a wedding gift.
The silky white material shimmered in the light. Ginny's hand skillfully started moving the needle with the silver embroidery thread in and out of the material. One pillowcase was already done. It had the word 'HERS' in big letters, the date of the wedding, and the words "until death do us part." She was working on the word 'HIS' on the second pillowcase.
I told Ginny about the day my mother received the letter from McKenon & Parker offering her a job.
"I had never seen her so happy. She was much nicer to me after that. I was happy because she was happy."
"Was she not always a happy person?" Ginny asked.
"Not always. Before then, I remember her being sad."
"Did you both live with your grandmother?" Ginny asked.
"At first we did. Then she and Nana had a serious argument. I don't quite remember all of it as I was only five years old. But I remember it made me sad because we had to leave Nana's house."
_______
"Katherine, like I've been telling you ever since you were a teenager, you have always been a flighty person -- in your thoughts, words, and actions. Your spirit is unsettled. You always want to jump up and move to something new," Nana said.
"Kathy. Please call me Kathy. I hate the name Katherine," Mom said.
"Yes, Kathy. Thanks for reminding me," Nana said. "You need to ask God to have His quietness and peace to dwell within you."
"Mama, I'm just asking you to do me one favor. Please. I'll only be gone for a week. Can't you watch him for me, just for one week? I mean, he is your grandson."
"And he is your son -- your only son. Is it too much for you to sacrifice a week with your friends to be with your five-year-old son who is quietly crying out for your attention?"
"Mama, how can you say that when I'm here with him every day?"
"You're here in body, but your mind is not here. It has not been here since you gave birth to him," Nana snapped. "Like I warned you when you started playing around with Devon, you were playing with someone who did not take life seriously. But, oh no, you wouldn't listen. You were consumed with the idea of marriage and having a baby and being a mother. Well, you had the baby and now you are a mother! You better wake up and accept your reality."
