Nick Webster

Homecoming

            It’s been a wild ride this last year.  I’m glad to finally settle down, though.  I think I’ve found the family that I’ve been looking for all this time.  I’m a year older, a year strong, and a year more knowledgeable than I was when I first arrived in this country.

            Unfortunately, I’ve found no sign of Nikki.  I’ve been on the move, but that hasn’t stopped her from tracking me down in the past.  Now that I have a family, I might be able to persuade them to help me travel.  We’ll see what they say.  I can’t just ask them right away and expect them to say yes right away.

            I should probably update you on where I’ve been this past year, though.  What a journey I’ve had.  I didn’t stay in Illinois for very long.  When I jumped onto that first material truck, I decided to jump onto a different random truck the next time we stopped.  Fortunately, that truck started heading west as well.  That second truck took me out to a city called Rockford.

            I hoped out in Rockford and eventually made my way to a gas station.  I stayed there for several hours until I overheard a truck driver talking on the phone.  He said he was heading to Dubuque, Iowa.  I figured out which truck he was using and snuck onto that truck.  There was a spot for him to sleep behind the driver’s seat, and there were cabinets where I decided I would hide while he drove.  It was a bumpy ride, but we eventually stopped in Dubuque, Iowa.  I hopped out of the semi-truck when he was out of the truck.

            From there, I wandered the city of Dubuque.  I had to be more resourceful at night.  It started to become cold at night.  I had found out it was September, and winter was coming whether I was ready or not.  I would need to find a foster care agency soon.  It didn’t take me long.  Within a few days, I found a foster care agency within Dubuque.

            This foster care agency had much of the same problems as the one in Chicago.  They had too many kids and not enough resources.  The kids were a little nicer than the kids in Chicago, but they all also had trouble being adopted by families.  The kids who were adopted always seemed to be the younger kids.  Fortunately, I was in the age range that still was adopted more readily.  Teenagers were the kids who didn’t get adopted very easily.  I was still a few years away from being a teenager.

            I didn’t stay at this foster agency for very long.  I started having luck transferring from agency to agency.  I didn’t have to worry about being deported either.  It took some time every time I wanted to be transferred since I didn’t have any official credentials.  But ultimately, I ended up being transferred out because there were too few resources, and I was just another mouth to feed.  Places were okay with seeing me go find a home elsewhere.  It wasn’t like they hated me or anything, but they were all financially tied up, and I was happy to move elsewhere.

            The second agency I went to was in Iowa City, Iowa.  The kids were once again nicer than the Chicago kids, except for one kid.  He seemed to be the leader of everyone because he was older and meaner.  There were a lot of younger kids at this agency, so they were helpless compared to him.  I didn’t think that it was fair for him to bully the other kids just because he was bigger and older.

            He ‘greeted’ me by asking for my lunch money.  When I told him that I didn’t have any money, he spit on my foot and pushed me down to the ground.  “The next you have lunch money – you give it to me.  Call it your dues for me allowing you to stay here.”  He laughed and walked away with two other kids who just looked at me and smiled.

            Everyone else was super nice.  I swear.  There was a big group of kids who were in my position.  They were all beaten and defeated by Kevin who had like four or five kids who were his “henchmen.”  They were his closest friends who were in charge of the rest of us.  Everyone lived in fear of them.

            I also kept my head down at first.  I felt like I would be more skilled than him in a fight, but I didn’t want to make a scene or ruin my chances of finding a family.  After a few weeks, I was finally fed up with him.  He forcefully took some money from one of the other kids, Trevor.  I was becoming friends with Trevor and five other kids.  Kevin demanded his “weekly allowance” from Trevor.  Each kid earned a few dollars from the foster care agency every week for doing various chores around the building.  Kevin would take his share of this money simply because he could.

            Trevor was physically ready to hand Kevin his money when I physically stepped between the two kids.  This immediately made Kevin angry.  “What the hell are you doing, dickwad?” he yelled.

            I slowly and carefully pushed Trevor backward, so he didn’t fall down or get hurt from what was about to happen.  I imagined it was going to get violent.  I wasn’t going to throw the first punch, but if a punch is thrown, I would throw the last one.

            “Stop bullying everyone.  That’s not your money,” I said straight to the point.

            “Those are some tough words for such a scrawny little s**t,” he said as he walked right up to me looking down on me.  Kevin was fourteen years old and probably a foot or more taller than me.  He was certainly intimidating to every kid here.  He was the oldest and the tallest.  But he wasn’t the most skilled, quickest, or the brightest kid here.  I certainly had that advantage.

            “You need to stop stealing from other people, especially if they’re smaller than you,” I said not backing down or breaking eye contact with him.

            “You got a date with the devil tonight?  Back off or I’ll stomp you so hard yo momma will feel it,” he gave a laugh as he finished the insult.  His henchmen started gathering around and also joined in the laughter.

            I was never planning on backing down.  “It’ll be hard to stomp me when you’re on the ground crying,” I said with my eyes narrowed.

            He instinctively reacted to my insult like I thought he would.  “That’s it!” he yelled as swung with his right fist.

            I’m not super experienced with fights, but I knew enough to easily defeat Kevin.  I physically dropped my body down, and as I did, I kicked him in the side of the knee.  I immediately grab the other leg and pulled it out from under him with all my might.  He certainly wasn’t expecting it, and he fell down to the ground and hit the back of his head on the hard floor.  I quickly jumped to my feet and stayed on guard waiting for his response.

            “Damn,” he whispered under his breath.  I was close enough to hear him, though.  He grabbed the back of his head.  “Lucky move,” he angrily said.  “I’m going to kill you,” he said as he started to get up.  He was even angrier, but he was predictable.  He wasn’t thinking about anything he was doing.  Instead, he was just letting his own anger get the best of him.

            He stood up and immediately rushed over to me.  He tried to tackle me, but like last time, he was too slow and had poor technique.  I ducked down underneath him and again kicked him in the same knee as before.  His entire body had a lot of moment this time, though.  I used my own body to trip him and then stood up as most of his weight was now past my body.  He flew in the air with his face falling into the ground.  He hit the hard floor with the front of his face this time.

            “Had enough?” I asked while I recomposed myself.

            He moaned but did not immediately do anything.  After a few moments, he still hadn’t done anything.  I could tell that he was still conscious and doing okay.  I wasn’t sure what he was still doing on the ground though.

            Suddenly, he swung his legs aiming for my legs.  It was a good surprise attack, but I was ready for it.  I jumped over his legs and took a step back.  “Is that all you got?” I asked now with a cocky tone.

            That just made him even angrier.  He yelled, “Get him!”

            Although I didn’t think he’d give up so fast, I expected him to eventually call in his henchmen.  I wasn’t sure how his henchmen would react after seeing their leader be so easily defeated.  I should be able to take them.  There were four right by the both of us.  None of them moved at first.  They looked at each other at first, but then Kevin yelled, “I said get him!” and then they reacted.

            Two of them jumped in quicker than the other two.  One swung a fist my way.  I simply grabbed his hand in motion and flung him over my back.  He landed with the thud.  The other one also swung a fist while I was throwing the other one.  In the same motion from flinging the first kid over my back, I ducked down and grabbed the second kid’s leg.  I pulled up as hard as I could and flung him right at the ground.  He also hit his hard rather hard on the floor.

            The last two kids ran in to tackle me like Kevin had originally tried.  By this time, Kevin had slowly stood up.  His nose was bleeding from his last fall.  Two kids trying to tackle me would be much harder to stop than one big kid.  They both tried to tackle me, but one kid was ahead of the other.  I simply grabbed the first kid’s face and deflected his momentum.  However, the other kid successfully tackled me.  I had kept the other kid’s head in my hand and tried to make sure he would be out of the fight.  I threw his face into the ground.  His face hit the ground with a thud.  I used my other hand to grab the last kid’s back to give me leverage from hitting my head on the fall to the ground.  It worked, but I still had a kid on top of me and three kids likely soon recovering and ready to fight again.

            I felt a kick in my ribs from Kevin.  I quickly threw the kid on top of me in between Kevin and myself and rolled over.  I quickly stood up on my feet.  By the time that I did, however, there were several staff members who came into the room and stopped the fight.

            Kevin spit at me again and said, “You’re dead, you little piece of s**t!”  He was so angry he could even see straight.  He randomly threw some more punches to the air and almost hit one of the staff.

            That was pretty much the end of my stay in Iowa City.  The people in charge of that agency were more than happy to fast-forward my transfer.  I said goodbye to the kids I had met in this agency.  They all thought I was a hero for standing up to Kevin.

            The third and final agency was in the state’s capital, Des Moines, Iowa.  By this time, I was tired of transferring agencies.  I now wanted to stick around a place and just find a family.  Anything had to be better than running into another Kevin.  Still, it felt great to help other kids.  One day, I would help others in a much bigger way.  I would be grown up and truly help others.  I don’t know what I would do exactly, but I would help others.  But for now, I just needed to find a home.

            I’m not sure exactly what kind of agency I was living in now.  This new Des Moines agency had more aggressive kids.  There were the same precautions as in Chicago.  Doors needed to be unlocked by a staff member.  Routines were very consistent.  They tried to make me take medication, but I didn’t take anything.  I would fake swallow them and spit them out later.  I didn’t want to consume anything without knowing what it was.

            There were twelve kids in this new agency.  I think all of them had been involved in some sort of crime or violence like in Chicago.  Over time, I learned that many of them had been involved in fights, theft, and animal abuse.  None of them were interested in their own futures.  None of them seemed to have goals for the future.  A lot of what they talked about was the here and now.  I understood that much, but I still found it important to figure out your future.  What else would you be working toward?  I didn’t want to stay at this place long, but something told me that I wasn’t going to have much of a choice on where I was going to be from here on out.  This place seemed secure, and I was probably only transferred here because of the fight I was involved in.  That made me both sad and frustrated, but I still had to have hope.

            A few weeks passed, and I increasingly disliked this place.  I should have never been involved in that fight.  But when I was starting to lose hope, something surprising happened.  Several of the kids at my old agency must have really talked me up to the staff and explained why there was a fight.  Apparently, the director of the last agency gave me a really positive remark which caught up to me in Des Moines.  I don’t think the staff had realized that I was actually defending a lot of the kids there.

            But what good would one positive remark do for me?  I was starting to get frustrated myself.  I had been moving all over the place but didn’t seem any closer to my goal of finding a family.  

 ***************************************

             Five days passed.  I had forgotten about that positive remark.  But one day, I was reminded of it.  One of the staff members told me I had some visitors.  I thought it was odd because no one had ever been interested in me in the past.  Why now?  If I had a single visitor, I would be hopeful that it was Nikki appearing out of nowhere.  She had the tendency of doing that.  However, there were “visitors,” as in more than one visitor.

            Who could they be?  Could it be a family that wants to adopt me?  The staff member took me to a visitor’s room that I hadn’t yet been in.  It looked a lot nicer than all the other rooms.  I suppose they need to make the family feel good about the place, so they’ll be more likely to adopt a kid.

            I walked into the room, and there were two people sitting down waiting for me.  There was a man and a woman.  They both immediately stood up and gave me a huge smile.  The woman gave off a ton of energy.  “Hi, you must be Louis!  It’s so nice to meet you!”  I had just kept using Louis for now.  I remembered what Nikki had said about keeping people off your trail.  I didn’t know whether it was necessary at this point or not, but I guess you can’t be too careful.

            I had yet to have a family be interested in me.  I’m not yet sure why they are interested in me, but I wanted them to want me.  I wanted the upper hand, so I could decide whether to stay with them.  That meant I needed them to like me.  I initially hesitated because I was slightly thrown off by her energy and excitement.  But I collected myself, stuck out my hand to shake her hand, and said, “How do you do, ma’am?”  Handshakes are a common greeting in this country.

            The staff member stayed in the room and readily gave some commentary along the way.  “I couldn’t be happier to introduce Louis.  He’s been one of our most polite residents.  We haven’t known him for long, but he has impressed us so far,” the staff member said.

            “Your reputation proceeds you,” the lady said with a big smile on her face.

            I gave her a confused look.  “What do you mean?”

            “We were told by a friend of what happened in Iowa City.  You stood up to a bunch of bullies who had been taking other kids’ money.  We have been looking for someone with a big heart to adopt, so we definitely had to meet you!” she said.

            “You’re not mad that I was in a fight?” I softly asked her.

            “Louis, you have a big heart!  We both admire that about you.  While we don’t condone violence, we want you to use that big heart of yours for good!” she had a huge smile on her face the whole time she said everything.  I thought her mouth was going to fall off her face from all the stretching it did.

            “I appreciate that, ma’am,” I said.

            “Oh, please!  Call me Alyssa.  And where are my manners?  We never introduced ourselves to you.”  She turned to the man and then back to me.  “As I said, I’m Alyssa, and this is my husband, Jeff.”

            The man stuck his hand out to shake my hand and said, “It’s good to meet you, Louis.”  He also had a big smile on his face, but he did not give off quite the same level of energy as Alyssa did.  Still, the two made a warming and welcoming team.  I liked them.

            I didn’t really know what to say or how to interact with them, so I kept it simple to questions that weren’t too personal or complicated.  “Where are you two from?”  I’m sure more conversation will open up from these basic types of questions.

            Alyssa quickly answered that question.  “We live in a town northwest of here called Wakefield.  It’s really small, so you’ve probably have never heard of it.”

            I shook my head.

            “It’s a great place to live and grow up!  We have a great school system, we have a great church, and you’ll make a lot of wonderful new friends!”  Every statement she made gave off a warm and optimistic energy that drew me to her.

            But what about this school system that she mentioned?  I heard some of the kids talk about school and classes, and I read about some of that in the encyclopedia, but I didn’t really know what it was.  Or perhaps, I hadn’t really experienced being in a school.  Growing up in a school.  “Wha- what’s a school?”  Well, that might not have been the brightest question to ask.  “-err what’s your school like?”

            Jeff gave me an odd look, but Alyssa answered, “It’s just the right size!  It’s a big enough school where there are plenty of opportunities to be involved in sports, clubs, and make friends!  But it’s also small enough where you won’t feel lost and helpless in the school.  I think you’ll like it.”

            Well, I already hinted that I had little experience with schools, so I might as well just admit the truth.  I would have to correct them on my name anyway.  I might as well see how they react to harder truths anyway.  “I’ve never been to… school before.”

            “I’m sure you’re going to like it!” Alyssa said with that same huge smile.

            “What else in in Wakefield?” I asked.

            “There’s a YMCA.  You can be part of our youth group. Oh, I own a bakery!  You’re more than welcome to be my official cake tester!”  Honestly, I didn’t mind just hearing her talk.  The energy she gave off was both entertaining and contagious.  She added a question afterward, “What things do you like to do?”

            Oh, boy.  That was one question I wasn’t prepared for.  I have never really “done” anything.  I don’t know a lot of things that kids my age are into.  Boys are mostly into sports, but I had never played any sports before.  I had to sit and think about it for a second.  I couldn’t come up with anything great, so I just tried to remember various things I had done in my past.  “I… like to swim, and I think it would be cool to play basketball, but I’ve never played before.”  I don’t exactly know if I’m winning them over.

            Fortunately, the staff member helped me out.  “Louis is also one of our brightest residents.  Although we don’t have records of any formal education, you will probably pick up that he’s got a sharp mind,” he said matching Alyssa’s huge grin on her face.

            “Oh, a regular Mr. Smarty Pants,” she said with a smile and a laugh.

            Just then, I thought back to the grandma’s house in Russia.  There were two games that she had.  I wonder if those two games are played over here.  Oh, but I don’t know the names of the two games.  Even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to translate their names to English.  “I’d like to learn how to play some games, but I don’t know the names of them, and I don’t know if they’re played around here.”

            Alyssa’s eyes lit up.  “Oh, cool!  What games are those?  Maybe you can describe them.  I’ll do my best to guess them.”

            I thought about them for a second.  “Well, the first one is played on a flat board with black and red squares on it.  There are round pieces: one set is red and the other is black, just like the colors on the board-”

            I couldn’t even finish my description before Alyssa interrupted, “Checkers!  You’re a fan of checkers?”

            “I’ve never played it, but I’d like to learn how,” I said.

            “Awesome!  Checkers is a very common game.  We have our own set at home!” she said.  “What’s the other game?”

            “Well, it has a similar board except the colors are black and white.  This game also has a bunch of pieces, but none of them are round.  I think there are actually six different pieces per side-”

            Once again, Alyssa interrupt but had been giving me a curious look while I was describing it.  “Chess?  Is that the other game?”

            “I don’t know what they’re called, but I would recognize it if I saw it,” I said.

            This time Jeff responded.  He had been mostly quiet up until now.  “Well, we do have a chess set at home.  Have you played chess before?”

            “I haven’t played that game before, but I imagine it’s more challenging with several different pieces involved in the game,” I said.

            The staff quickly added, “I’m sure you’ll be a natural at both of those games.”  I got them sense that she was talking me up simply to get rid of me.  Maybe not in a bad way, but it still felt superficial.

            We talked for about another hour.  I was nervous and somewhat uncomfortable at first, but I relaxed and opened up more after a while.  They were very easy people to talk to.  And no, Alyssa’s energy didn’t slow down at any point.  She was the same excited and energetic person from the second she met me to the moment I walked outside to say goodbye to them.  I wanted to just walk away with the two of them.  However, the agency needed to perform background checks on them first.

            They filled out some paperwork before I left.  They were fully committed to adopt me, but it could take up to a week.  I was both happy and sad at the same time.  I was happy that I was now super close to being with a family.  That had been a huge goal of mine for a long time now.  I was sad because they left, and I couldn’t share this opportunity with Nikki.  I felt like she was out there somewhere.  But nothing in my life at this point had been guaranteed.  These two could walk away, and I could never see them again.  They could get into an accident; they could change their mind; they could decide to adopt someone else.  I felt like until I was in the car of a family, I had not achieved my goal, and I would not be any closer to achieving it.

            The next four days were the longest of my life.  The waiting and anticipation were terrible.  It’s like time stood still for a moment.  But eventually, one of the workers let me know that their background checks came back okay.  They were ready to adopt me!  She called them and said they could pick me up at any point.  Wakefield was about a two-hour drive, so I had to do more waiting.  I spent the entire time just looking out the window.  I’m sure I looked pathetic, but I didn’t care what other people might think of me at that point.

            They arrived almost two hours later on the dot.  I wondered how I should behave.  Should I show them my excitement?  Should I play it cool?  I don’t want to be considered weird or anything.  I’m overthinking this... I just have to act like I would any other day.

            They came into the building, saw me, and Alyssa immediately came over and gave me a hug.  It felt odd.  I have never known real human affection outside of Nikki.  It felt warm but new.  It was a good feeling, but it was also scary and nerve-racking as well.

            Was I ready for this commitment?  My entire life had been on the run from people who wanted to hurt me.  What if my past comes back to haunt me?  Would I be putting these two in danger?  They seem like good people.  I wouldn’t want to see anything bad happen to them.  But I guess that was a risk I had to take if I wanted to be part of a family.

            “Are you ready to come home?” Alyssa asked.  Those words rattled through my mind for a moment.

            She finished hugging me, and I looked right at her and said, “Yes.”  A tear started running down the side of my cheek.

            “Oh, you poor baby,” Alyssa said.  She gave me another hug.  Jeff also hugged us.

            They stayed in a hug for a few moments, and I managed to squeeze out the words, “Let’s go already.”  They both laughed.  They finished up the paperwork, and then we were on our way.  I began my new life today.  What a journey.