by Bev Elle
“You mean they might try to study me like they’d do if they ever discovered an alien on the planet?”
“Yeah, like that and worse. They could likely label you as a threat to every computer system in the world and stop you from practicing what you love.”
That frightened him. “I won’t be a show-off, Mr. Kyle, I promise.” He still wasn’t ready to call them “Mom” and “Dad” yet, but he wanted to someday, just like Shanice already did with the Baileys
“Oh, I want you to do well and to get good grades, but don’t go above and beyond what they’re teaching in your grade level. We’ll do the extra-curriculars at home.”
“Okay, I’ll remember.”
David stood and put the chair back under the desk. Then he turned as if he remembered something. “I’m sure this goes without saying, but don’t forget to watch out for Shanice. You’re the only big brother she’s ever known and first grade can be scary.”
“I’ll make sure no one picks on her,” Trevor said.
“Don’t try to handle it yourself, though. Report it to a school official. I won’t have you fighting at school.”
Trevor felt every bit like the protective big brother where Shanice was concerned, but he knew he couldn’t disappoint David. “Oh, all right.”
David looked like he was trying to keep himself from laughing as he turned to leave. “Goodnight, Trevor.”
“Goodnight, sir.”
Chapter Three
At school, Shanice would sometimes ask Trevor to do embarrassing things. Like asking him to carry her Hello Kitty backpack when her arms were full, or loaning her lunch money when she bought extra stuff and used up all the money in her account before she should have, and the worse, having him talk to her teddy like he was human sometimes.
Trevor never denied her when it was something he could do. When she got it into her head that she wanted to join in an activity at school, she came to Trevor at the end of the day and asked for his help. He was waiting in the car pickup area when she joined him later than usual with a flyer in her hand.
“What you got there, ‘Nice?” Sometimes he shortened her name when he was lazy.
“It’s a flyer about the Fall Festival. And guess what?”
He laughed. When she got excited about something, she got everyone excited about it. “What?”
“I’m going to sing in the talent show.”
He folded his arms. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“And what’re you going to sing?”
“This Little Light of Mine.” She’d been singing in the children’s choir at Pastor Isaiah’s church, and that song was by far her favorite. Then she said, “And you’re going to play the music for me, like you do at church.”
Trevor did work the sound board on Sundays with David. Then he remembered how David said he didn’t want Trevor to call attention to himself, so he didn’t know whether he should agree.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to ask David and Elena about it.”
“They won’t mind,” Shanice said. She had become such a confident little person. The Baileys had done that.
Of course, when Trevor asked David about the talent show, David not only said Trevor could do it, he introduced him to the Garage Band application, and Trevor used it to accompany his surrogate sister during her singing debut at the Fall Festival. Trevor dared any of his friends to give him any grief about it.
The Kyles and Baileys had a huge block party when their adoptions of Trevor and Shanice went through. The cul-de-sac where the Baileys resided was chock full of people, and Isaiah, being a sucker for a captive audience, took a few moments to say a few words.
“As many of you know, the position I held prior to taking on my role at Trinity was as a house parent at a Baptist Children’s facility. During our stint there, Brenda and I had the honor and privilege of taking care of some wonderful, and some not-so-wonderful children.” The crowd laughed. “However, we loved them all and did everything we could to prepare them for whatever fate the Lord had in store for them. While there, David and I fell in love with the two most amazing children known to man: our daughter, Shanice, and the Kyles’ son, Trevor.”
“What are Elena and I, liverwurst?” Brenda yelled.
“I’m getting to that part, sweetheart,” Isaiah said. Then he beckoned to Trevor and Shanice, who joined hands and walked over to their adoptive parents. “Trevor was this serious little guy who always had his nose in the dilapidated old computer, and Shanice was this breath of fresh air who charmed everyone. Brenda got the ball rolling when she came to bed one night and confessed she had a favorite among the children. Shanice had wormed her way into Brenda’s heart, and she got it into her head that she was now unfit to be a house parent because she wasn’t objective anymore.” Brenda glared playfully at him, and he continued. “After I counseled my wife and talked her out of stepping down from our posts immediately, we discussed the prospect of adopting. Of course, knowing how close Shanice was to Trevor, we realized we simply couldn’t take her and leave him there. David was already mentoring Trevor, so it only took a suggestion from me to get him to take his plea to Elena. And the rest, as they say is history.”
He then called the wives over. “Brenda, Elena, come share with our friends what you have in your hands.”
Brenda grabbed the mike and held up the legal document. “Elena and I have in our hands the adoption decrees and pristine birth certificates of our children. Isaiah and I are the proud parents of Shanice Anderson Bailey.”
Elena said, “And David and I are the proud parents of Trevor Landon Kyle.” Their adoptive parents had decided to use their original names as their middle names, so they would always remember their origins, just in case sometime in the future they wanted to find some of the members of their families.
The crowd cheered as the Baileys and Kyles shared hugs with each other, and then their friends and family.
Trevor and Shanice were formally introduced to all the neighbors and the extended families of the Baileys and Kyles. He also met David’s younger brother, Philip. Trevor noticed he looked sleazy, and had his arm around a woman who had almost nothing on and too much makeup. He could also tell Philip didn’t like children, even though he gave Trevor and Shanice a bunch of gifts.
“Trevor this is my brother, Philip. Your uncle.”
“Hey, Trevor,” Philip said. “Try not to become the black sheep of the family like me, eh?”
“Phil... ” David shook his head. “He’s only eleven.”
“It’s all right, sir,” Trevor said. “I was the only sheep left in my family until now.”
Shanice grabbed Trevor’s hand. “C’mon Trevor, let’s dance.” Brenda had put Shanice in a dance class and dancing was all she wanted to do at the time.
Trevor didn’t consider himself any good at dancing, but Shanice seemed happy with his moves, so he didn’t mind making a fool of himself. For the next four years, they had the best family lives any kid could ask for, and despite their age difference they remained close.
Chapter Four
April 2001
“Mom and Dad are late,” Trevor said. It still sounded weird to call them that sometimes, even though it was almost the fourth anniversary of his adoption. “They said they’d be back in time for dinner.”
He eyed the steaming hot dishes on display before him on the Baileys dinner table. His stomach growled an audible displeasure for denying his almost fifteen-year-old digestive system the sustenance it craved. Trevor looked at the clock. David and Elena were already a half an hour later coming back from the church-sponsored marriage retreat than he’d anticipated, and denying himself Brenda’s delicious cooking was a special form of torture.
Brenda gestured toward the unused place setting Trevor occupied next to Shanice where he had yet to dish out any food. “You could eat just a little bit and save a fraction of your stomach for whatever Elena’s going to prepare later.”
“You know Mom’s macaroni and chee
se is better than anything in the box,” Shanice said, holding a forkful just under his nose to tempt him even further. Trevor gobbled up the pasta so quickly he took the fork from her hand.
Shanice giggled. “Give me my fork back.” Trevor pulled the tines slowly between his lips, making sure he got ever bit of the gooey cheese off the fork. Shanice then pulled a face, “On second thought, keep that fork. I’ll take your unused one.” She grabbed Trevor’s fork before he could protest.
Isaiah took another helping and passed Trevor the crock. “Might as well eat something for now. A growing young man like you’ll be hungry again in a couple of hours anyway.”
“Okay,” Trevor said, and took the dish and ladled out a generous helping of macaroni and cheese onto his plate, plus a little bit of the other entrees as well.
After dinner, Trevor, Isaiah, Shanice, and Tanya, the Baileys’ current foster child, played a game of horse on the carport in front of the house, while Brenda, who’d just given birth to twins took advantage of napping while the babies were down. They were arguing over whether or not Shanice had been over the line when she made her most recent point when an Orange County Sheriff’s vehicle pulled up in front of the house.
Isaiah lobbed the ball to Trevor. “Keep playing, and make sure Shanice doesn’t cheat. I’ll be right back.”
Trevor wanted to keep playing. He also didn’t want to think about what the Sheriff’s car showing up now that David and Elena were almost two hours late meant. Isaiah’s grief-stricken look after one of the deputies spoke to him was enough to clue Trevor in that something was terribly wrong, and even though he wanted to scream and run away from whatever news they were bringing, he was rooted to the spot.
Trevor took his turn and then another, and then another, arcing perfect shot, after perfect shot into the goal as the Sheriff’s deputies pulled away and Isaiah came back to join them.
“Dad, Trevor’s cheating,” Shanice complained.
“It’s okay, honey,” Isaiah said. “Why don’t you and Tanya go get some ice cream while I have a talk with Trevor.”
“Okay,” Shanice said, obedient although her forehead was wrinkled in confusion.
The girls were barely at the door when Trevor stopped shooting the ball and turned to Isaiah. “They’re not coming back, are they?” he said, outwardly calm, but enraged inside.
Isaiah reached for him, enfolding Trevor in his arms as the ball dropped at their feet. “No, son. I’m sorry.”
When Trevor was able to pull himself together enough not to bawl like a baby, he asked “What happened?”
“Law enforcement is still investigating, but their car went off the road into some trees not far from Ocoee. They died on impact. Another car was involved, but when the Sheriff arrived no one else was on scene.”
“What kind of person does that?” Trevor said, but what he was thinking was, I’m an orphan again. His parents had been almost home when someone selfishly took them away from him. Trevor felt worse at twice the age he’d been when he first went into the system, if that were possible.
Everyone in the Bailey household were in bed, including Trevor. He again occupied the guest room while Shanice and Tanya doubled up, but he was unable to sleep. All he could think of was David and Elena, and how they would never scold him again about leaving his socks all over the place, or about brushing his teeth even after snacks.
He would miss David writing programs with him, and Elena making her famous Italian dishes, and both of them going to his sports games and school events as his parents. Most of all, he would miss their hugs, which he’d tolerated when he first came to live with them, but had grown to expect and require, about as much as he needed air to breathe.
Since he’d heard the news, the pain of their loss had lodged in his heart and would not budge. He felt as if he were suffocating from it, because nothing and no one could bring them back. Trevor turned, punched the pillow, and settled in another position.
He was watching the red LED numbers on the clock count forward in time when he heard the door open, then the footprints of a small person walking toward the bed. He didn’t have to turn around to see who it was.
“Trevor? Are you asleep?” Shanice stage-whispered.
“No,” he said.
That was apparently all the invitation she needed. Shanice went around to the other side and hopped into bed with him.
“It’s way past your bedtime. You’re going to be in so much trouble,” he said.
“Not if you don’t tell on me,” she said, and snuggled under the cover next to him. They lay side by side in silence for a while until Shanice couldn’t stand it. “Mom and Dad won’t let them take you away again, Trevor. You’ll see.”
Her confidence was reassuring. He’d been hurting so much for David and Elena he hadn’t thought of where he would go if they hadn’t made some arrangements for him. His uncle Philip had called Isaiah promising to contact them again with the funeral plans, and asking if Trevor wanted to come stay with him, but Isaiah had thankfully declined.
“I asked Dad if Uncle David and Aunt Elena were in heaven and he said they were,” Shanice said with the certainty of a ten-year-old whose budding faith could not be shaken.
“You know what I think?”
“What?” she said.
“I think it sucks that they’re gone. It sucks that whoever hit their car didn’t even stop to see if they were okay, or to call the police. And it really sucks that I’m never going to see them again!”
Shanice didn’t call him on getting so loud that he could’ve woken up the whole house. She just scooted closer and hugged his neck. Trevor was so overcome by her offer of comfort his heart unclenched and all the pain lodged there from when he was told of his parents death came rushing out of him. As tears streamed out of his eyes, Shanice held him close, not caring that he was wetting up her pajama top with his tears.
He wasn’t aware that Shanice was crying, too, until he heard her say through her tears, “You’re still my adopted brother, Trevor, and I’ll never leave you. ‘One for each other and each other for one,’ right?”
“Right.” Trevor could only agree, because it seemed as if the one thing that would never change would be the commitment they’d made to each other as orphans.
Trevor hated that the topic of conversation after David and Elena’s funeral became “who will take the orphan boy they adopted?” The Baileys, as his godparents, had been the most likely candidates, but Isaiah and Brenda had inquired and were not qualified to take him since they now had the twins, another foster child, and Shanice in a house that was considered too small to add another adoptive child.
Trevor’s preference would’ve been the Baileys, if for no other reason than to be spared this conversation. However, David’s and Elena’s parents called the meeting immediately following the gathering of friends and family after the funeral where, like it or not, he was a witness to their heated debate.
“Connie and I live in a retirement home,” David’s father, Robert said. “Hardly the kind place for a teenager.” A thin, wiry man with wispy salt and pepper hair, who couldn’t seem to stand still, he paced the floor incessantly as he spoke.
“Maureen, what about you and Edgar?” Grandma Connie addressed Elena’s parents. She was the opposite of her husband, a matronly woman of average height. “Can you take him?”
“We already have our daughter Nina and her three children living with us,” Edgar said. “We’re packed to the gills as it is.” Elena’s father was the most grandfatherly of the two, because he actually engaged Trevor when he was around.
“Can’t you two move into David and Elena’s house and take care of him?” Maureen said. Elena’s mother didn’t look as much like a grandmother as Grandma Connie, because she was still slender enough to look younger.
“And lose our rent-controlled condo in the city? We can’t go back to taking care of lawns and homeowner’s fees and the like.” Robert was adamant.
“Listen, I’ll take th
e kid,” Philip said. “It makes more sense because I have no attachments, and he can move into my condo where there’s plenty of room.”
“What about the house?” Connie clutched conspicuously absent pearls.
“We can put the house on the market. This way he’ll at least stay in Orlando, go to the same school, and what not.” For someone who acted as if he could care less most of the time, Philip had a few ideas mapped out in advance, it seemed.
Edgar was the first adult to speak directly to Trevor about any of it. “So what do you think, Trevor? Would you like to go and stay with your Uncle Philip?”
The answer was an emphatic no, but Trevor realized he was out of options, especially if there was any hope of him staying close to Shanice and the Baileys. This solution would have to do for now.
“Yeah, I guess,” Trevor said. He wasn’t quite sure his selfish uncle had the ability to parent anyone. Given his choices now, he’d take what he could get over being fostered by strangers again, and possibly having to move far away from Orlando which had essentially become his home,
“Then it’s settled,” Philip said with a smile that Trevor didn’t quite believe was genuine.
Chapter Five
When Philip stepped up, it seemed like the answer to all their prayers, especially Trevor’s. The day he moved in with Philip paled in comparison to when he’d moved in with David and Elena. At least materially, it did.
Philip escorted Trevor to his room, swung the door open and waved an arm like he was a spokesmodel.
“And this is where you’ll be crashing.” Philip said. “Go on in and make yourself at home.”
Trevor tried not to show how excited he was, but he couldn’t help but return Philip’s grin when he saw the state-of-the-art computer equipment in his room, together with the desktops and monitors he already owned courtesy of the Kyles.