"The best is yet to come."
~*~
Evelyn was going on another adventure, but this time there was no anticipation or excitement to explore.
The giant building before her was filled with strangers rushing to get to wherever they needed to. She'd never been in an airport before and the chaos of it all was overwhelming. Exploring the city shops around her mother's apartment building was one thing, but this caused anxiety to bubble in her tummy. It was too crowded and the people moving were too fast for her.
She clutched Daisy May closer to her chest. At least she had her best friend with her. The scary lady she met the day after waking up in the hospital was there too, but her presence brought the five year old little comfort. It wasn't that she was mean or anything. In fact, she did her best to make Evelyn feel at ease. But the image of her walking into the small hospital room where she was being poked and prodded by multiple doctors with a police officer by her side was still very fresh in her mind.
The thing Beatrice warned her about had happened and although she technically hadn't been taken away from her home, she was not allowed to go back. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital being asked all kinds of questions by the woman sitting beside her currently in one of the many chairs in the middle of the airport lobby.
Her name was Samantha, but she told Evelyn to call her Sam. It took nearly an entire week until the little girl felt comfortable enough to talk with her. Sam truly wasn't that bad. She did her best to explain the situation and what was going to happen. It didn't matter that Evelyn was just five years old; the woman held nothing back.
They were waiting to board a plane that would take her far, far away to a man she was told was her father. She was unaware she even had a father. Beatrice told her as much when she was just three years old after mistakenly saying the word "dad" around one of her mother's many men. Evelyn shuttered at the thought of what her mother said to her that day. After she was done yelling at her, Beatrice sent the poor girl to her room. It was nearly three days before she was allowed out. At least her mother fed her twice a day. Sometimes.
"Is there anything you want to know about where we're going Evelyn?" asked Sam.
The little girl turned towards the older woman, the dark brown ringlets of her hair falling over her face as she did. There was a lot she wanted to know. Question after question fluttered through her brain making her head spin. The most prominent question, however, was the one she asked in a barely audible voice. "Is he nice?"
Samantha Gowen viewed her with an indescribable look on her face. "He seems a little rough around the edges at first but after talking with him a while longer, I can tell he already cares a great deal about you."
Cared. It was a word she knew and craved, yet the action of someone caring for her was foreign. Did her mother care about her? After all, she did make sure that the two of them always had a roof over their heads, even if it were a car or just a space in a closet. She was fed, probably not as regularly as other kids, but she never starved. When she got hurt really bad, her mother did take her to the hospital or to her doctor friend.
So what did it mean for this stranger, her father, to care for her? She didn't know, but found herself slightly optimistic.
"Where are we going again?"
Sam gave her a patient smile. "Texas, honey. Your father owns a very big ranch just outside of a small town."
Evelyn's eyes widened. A ranch? That was news to her. Ranches had cows and horses and chickens. She was suddenly filled with excitement. She has always wanted to see them up close, but only read about them and saw pictures of them in books or videos in school or from the library's computers. And if it was bog, that meant there was plenty to explore.
Noticing the change in the little girl, Sam grinned and pulled out her phone. She pulled up a few pictures from her gallery to Evelyn what her new home looked like.
"The police friend down there who's going to pick us up sent me these. This one here is how long the driveway looks and you can see the fields on each side. He got a few pictures of the horses in their smaller fence, but couldn't get any of the cows because the heard was far out. But he has chickens and a few pigs."
Evelyn moved in really close to see the pictures as Sam continued to swipe. When she came across a field of flowers on the other side of the road, Evelyn squealed. "Sunflowers!" Sunflowers were her absolute favorite flower. Their bright colors reminded her of the sun. She supposed that's why they were called sunflowers.
"You like sunflowers too?"
She nodded her head enthusiastically with a wide grin. She looked back down at Sam's phone as she continued to show her the ranch. When Evelyn saw the pretty white house, her eyes widened once more. It looked beautiful with large glass windows that went up to a third floor, a porch that wrapped around the front with chairs lining the wall and a porch swing hanging from a hook in its ceiling, and rustic white paint all over it. She'd never seen a more perfect place, let alone stayed in one. Flowers lined the gravel path leading up to the wood and concrete stairs, the added color only accentuating the home.
Pictures, she knew, only captured so much. In person, the house would no doubt be much more lovely. Again, the five year old could now no longer wait to get to this ranch on the outside of a small town in Texas.
When it was time to go to the gates leading onto the plane, the pair walked through metal detectors before loading their bags onto a conveyor belt that would take the bags to the airstrip where men would load them up. Evelyn didn't have many - just a single bag with a few belongings and her adventure bag that Sam said she could keep with her as a carry-on. Sam, however, had many suitcases and Evelyn wondered how long the woman would be with her. They hadn't really talked about what would happen once Evelyn met her father.
She decided to wait until they got onto the plane before asking.
"Are you staying with us?"
Sam settled into the seat beside her and shook her head. "Not with you, but I will be in a motel in town until you're settled."
Evelyn nodded. That was good, she supposed. While Sam was still a stranger to her, she knew more about this woman than the person she would be living with. She was the closest thing to a friend then she'd ever had.
The plane they were about to take off on was larger than Evelyn expected. She'd certainly never been on a plane or seen one up close before. She knew what they looked like, but her view was usually from a great distance on the ground as they flew high above her. She'd never thought about being one of its passenger. The thought of being so high in the air frightened her. Now she was about to experience it and she tried her best to appear brave by instead focusing on the interior and its occupants.
A lot of the people on board were already seated, but there were still plenty walking up and down the isle to get to their seats. There were a lot of adults, but a few kids as well. Some were just babies, held closely by their mothers or fathers. Others were older than she was. It wasn't until a couple boarded the plane when Evelyn noticed a girl around her age trailing behind them, her small fist gripping the strap of the man's bag hanging from his shoulder.
Evelyn felt a bit better after seeing she was not the only one slightly terrified. She felt surprisingly better when the small family sat in the row beside her. The little girl sat on the outside row while her father sat beside her and the mother sat in the window seat. When the girl seemed to relax a bit, she looked around and her eyes locked with Evelyn's. Evelyn watched as she blinked with wide green eyes and ducked her head behind waves of long chestnut colored hair. She kept peeking through it to watch her and Evelyn gave the girl a small, nervous smile.
She was supposed to smile right?
At seeing it, the shy little girl looked at her fully with a nervous smile of her own and a small wave.
What was she supped to do now? Did she say something to her? Ask for her name?
She glanced at Samantha questioningly and was startled to find her already watching her. Sam shook her head in amusement with an understanding look on her face. She leaned down to whisper slightly in the girl's ear. "Ask her what her name is and introduce yourself."
Her dark brown, almost black hair bounced as she nodded and turned back to the other girl. This was it. She could do it. Just ask her for her name and introduce myself. I can do that.
If this was a new start - a new adventure, Evelyn needed to learn to make friends. Things weren't like before. The clothes she wore did not reek of nicotine from her mother's cigarettes, nor was she unclean with unkept hair. She looked like any other kid; felt a bit like other kids, too.
"H-hi." That was a good start. With a nervous inhale, she exhaled and continued. "My name is Evelyn. What's yours?"
She noticed the girl doing the same thing as she did when she looked back towards her father, who gave her an encouraging smile and nod of his head. Her green eyes seemed to light up and all of a sudden, any shyness the girl seemed to have vanished.
With excitement clear in her voice, she said "Hi! I'm Ruby. You have a pretty name!"
Evelyn was taken aback by the girl's sudden change, but instead of feeling overwhelmed by her cheerful deposition, she felt elated by Ruby's reaction to her. She actually seemed excited to talk to her. To her. No one ever seemed so excited to speak to her before.
She found it surprisingly easy to respond. "Thank you. I like yours too." Evelyn held out her stuffed bunny in full view for Ruby to see. "And this is Daisy May."
Ruby's eyes lit up as she bounced in her seat. "I have a stuffy too!" She then climbed over her father's lap to grab a stuffed animal tucked in between him and her mother. "I got him today, but I haven't picked out a name yet."
The stuffed animal she pulled out was of a bear the color of honey. He was around the same size as Daisy May with similar golden colored eyes and a black bow tie placed around his neck.
So cute!
The little girl loved stuffed animals. She wanted to have an entire room filled with all kinds of different ones some day. She'd dreamed of piling them on her bed and cuddling up with them or dreamed of having endless tea parties and having extra friends for her adventures.
"He's awesome! What about..." Evelyn looked at his fur once again. "How about Honey?"
Ruby looked down at her bear with a quizzical tilt of her head. Evelyn didn't have to worry if she hated the name because the next second she grinned wide. "Honey. I love it! This is Honey." She leaned over her seat and held out one of Honey's paws.
Knowing exactly what she intended, Evelyn held out Daisy May's arm across the isle and they shook paws.
When the plane began take-off, the two paused in their conversation before continuing throughout nearly the entire flight. They asked each other questions of their favorite colors, foods, and what they liked to do. The newly friended pair even played a game of I Spy that lasted for nearly two hours before little Ruby got really sleepy. Her father suggested a quick nap and when Ruby protested, he offered to wake her up after half an hour passed. Evelyn too, decided she was tired, so she closed her eyes until Ruby woke up.
The rest of the flight was smooth and Evelyn forgot all of her worries. When they landed at Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport, she was a little sad to part with her friend. The two little girls embraced goodbye at the front entrance of the airport while Samantha talked a bit with Ruby's parents. When Sam walked back to Evelyn, they got into a car that was pulled up to the loading area.
A booster seat was already placed in the back seat, so Evelyn hopped in. When Sam started to buckle her in, Evelyn shook her head. "I got it." Sam stepped back to watch as Evelyn correctly put the seatbelt in place. She'd long since noticed the little girl's independent nature and learned she was extremely smart and self-sufficient in most things.
Sam slipped into the driver seat and started the car. It was a little over an hour and a half to get to Llano. As she began the drive to the ranch, she noticed Evelyn's slightly crestfallen look.
"Are you sad about leaving Ruby?"
Although the little girl sniffled, she did not cry. She rarely ever did and couldn't quite decipher this new feeling. She felt like she just made her first ever friend - a best friend. But it didn't last. This was all so new to her and she couldn't place the feeling, but she nodded in answer to Sam's question. Evelyn realized she was sad, extremely so. She missed Ruby and Honey already.
"You never know. You may meet her again sometime soon," said Sam after glancing in the rearview mirror to see Evelyn nod her head.
The little girl just shrugged her shoulders and remained silent for the rest of the ride. Even at such a young age, she knew how unlikely that possibility was. There was no need for having hope in seeing Ruby again. Life with Beatrice had taught her that; just one among many of the things she learned from her mother.
Urban cities and towns started to turn to rural country lands about half way through the drive. Evelyn noticed many different farms and ranches, each big and small in some way. It was still daylight and would be for a few more hours, so Evelyn could clearly see the cows and horses out in pastures and fields. She enjoyed watching them when the car sped past and she wondered if her father would let her ride one.
As they drew closer to their destination, Evelyn's thoughts went again to what he was like. She'd though about it a lot when Sam told her. There was this image she had in her head where he looked like her. She didn't look too much like her mother. Beatrice passed along her cool blue eyes and pale complexion, but that was all the little girl saw in herself. Did he have her same dark colored hair? What about their nose? She read somewhere about fathers and daughters having alike features in their face.
Then she recalled Sam's words in the airport back in New York. Rough around the edges. She thought about the men in her mother's life. When Evelyn pictured rough, she saw wide physiques and large hands. She saw darkened expressions and black eyes. She saw lips set in a cruel smirk or yellow and black stained teeth.
She shivered.
Sam had showed her pictures of the home she would be staying in and everything around it, but she never showed her a picture of what her father looked like. Evelyn regretted not asking, but realized it was too late to do so as they turned off onto a long winding dirt and gravel road. Fences similar to what she noticed in the pictures on Sam's phone stood on either side. Further down Evelyn finally saw the large, seemingly endless field of sunflowers. The sun above it appeared to highlight the flower's yellow petals and brown centers.
The explorer in her wanted nothing more than to take Daisy May and run through them before walking the ranch to see everything.
Nearly five minutes passed before Samantha spoke up. "Here it is Evelyn."
She was right about the photos not doing justice to the beauty of her new home. The three story Victorian style home was breathtaking. It had white panels and a stone base with large windows. The porch did in fact wrap around the front and sides of the house, stone pillars holding up a roof lined with what looked like tin. And there were actually two porch swings instead of the one, each placed on either side of the front door.
There was a large barn placed diagonally from it towards the back. The red doors were open to reveal an old blue truck with its back filled with bales of hay. And along the tailgate stood a person.
Evelyn couldn't really make out the stranger's appearance from the back seat.
The car stopped and turned off as Sam opened her and closed her door before opening Evelyn's. Nervous yet again, the little girl was slow to unbuckle herself from the booster seat. Sam waited patiently the entire time, understanding Evelyn need to take the time. With Daisy May back in the child's arms, her sandal-clad feet touched the dirt driveway.
Her door was shut behind her when she heard a voice shout out, "Dad! They're here!"
AN
I know. I know. I left you guys without an update for two weeks and then drop this chapter and leave it at this. But, as you now know, little Evelyn will officially meet Samuel and be surprised to learn she actually has five older brothers! Stay tuned until next chapter to see how it goes.
- Sierra
P.S. - Evelyn made her first friend! Too bad their friendship ended so soon... Or has it?