by Amy Braat
“Ha-ha. I had better go put these away,” I remarked, walking into the room I shared with Caitlin. I stopped and dropped the bag and yelled, “What are you doing?” Caitlin dropped Snow as she jumped. Caitlin's parents were both at the doorway in a split second to see what had happened.
Kennedy ran over to Snow and gently picked him up telling the wide-eyed Caitlin, “This is Roe’s toy. You are not to touch it. Do not touch Snow again.” Kennedy gently gave Snow back to me. I snatched Snow and hugged him tightly. “I'm sorry. I will try harder to keep Caitlin out of your things.” Kennedy promised.
“Sorry, when I went out to the living room she was playing in her dollhouse,” Dan apologized also.
“Snow is mine. You are not to play with him,” I scolded Caitlin. I climbed up onto the top bunk and hid him under the covers.
Kennedy put my new clothing away and said to Caitlin as we left the room, “Caitlin, I have something for you. I was going to save it for your birthday, but if you promise to leave Snow alone, we can make it this afternoon.” I did not see Caitlin nod her head yes as they left. I was just glad they were gone so Snow and I could pout in piece.
I did not come out of the room for the rest of the afternoon. Kennedy called me for dinner and went in to check on me. “Roberta, would you please come to dinner?” Kennedy pleaded. I was starving by this time, so I got up without a word and went out to the kitchen and sat down. I saw Caitlin there with the finished doll from the kit Kennedy had bought earlier that day. She was grinning and playing with her new doll. I just gave her the evil eye over the green beans.
Dan finished up making the salad for dinner and brought it over and then sat down. Kennedy brought out the casserole from the oven and set it down on the pot holders on the table. “Roe would you like to say grace?” Dan asked.
I just shook my head no. I thought they were talking about a person. But, it involved us holding hands as they thanked the Lord for the food on the table. I did not actually know how to say grace, and we did not do it while my parents were here.
“Okay, I will then. Dear Lord, we thank you for this food on our table. We thank you for the blessings you have given us, especially that you have blessed us with Roe being here. We wanted to thank you for Andra and Tony obtaining the funding to send Caitlin for therapy. Amen.”
“Roe would you like some casserole?” Kennedy asked, taking me plate. “Beans? Salad?” Kennedy repeated this process with Caitlin while Dan helped himself. It was a quiet dinner. I thought about Dan thanking God for me being here. Were they really grateful for me being here? Didn't my parents just dump me on them? They had their hands full with Caitlin; why would they want me here? Unless my parents were paying them off? Is that why they now could afford Caitlin's therapy because my parents paid them to take me?
My parents called at 8:00 pm, but I did not answer. They then called Kennedy and I could hear her talking to them on her cell in the hallway. “No, she is fine. She is just adjusting, and she is hurt by you leaving. Give it some time. Caitlin was playing with Snow today, and she freaked out and then shut down, but she’ll be okay. Yes, I'll talk to her and have her give you a call or at least answer her phone. We went to the mall today, and she picked out some really cute outfits and then she bought a tee-shirt from the boy’s department. Guess what was on it? Yes, it has robots on it. Okay, I'll talk with you tomorrow. Bye for now.”
I dozed off after that.
Chapter Fourteen: Left Behind
The next morning, I did not get out of bed early. I stayed in bed playing one of my phone app games and thinking about last night. Were my parents really paying my aunt and uncle off for taking care of me? Is that the only reason they were thankful for me being here?
Kennedy came into the room and asked me to get dressed. We were going to the local maker group weekly meeting as she started getting Caitlin ready to go. I was not sure what she was talking about. My parents never went to a maker group. Kennedy asked again more firmly this time. The third time, Kennedy climbed up into the bunk bed and pulled the covers off my head, “Look, you are part of this family now, and as part of this family, you are expected to get up and get dressed and go to the maker group weekly meeting with us. I expect you to be dressed in something nice in the next five minutes.”
This startled me and sounded so much like my mother when I had pushed her too far. So I got up and got dressed. Did my robot shirt count as something nice? Just then, Kennedy called into the room, “No robot shirt, something you would wear to your parents’ work.” So I put on one of the outfits my mom's personal shopper got me with matching shoes. I brushed my hair and went out into the living room.
Kennedy gave me a smile. “Thank you for getting dressed so quickly. You look very nice. Would you like me to braid your hair while Dan finishes with breakfast?”
“Sure,” I replied grumpily, but at the same time excited about getting my hair braided again.
Kennedy braided a very pretty French braid with a ribbon and added a few flowers she had in her sewing supplies.
Dan made French toast which was my favorite for breakfast. Kennedy tried to explain what the maker group weekly meeting was about to me and what to expect. I figured out it would be boring, and then I would be stuck in a room with kids my age. It sounded like a very boring little kid art class but I had to go since I was now “part of the family”. Whatever that meant, I think it means you have to do this because you now live with us.
The maker group weekly meeting was as boring as I had figured it to be. It started with my aunt and uncle introducing me to a whole lot of people, similar to when I went to my parents’ work. Then, we sat down in a rows of chairs, people were showing stuff off and talking about stuff. One of the makers was demonstrating their techno music and costuming they had made. It was kind of like a theater show, only not entertaining to me. I had been to a few shows. My parents really liked musicals and would take me to their favorites if we were both in town at the same time it was being performed. The maker group weekly meeting had music, but it was not as good as a musical, though it was lively and had a band, if you count a computer pretending to be a band.
Then, the kids were sectioned off by age groups and the parents went to individual interest groups, Kennedy went to sewing and Dan was off to guys tinkering. I figured that this was where a few adults tried to have us do a lame craft type project. They started the class out explaining how glass was made. I just sat there, hoping that this would end soon. Then one of the adults called on me and asked me a question. “What is the first ingredient in glass?” I had no idea what to say and just said, “I don’t know.” This caused the whole class to laugh at me, and it took the teacher quite a few minutes to settle the class down. The girl next to me answered the question correctly as far as I could tell because the adults smiled and moved on to another question. Then they gave us paper, colored tissue paper and glue so we could make our own fake stain glass window art. The rest of the class had been working on this project for a few weeks so I was way behind. Most of the class had beautiful finished projects by the end of class. I did not even figure out what I wanted to make in fake stain glass before the class was done.
Then, after what felt like hours trying to make a fake stain glass window, the kids were released to their parents. The adults followed me and talked with Kennedy who sounded like she was apologizing to them, and explained that I seemed to only get excited about robots and there were not any here today. Then, the adults looked sadly at me and went on their way.
Kennedy and Dan took Caitlin and me down to the potluck lunch. I had never been to a potluck, so I was quite confused. Then, I figured it out. Everyone brought a dish to share. You took a sample of what was in the pot, and sometimes you were lucky and it was good and other times you were not so lucky and it was bad. The best part about the potluck was that there was a whole table of desserts. When Kennedy and Dan were talking with other adults, I would sneak another cookie or brownie. I decided that potlucks were awe
some, and I couldn’t wait to go to another one. “Next time if Kennedy weren’t looking, I would just start and end at the dessert table. Yeah, next week that is what I will do which is only get food from the dessert table; great plan” I thought yah “great plan.” I recognized the girl next to me in the dessert line. She was the one who answered the question correctly in class. She said, “Hi, you were in my maker group class, right?”
“Yeah.” Oh, I hope she doesn’t ask why I got the answer wrong. I would not know what to say. How was I supposed to know this was review from last week’s class.
“I hear you are new here. I am new here also; moved here a few months ago. Don’t worry, the teachers are really nice once they get to know you,” she smiled.
“Thanks,” I smiled back.
Then, her mom called her and she left saying, “Good-bye, hope to see you next week!” And I actually did hope to see her next week; she seemed nice. Maybe we could make the next craft project together like Mia and I used to do.
After we had returned home, Caitlin changed into play clothing. Since the closest thing I had to play clothing was my robot tee-shirt and the jeans we bought the other day, I changed into them. Kennedy wanted to spend the afternoon talking with me about the maker group, but I did not really care since Mia was not there and there were not many robots there. So, it was not going well and I really missed Mia. Kennedy made sure to have Caitlin pick out one of the maker children’s stories to read as a bedtime story. She knew I would listen in, and maybe this would help me get excited to go to the maker meetings.
After reading to Caitlin, Kennedy interrupting me programming my baking app. After she had climbed up to the top bunk and sat down she said, “Roe, I need you to do me a favor.”
“What?” Oh man, this is not starting out well, and I have nowhere to escape since she is blocking me.
“I need you to answer your phone when your parents call and talk to them.”
“No way. They abandoned me why would I talk to them.”
“Why?”
“Because.” Yeah, I thought, just because. But, she kept going.
“Because your parents wanted you to have a better life that is stable where you can make friends and not be leaving every few weeks. A life, where you actually would have a home, not a hotel room.”
I did not know what to say to that, so I went with, “Why do you care? You’re just being paid to babysit me.”
Kennedy asked in a hurt way, “What do you mean?”
“You are only taking care of me to fund Caitlin's therapy,” I responded.
“No, you are wrong. We had agreed to take you in before your parents knew about Caitlin's therapy. Your parents set up her therapy payments without me knowing about it. Your parents have a contract with the hospital, so whether we keep you or not, Caitlin will get her therapy. So, you are wrong there. Due to Dan and I not having to scrimp and save to pay for Caitlin's therapy, he has quit his second job, not because we are being paid to keep you. Your parents have set up a bank account to pay for your needs. This includes an allowance, clothing, school supplies and whatever else you may need, but they are not paying us to keep you. Just to have everything out on the table so to say, they will be paying us rent for a few rooms they want to use, but this has nothing to do with us keeping you. It is for keeping an office for them and to pay for the extra costs of heating, cooling and taxes. You are here because we want you here, not because we are being paid for you to be here. Give me a hug goodnight and talk to your parents,” Kennedy concluded, giving me a hug and kiss goodnight before she left.
So when my parents called that night I answered the phone, even though I did not want to. “Hi Mom,” I answered.
“Hi, Roe.”
“I'm here too,” my dad interjected.
“We are on speaker,” my mom explained. “How are you doing?”
“Fine, Kennedy made me go to the maker group today. It was boring, and I hated it,” I claimed.
I could tell by their response that my parents were not quite sure what I was talking about, but figured I had misunderstood something and they responded, “Roe, we think you will really like the maker group, give it a chance. There may not be many robots there but we think you will really like it if you give it a try.”
I was hoping that my parents would be mad Kennedy made me go to the maker group, so I was disappointed by their response. I did not know what to say, so I went with, “Okay I'll try harder.” Though, what I was thinking was that if I messed up more, my parents would come and get me. They would have too, take that!
“Thank you, Roe.” My mom thanked me.
“We'll call tomorrow. Try to fit in and have a good time.” Normal response from my dad.
“Good night Mom and Dad,” I said trying to hide my anger.
“Night, Roe.” They said in unison and hung up.
After we had hung up, I was mad and hugged Snow until I fell asleep.
The next day, I was hiding under my bedspread with my ears covered because Caitlin, whom I shared the room with, was at it again. This was the third temper tantrum she had today alone! I could not wait until school started next week. Anything had to be better than spending the whole day with “Screamer” as I called her in my head. Even ear plugs did not help!
I could not believe my parents had left me here! Up until this point, I had followed my parents around the world. But their personal assistant, whom I called NAAN behind her back, had gotten some so-called experts to tell my parents I was falling behind in school with all the moving around and needed a stable environment to develop correctly. How could this be a stable environment with Screamer! NAAN, which stood for “Not At All Nice”, was just tired of finding lousy nannies for me everywhere we went, I decided.
At least I had Snow; my snowman robot doll friend to keep me company. As I thought about it becoming angrier and angrier, realizing I missed being allowed to watch as my dad or mom explained what they were doing and how the system worked. It was so much fun, but that was over and all I had now was Screamer.
I took my phone off my bunk shelf and started playing with a game I wrote. I was still angry and had angry thoughts going through my head. My parents taught me how to program my own games to keep me busy while they worked. I had a shooting game I had written, a baking game and a best friend game. My best friend game was my favorite. It was voice-activated and based on what I programmed, and it would respond in kind. I had never been anywhere long enough to make a best friend. Mia was the closest thing I had ever had, so it was how I thought my perfect best friend would act like. Trying to distract myself from Screamer’s noise and my anger, I remembered that I had been meaning to add more cue words to the program. Now would be a good time while Screamer's parents settled me down. I thought, “Screamer must be going for a record.” So, I got my tablet off the shelf and hid under the covers, opening my programming software and started typing away. Soon, I'll have the coolest best friend program ever! It will feel like I am talking to a real person! Though, I knew it never really would replace Mia but it was all I had right now.
That night, I complained to my parents about having to share a room with Screamer, and I was scolded to not call her that. Then, my parents told me to deal with it since I was the bigger person. So, I was not happy when we hung up. No, I was not happy at all.
Epilogue: The Bright Beginning
The next day, we had a visitor from the maker group. I was surprised when I was called into the living room. There stood a lady with a girl about my age. I recognized her from the maker group school last weekend. She was the girl sitting next to me in class.
Kennedy introduced them. “Roberta, I would like you to meet Marcella and her mother. They just moved here from Puerto Rico, this summer, and they attend our maker group. Why don’t you show Marcella around while I visit with her mother?” Kennedy suggested.
Kennedy and Marcella’s mother got out their hand sewing and sat down in the living room. I took Marcella back to Screame
r’s and my room. I was so glad that Nana had taken Screamer out for ice cream for a few hours so she was not here to throw her fits in front of Marcella.
“Okay. Why don’t you come to my room and meet my robot friends?” I suggested. “And by the way, you can call me ROE.”
“You can call me Marci. What grade are you going into?”
“Sixth grade.”
“Really, me too!” Marci exclaimed.
“Do you like computers and science?” I asked.
“Yes, but I especially love math,” Marci admitted.
“Well, I’ve programmed a robot doll to be my best friend. Would you like to see him?”
“Yes, that’s so cool. Maybe you can show me how it’s done,” Marci suggested as I took Mini-Snow down to demonstrate his abilities.
“I can try,” I promised, “If you like Mini-Snow, I have to show you Snow and my Best Friend App.”
“Wow, that is so awesome,” Marci observed. “You are so lucky to have all these neat things. You should bring this to the maker meetings to show it off, it is so cool!” Marci said.
I was so torn, I wanted to be a mean person and be angry that my parents had left me but Marcella seemed so nice. I wanted to act out and be mean and get kicked out of here so my parents would come get me but then Marcella showed me her sweatshirt. Her mom and her had sewn in lights, so with the push of a button her sweatshirt would light up in the shape of her name. She could change the program in it from blinking, to running lights. Then she could change how long the lights would blink for. It was so cool.
“Last week the meeting was a little different than normal with the show and tell, normally people show off projects they have finished. But a bunch of the makers have been working on a techno play and wanted to show off the cool costumes they had made for it and music they had written. Normally there are a lot of little projects shown off. A few weeks ago I showed this sweatshirt off and people loved it!” Marcella said beaming. “You should bring your robot and app and show them off, people would love them!”