A Boy with No Where to Go

Again

The next morning, Emily woke up to a loud crash. She hurried out of bed and rushed to see what had happened. Henry was in the kitchen covered with flour. He tried to shake most of it off, but it stuck to his hair. Emily burst into laughter as he looked up at her. "You look like a ghost," she said when she could finally breathe again. It had been a long time since she had laughed like that. Henry gave her a look as to say that the entire scenario was not funny, but Emily didn't care. 

"Go and take a shower, I'll clean up the mess," she told him. He nodded and went into her bathroom. As she bent over to pick up the fallen bag of flour, there came a knock at the door. She put the flour on the counter of the kitchen and walked to the door to see who it was. As the door opened, she smiled when she made eye contact with the same chestnut eyes that she had seen yesterday. "Jacob!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" Jacob smiled at Emily as she let him inside. 

"I just wanted to see how you were holding up," he replied. He looked at the flour that covered the floor of the kitchen and chuckled. "Do you need help with cleaning that up?" he asked. Emily shook her head as she got out a broom and dustpan and quickly got all of the flour off the floor. As soon as she finished, she heard the door to the bathroom open and saw Henry standing in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his waist. 

"Can you hand me one of the outfits?" he asked Emily. She nodded and went to pick out some comfortable clothing for him to wear. Once, she handed the outfit to him, he went back inside to bathroom to put it on. 

"How long are you going to make him stay here?" Jacob asked Emily. She gave him a look. 

"I'm not making him do anything," she huffed. "I have the entire week off of work. I'll do the best I can until then. If he still wants to stay, I guess he can, but I don't know if I'm really the person he needs. There are more than likely hundreds of people that would want to take care of him. Maybe I should get in touch with social services..." she said the last part in a sad manner. Jacob looked at her sympathetically. However, before he could say anything to comfort her, Henry ran in. 

He wrapped his arms around Emily and gave her a tight hug. Emily had not realized that he had been eavesdropping on their conversation. He looked up at her with pleading eyes. A look she had never seen before. "Please don't send me into that system again," he cried out. Emily and Jacob looked at him in confusion. 

"Again?" Emily asked. "What do you mean again?"