A New Life

I’m an orphan

We have been driving for about 45 minutes when we arrive at a long dirt road. The mailbox has a rooster statue attached to the top with a sign hanging from its beak that says O’Hara. We drive about a half mile down the dirt road when I see a beautiful white farm house. There is a large yellow barn and I can see horses, cows, goats, and chickens. 

“This is straight out of a movie, am I staying here?”

 Sarah replies, “Yes, temporarily. The O’Haras are wonderful people they place children in similar situations all the time.”

Sarah parks the car and we get out. Then I see a woman walk out of the house and down the porch steps to greet us. 

“Hey Sarah, it’s nice to see you again.” The woman says. 

She turns to me and smiles “You must be Sophia, welcome to O’Hara ranch, my name is Scarlett.” 

I laughed, me and my mom LOVE Gone With The Wind.

Scarlett laughs, “My daddy was a Gone With The Wind fan and he swore if he had a girl he’d name her Scarlett, and well here I am.”

Scarlett motions for us to follow her and leads us inside the house. I walk through the old screen door and admire all the details of the entryway. The molding on the doors with the stained glass accents, the hardwood floors that slightly creaked under my feet. There were large windows everywhere letting in so much light it was refreshing. We walked down the hall to the kitchen and Scarlett motioned us to have a seat at the table. 

“Anything to drink?” Scarlett asks. “I have sweet tea, lemonade, or good ole fashioned water.” 

Sarah replies “Tea please.”

I shook my head no. 

Scarlett pours a glass of tea and places it in front of Sarah and sits across from me at the table. 

“Now I’m not going to bug you and ask you all kinds of questions. You are safe here and I want you to feel comfortable. I have a bedroom set up for you already, do you have any belongings with you?” Scarlett asks. 

I replied, “No, I wasn’t given the opportunity to grab any of my belongings.” 

I look down at my hands and wonder when I’ll be able to get my things and if I do what will I do with them. Where am I going to put them, am I going to go from place to place. Do I need to figure out what is most important to me and only take what I can carry in a suitcase or backpack. Maybe I can get emancipated, I’ve seen kids my age do it. But I don’t have a way to support myself. I can find a job and try to finish school early. 

Scarlett interrupts my thoughts, “You’re going to be ok honey, we will figure out everything in time.”