Ben found the two older girls in the family room watching their show on MTV. "Mary," he said, getting her attention first.
Mary tried to shush him, waving her hand in his direction while engrossed in the show. It was probably helping as a distraction for her while she waited for him.
"Can you pause it?" He asked.
Claudia was the one to say, "It's live TV."
Ben stood there behind the couch with his hands on his sides. He briefly watched the reality show the girls liked to watch pretty much every afternoon after school. "How much is left?"
"It's about half over," Mary answered, still not looking away from the TV.
As soon as she said that, the show cut to a commercial break. Ben suggested talking during the break, but Mary was afraid of missing anything if the talk took too long. So, he went in search of Miguel to see how he was doing having to wait. He found him in the loft, building Legos with Kimmy. They were building their own structures. At least they were getting along.
Miguel didn't seem to have a plan and was letting his imagination lead, while Kimmy seemed to be in focus mode, building some kind of house or a structure of that nature, not even looking up when Ben asked what she was building.
"I'm making a tower to see how high it will go before it falls over," said Miguel, sounding more excited about the falling part.
He, of course, went along with the boy, showing how that would be cool. "Once the girls' show is over, we'll talk, okay?"
"Okay," Miguel said.
However, Ben had to remind Mary once the show was over and put his foot down when she tried to postpone the talk.
She reluctantly got up from the couch and dragged her feet over to him.
Ben put a reassuring hand around her shoulders and headed upstairs to grab Miguel. They used Mary's room for privacy, shutting the door behind them. The kids sat on the bed while Ben pulled the chair from Mary's desk, turning it to face them.
Ben leaned forward with his arms on his knees. "I spoke with Jennifer today. Your next court hearing is next month."
Mary turned her eyes away, as if confused. "Oh... Kay?" She looked back at him. "You couldn't tell us that in the truck?"
"That's not all of it," he said, and asked playfully, "may I continue?"
She laughed. "Well then, hurry up."
Ben gently smacked the side of her knee with the back of his hand as a playful reprimand for the sass.
"The reason I wanted to speak with you both privately is because Jennifer was able to find an aunt of yours who wants to take you both," Ben said, continuing.
Miguel frowned. "Why can't we stay here with you? And Tia Kayla?"
"Well, bud, we love having you here, but it's always been the goal for you to be with family," he explained, in the best way he hoped Miguel understood.
"Which aunt is it?" Mary asked, as if cautious.
Ben switched over to her. "She's your mom's sister."
"Tia Rosa?"
"I believe so, yes." He nodded his head. "She hasn't had contact with your mom since before Miguel was born and wasn't aware of him, nor did she know you both were in foster care. But she wants to change that and wants you to know she loves you both so much."
Miguel fidgeted where he sat on his sister's bed, leaning on his hands so they were under his legs. "But I don't know Tia Rosa."
"Don't worry, bud. There will be visits first once a week following the court hearing, then day visits, and by Christmas, you can start staying overnight if there isn't school the next day."
But even with that said, Miguel did not look convinced. Just like with the idea of Mary moving to Claudia's room. He began chewing on his lip. "I don't want to leave, Tio."
Ben reached out to touch the boy's knee as comfort. "I know, bud." There was still a bit of news left, however, and he wasn't sure how either would take it. In fact, it had slipped his mind while he was filling Kayla in. Breathing in through his nose and letting it out, he asked him, "how would you feel having a visit with your dad?"
Miguel perked up with a surprised gasp. "Really? We get to visit Papi?"
However, Mary's was more the opposite. "What?"
"Your dad has requested to have visits with you," Ben explained.
"Hell, no," Mary spat at once. "He's not even my real dad."
"You don't have to see him if you don't want to," Ben assured her, touching her knee this time.
"I want to," Miguel said, shooting his hand up in the air as if he was in school.
His sister shot her head in his direction. "No, you don't," she said, causing his hand to go limp and drop into his lap.
Ben stepped in. "If Miguel wants to see him, you have to respect his decision."
Panic quickly spread across her face. "But he doesn't understand." She continued to insist Miguel not to go visit his father.
"But it's Papi, Sissy," he also insisted, although less confident.
"That's not a dad, Bubba," Mary argued.
"Yes, he is. He just made a mistake he has to pay for, for nine years," Miguel said to plead his father's case. "I want to see him."
"I said no!"
That caused Miguel to shut down and not say another word. Instead, tears appeared, breaking Ben's heart, and stepped in once more.
"Mary, that's enough," he said firmly, and asked Miguel to give them a minute alone, giving his arm a comforting squeeze.
The boy slid down from the bed and went through their bathroom, closing both doors.
"He can't go see his dad, Ben," Mary said as soon as her brother was gone. "You can't let that happen." Her chest was moving like she was running.
Ben took her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze as well. "Unfortunately, it's not up to us. You can call Jennifer and you can share your concerns with her. But if Miguel wants to, he can."
She tried once more to fight with him on the matter.
Ben interrupted. "If it will help, I will be there to oversee the visit. Jennifer gave me permission since she's never been comfortable in prisons, herself, and you and Miguel are comfortable with me. Okay?"
Mary started breathing hard as she watched him. Tears were fighting to surface as her body shook. She dropped her head down towards her lap so her chin was sitting on her early teenage bosom. "I don't want Miguel seeing that man, Ben. He's not old enough to make a decision like that." At that, the tears won and drifted down both sides of her face, which she tried to wipe away. More just kept coming.
Ben switched from the chair to the bed beside her, wrapping his arms around her. He didn't know what to say to make this better.
Miguel's father wasn't sent to prison because of child abuse or neglect. He was just involved with the wrong people that cost him a few years sentence and at the time there was nowhere else for his children to go but foster care. Not that he was father of the year to begin with.
The guy had a temper, according to Mary, that could pop out at any moment, and there was no pattern to learn what not to do because, what would piss him off one day, he would brush off or laugh at the next. The hardest part was on the good days when he was in a good mood, and unfortunately that's what made Miguel overlook the bad stuff.
When Ben wrapped an arm around her, Mary instantly grabbed onto him and cried into his T-shirt.
He moved his hand to wrap around her head, holding a kiss to it. This was one of the hardest parts of being a foster parent. No words came to his mind as Ben thought of what to say, wishing Kayla was there. All he thought to do was hold her, feeling like a bigger idiot for opening his mouth to Miguel in the car. These types of conversations should be given, with both of them there.
After sitting there for a while, Mary had eventually gotten it out of her system. At least for now. She sat back, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand, and came to the realization her makeup smeared.
Ben could not help a laugh, which she scolded him for, and he apologized. Now serious again, he asked, "You okay?" That was a stupid question.
She sniffed in. "Yeah." But she didn't look convincing.
"I promise I will be there the whole time," he said, rubbing his hand along her back. "The prison wouldn't allow it otherwise. Okay?"
Mary sniffed in some more. "Like I have a choice." She stared bitterly at the floor.
He looked away, wishing he could say more.
-- & --
Kimmy was putting together the roof, making sure to include a chimney. Houses in Arizona don't usually have fireplaces since it never snowed in the winter. She had seen it on houses on TV, so she added it to give it more of a shape, instead of looking like a priamid.
While she was watching her tablet in her room, Miguel had come to the doorway earlier and asked if she would build Legos with him. He showed her where they were since she was a little disappointed from earlier that day at Target. Anything was better than nothing, so Kimmy agreed to play with him.
Miguel had shown her where the bin of Legos were kept and poured the pieces out on the floor in the middle of the loft. He wanted to build something together, but Kimmy took a pile for herself and started building on her own. Miguel asked why she didn't want to build with him but eventually started working on his tower.
Kimmy looked up when she heard a door close and watched Miguel coming back over, holding his gaze on the floor. He wiped his eyes across his arm.
She spun her head back to her Lego project when he noticed.
Miguel didn't say anything. Instead, he sat back in his spot on the floor and started taking apart his tower to build something different. Occasionally, she could hear him sniff in.
The kids worked in silence for the next ten minutes. At some point, Miguel asked if she had an extra person in her pile of Legos. He only needed one more and couldn't find any more in the Lego bucket.
Truthfully, she was planning on using the few Lego people she had, as Miguel had taken most of them. But Kimmy picked one of them up and passed it to the younger kid, who politely told her thank you.
Kimmy then returned to her work. Since Legos wasn't an electronic, Miguel had mentioned they could continue through Quiet Hour. They just needed to make sure to keep any kind of noise down for the older girls who usually had homework. Though they usually listened to music, anyway.
Eventually, Ben came out of the same door Miguel had come out of, shutting it behind him gently. He came over and lifted Miguel into his arms, asking if he had any questions or needed to talk.
"Can I still see my papi?" He asked, using a foreign word Kimmy wasn't sure of. He's little, maybe he said puppy? A story-time animator she watches on YouTube had a dog named Poppy. Maybe that's what he meant?
Ben reassured the kid he could still see whoever they were talking about, but didn't say much else except that Ben would be there the entire time.
Like Miguel had said, the younger kids were able to continue playing with the Legos during Quiet Hour while Ben cooked dinner.
With the reassurance and comfort, the tears had eventually dried up, and Miguel perked back up to his chatty self. At some point, though, the chattiness brought up the phone call Ben had taken earlier in the truck while he happily shared about their foster grandma, Kayla's mom. The boy didn't know much about Ben's side of the family. Only that he got sad and frustrated after talking to his mom, and she wanted nothing to do with the kids.
"We met his dad once," Miguel said, as if he had just remembered. "He's cool. He fixes people's potties for them." Kimmy figured he meant Ben's father was a plumber. "He gave me a peppo-mint candy when he came over to fix your bathroom when a kid flooded it."
Kimmy was listening while putting together the roof. Hearing Miguel talk about the bathroom getting flooded, reminding her of the times she had clogged the toilet by accident and how angry Stella had gotten.
Kimmy had the habit of holding her bowels for long periods of time. So, by the time she finally went to the bathroom... Well, it was unpleasant and resulted in a clogged toilet and her mother angry, which had made her try to hurry and clean up the water herself after desperately shoving the plunger inside the toilet bowl and flushing every few plunges. She almost got away with it, but Stella had found the soaked towels in the hamper and questioned Kimmy about it. It took a spanking threat for her to force the words out to confess. Not the whole story, but enough, which still ended up earning Kimmy a spanking anyway.
Despite being able to talk at home with her mom and brother, Kimmy's muteness appeared whenever she was in trouble, which usually got her into more trouble. She hated being forced to speak. It made her heart race even more and bring out the tears. Stella called it Kimmy being stubborn, even though Kimmy desparately wanted to speak up.
-- & --
Kimmy realized Miguel was still talking despite zoning out, now talking about his school and his best bud.
"I wish you were another boy like me, so I could always have someone to play with, but at least I can play with Hayden at school." It didn't seem like he realized Kimmy had zoned out.
From downstairs, they heard the front door open and Samson barking. It wasn't a threatening bark. It was more of a welcoming bark, which Kayla's voice told the dog to hush in a semi-serious tone.
As soon as Miguel heard who it was, he sprung to his feet. "Kayla's home, Kimmy," he said as if it were Santa instead, and raced down the stairs while holding onto the banister. Kimmy stayed, not interested in saying hello. Though she didn't have to after all. Miguel returned shortly after, wanting to show Kayla what he had been building.
"That looks awesome, bud," she said, looking down at the creation. She kneeled for a closer look, leaning her arms on her thighs at the four-year-old level Lego creation, letting him explain what everything was.
Kayla then turned her head to look at what Kimmy was building. "Wow, Kimmy, yours looks awesome, too." She pointed at the A/C unit on the side of the house. "Is that a doghouse?"
Kimmy shook her head, looking at the A/C unit.
"I know what it is," said Miguel. "It's a garage." He sprung up and dashed over to a bookshelf, where multi colored bins were sitting and pulled out a Hot Wheels car from one of them. Miguel brought the car back and set it beside the A/C unit.
Kimmy batted the car away with the back of her hand.
"It's not a garage either?" Kayla asked.
Again, she shook her head.
Kayla tilted her head. "Hmph. What is it then?"
Kimmy stole a look around them, trying to spot the thermostat or one of the vents. She spotted a vent in the corner of the room, near the beanbag chair, and pointed at it.
But Kayla looked up at the ceiling and asked, "What?"
Thinking Kayla probably wouldn't get it, even if Kimmy tried further, she dropped her arm and continued putting the finishing touches on her Lego house.
Kayla remained nice about it, though, and complimented her house one more time before standing up and asked both her and Miguel to pick up all the Legos and put them back where they went since it was dinnertime. She helped them, grabbing the bucket while they took apart their creations. But not before Kayla snagged a couple pictures of each of them.
Kimmy didn't want to take hers apart, but it didn't seem like she had a choice. She wished she could ask, though. Stella wouldn't have cared as long as it wasn't in the way. Hers and Zach's room was never cleaned. The group home was the first ones to insist on picking up toys when they weren't being used.
This whole situation had flipped Kimmy's world upside down, and it made her feel like a fish out of water.
Author's Note:
Some details will be added at a later time. Right now, I'm just focused on getting the story written. In case anyone wonders why some of the details are vague.