Aaralyn
"I would give anything to freeze time for them right now," Shino said, a sad smile on his face as he watched over his two younger cousins play in the sad with my younger brother.
I nodded. "You would do anything to keep them happy, to give them the life that they deserve, no matter how awful the rest of the world might be." I knew exactly what he meant. I watched Kai giggle and laugh as he played with the two boys. He was having fun.
"Exactly," Shino nodded. He turned and looked at me, catching the way I was watching Kai. "You are talking from experience, I take it?" Shino asked after a moment.
I nodded my head. It was hard to talk about. Even now, years later. But, Shino had just told me his family secret. I could stand to tell him our own. But, our problems would seem so small compared to his own.
"Our mother died when Kai was very young, and our father walked out on us two years ago. He probably doesn't even remember them. And, none of our relatives wanted us. So, Kai was sent to an orphanage where he was adopted by a family, and I was sent to an elite, private academy in New York where only the smartest people get to go. About six month into school, I got a letter from a friend of mine who I had been pretty close with. She told me Kai's family was abusing him. So, I left, got him out of there, and here we are. We are living in our old house right now, but we can't afford it anymore, and so they are kicking us out, and we'll probably have to stay at a shelter somewhere for awhile. I'm gonna enroll him into a preschool tomorrow, and while he's at school, I'll work until I can get enough money for the two of us to get a decent place to live."
I hadn't really meant to just tell him my whole life story, but I couldn't take any of it back now. "Sorry," i apologized. "I didn't mean to just unload on you. the point of my story is that I want to give Kai a good life. I want him to be able to go to school and make friends. I want him to have all the things in life that I couldn't. I wish I could just rewind time and go back to when our dad was with us, by our side, when Kai had been happy." I sat back on the bench, waiting for him to reply.
Continue?
Aaralyn
Kai
Shino
Kaoru
Tomatsuya
