You're My Brother

Day 800- My What Now?!

    "Keith, meet Mr. and Mrs. Robinson," Mr. Clark said, motioning to a couple standing in front of he and Keith, "they're your new foster parents."
"What?!" Keith's eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. "Foster parents?! What the heck is that?!"
"They have custody of you for a given time—"
"So you're renting me out?! Like property?! That's not acceptable!"
   "It's different than that, Keith." The woman said, kneeling down in front of him. "We're giving you a home for a while. A family. Don't you want that?"
   "I don't.... no... not really..."
   "You'll adjust to it just fine." The man, Mr. Robinson his name was, said. "We'll take good care of you."
   "Okay..." Keith sighed, his things were already downstairs and ready to go. "I'll go get Comet."
    "Who's Comet?" Mrs. Robinson asked, unaware of Keith's pet.
    "The boy has a companion animal. Somewhat like an emotional support dog." Mr. Clark informed the two.
   Keith came back downstairs with his dog and the leash for him. "This is Comet..." he said quietly, pointing to the dog which had grown considerably in the past two months. The one ear that did stand up barely reached Keith's hip. From floor to shoulder, Comet was a good two feet tall or so.
   "That's Wonderful." Mr. Robinson bent down and stroked the animal's head. "How long have you had him?"
    "A while." Keith answered. "He was about four months when I found him out back... now he's about seven or eight..."
   "We..." the woman paused, looking at Keith who was crouched on the floor showing off Comet's tricks to no one in particular. "We weren't expecting a boy and a dog."
    The child's eyes opened up wide before he quickly looked down. "Oh..."
   "But that doesn't mean he can't come." She quickly corrected herself and knelt down next to Keith. "So... Comet is his name?" Keith gave her a slight nod. "It's a good name. Do you like outer space and stars?"
    "Uh, yeah." He answered, looking at Comet. "I guess so."
   The man smiled and patted Keith's head. "Then we'll get along."
   "Yeah..." Keith smiled a little and stood up, placing his hands in his pockets. "Should we go...?"
   He was so unsure of it all. A new family? A new home? A new room? A new schedule? All of it so foreign to a boy who's been forced into all of these things just two years ago.
   Keith looked out the tinted window, Comet in his lap, at all of the places he had only ever scene when he was with his father. Each place awoke an unwanted memory, a locked away part of him he never wanted to find, a side of him he wished he could forget, a life he longed for.
   "So, Keith," Mr. Robinson's voice yanked Keith back to reality. "Got any hobbies? Favorite foods or movies?"
   "No..."
   "Come on!" He chuckled, looking back to the boy. "There's gotta be something. What did you do with your dad?"
    Keith instinctively bit his bottom lip and looked down to the belt across his lap. He heard Mrs. Robinson scold him for mentioning the boy's father but payed no attention to it. While looking at his lap, he noticed something that bugged him. His feet barely touched the ground and he spent the next ten minutes playing a game to see how far e could stretch his toes to touch the floor. There were no rules, only a simple objective: touch the floor of the car with your feet.
   He never managed to reach his goal, but he did get quite close.
   "Here we are." The lady said, pulling into a newly paved driveway. "It's not much, but this is home for you now."
   "Whoa...." Keith looked up at the... well... the mansion. Two floors, with an arched brick entryway and giant windows all around. The front was beautiful. Flowers, bushes, and succulents lined the path leading from the driveway to the entryway. "It's huge...."
   "Let's show you around.."
   Mrs. Robinson took Keith by the hand, something he hated, and led him inside.
   To his left, a large sitting room with an electric fire pit. The white walls and white carpet probably made it seem much larger than its actual size, but it was a total upgrade from what he had at The Home. To his right, a giant dining table with several chairs. Directly in front of him was the kitchen, open and shining as the hanging glass chandelier shone its light on the surrounding areas. It had marble topped counters and a matching island with red metal stools. A staircase separated the fridge and cabinets from a room he couldn't see. One he later learned was an office.
   His host mother took him past the kitchen to another sitting room. This one had a TV and a large built in closet with DVDs, books and games. The walls of the back right side of the house were almost entirely glass with a large sliding glass door leading to a wooden deck with a grill and patio chairs. A large and lush yard spread out behind it, all fenced in by a rather elegant brick wall. The wall it's was decorated with little flowering vines all over it.
   Upstairs was the master bedroom with it's elegant bathroom and windows which faced the back of the house.
   Keith's room was on the far end opposite the stairs. It faced the front and had its own bathroom and closet. Though significantly smaller than the one his legal guardians had.
   "This is my room...?" Keith asked, his eyes wide.
   "Do you like it?"
   "Yes, Mrs. Robinson. I do. But... It's so big..."
   "You're a growing boy, you need your space."
   Keith nodded and stepped into the room, the soft and colorful carpet tickling his toes. He suddenly turned around in slight shock. "What about school?! I'm not going back to The Home for that right?!"
   Mrs. Robinson gave a slight laugh and shook her head. "No, no. You'll be going to a real school. You're entertaining fourth grade, correct?"
   "Third."
   "You'll like your school. I'm sure of it."

***

   Keith sat beneath his window, looking up at the stars. "I don't get it, Comet..." he sighed, moving to his bed to grab his hippo before returning to the spot in the moonlight. "What's the point of being here if I'm not staying...?"
   Comet whined softly, he seemed to like this new place.
   Keith didn't dislike it, he just had second thoughts. It still wasn't home.
   The child got up and opened his suitcase, pulling out a small, worn out orange-red blanket. He found it lying around the shed by his home when he went back last time.
   According to his father, his mother had chosen it specifically for him. But that could not have been the case. She wouldn't buy him a blanket if she didn't even love him. She left him and his father. There's no way she picked out his blanket.
   He held the corner of one of the sides in his hands, hippo in his lap and sighed deeply. "If this is home... Then I better get used to it." He thought out loud. "These are all I have. Only one of which is from my home."
   Comet sniffed the blanket and immediately rolled on it to claim it as his own, just as he had done to the hippo and the rest of Keith's 'belongings'.
   "Or they're both yours..." the boy said, giggling quietly and rubbing the dog's shoulders. "You shed so much... And you're getting to be really drippy..."
   His dog looked up at him as if he were offended by his owner's comments.
   "What? You are." Keith wiped the corner of the dog's mouth with his blanket and hopped up. "Come on, boy. We should get to sleep before we get in trouble."
   The truth was, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson probably would not punish Keith for staying up late, but there had been a punishment in place for two years now. It was just habit.
   This place might not he home, but it's temporary and definitely much less crowded than The Home. At least on the inside.