Fostered Heart

I froze. I could not find the right word to come out of my mouth at the moment. All I could do was stare at a creature the Lord took His time for while creating. I was four then, yet I could see the blessing endowed to her in the firm of beauty. Her chin was perfectly fixed underneath her face and her eyes, glittering as if they were stars under a quiet and full moon night. At that moment, all I could think about was how to make this my last stop, making it my permanent home. This was the third foster home I had been in five weeks and with this little angel I just set my eyes on, I plan to make sure to stop the count. She looked at me with a smile I could have sworn was synthetic, her face glowing as if they were made of glass. Mr Simon patted my shoulder to wake me from my slumbering daydreaming. "Let's move in-hopefully this should be your last stop for now", he said as he packed my bags into the building. The house was so big, extremely big one could easily get lost unless shown the nooks and cranies, one the children of the house already knows much about. "Children, come around let us introduce ourselves to Micheal. This is......" I barely listened to any of their names as all I could do was stare repeatedly at this little damsel. Just as if a button was switched on in me, I was so focused on her that I was woken from my subconscious when her name was mentioned. "Cynthia-" Mrs Abigail introduced and I shmugged gently, returning the smile to her, while gently saying, "nice to meet you, Cyn". She did not protest against the name and since then, I became the only one calling her by that which came at the price of her calling me Mikey, not one I would protest against. She could call me anything, I wouldn't say anything in protest. All I ever cared about was getting her attention.and approval as her view of me meant very well. Mrs Abigail, a Petite woman, with zeal and passion for taking care of the kids in the foster home, took her time in taking care of the entire household, at the expense of her own life. Over the years, I could count the numbers of suitors that had come over the house, asking her hand in marriage but her response would not pass, "I would, but there is no one I would hand these kids over to. Even if there was, I would not trust them to take care of them as I would". There has never been any foster parent I have ever encountered as caring as Mrs Abigail, or Maa, as we call her. She is so kind and caring, never spoilt us in the name of pampering and gave us the best upbringing she thought was due. She taught us contentment and empathy, something I never thought was a thing. She exposed me to much of the world, better than the other kids, as I was two years older than the rest-the oldest. At my third birthday at the house, I began to have more exposure to the outside world and having begun my school life, I have had friends who have been an influence on me for a bit. Cyn also had her life and I suddenly began to take interest in her personal life. I ensure to vet her friends she walks with in school and ensure no male talks to her. It became clear to everyone in school and in the community that I am her brother, unknown to them, we are foster-ly related, not relatively. I never wanted to tell anyone that anyways, so I had to let everyone believe what they wanted to believe. Each day, I pack her bag, carry it to the school gate before handing it over to her. Sometimes, if I do not have a class very early in the morning, I would take it to her class right before heading to my own class, a tradition I take very religiously. As we came back home on a sunny day, we received the news that a boy amongst us had a health issue and Mrs Abigail could not take care of him on time. Hence, they had to take the boy away and also make her go away for a while. It was claimed that she had been distracted lately and that could have been detrimental to the children under her care. We all quickly gathered to prevent her from leaving, but it is the government, nothing we could do at the moment could stop the motion set already. She dragged me to a side, being the eldest of the children and told me, "wipe your tears my son. I will not be gone for long. It is just for a week, and before you go to school and come back, I will be back like I never left. As the eldest amongst your siblings, I want you to take very good care of them and make sure that my teachings are what you will always build on. Never let anyone come between you and your siblings, and make sure to take responsibility for every single one of them". She said these words as if it were her last days with us, when she was clearly telling me it is for only a week. My intuition kept on telling me something was not right, but I could not place what was wrong. She was driven off in a cab, brought by the government agents. I thought my nightmare had ended with that, having to take care of my siblings without our Maa with us for a week. I began telling them all to go inside so we could keep our tradition on even without Maa, not until I saw one of the government agents come down to another cab and walk towards the house to give me the worst news of my life. Tragedy began to turn up in my life from this day as they told us five of us have to be removed from the house and placed in new homes, one where there are not too many children and the parents would take food care of the selected ones. "Sean, Peter, Samantha, Alex and Cynthia, you are all leaving"....