“Maybe no one’s home.” Bekah turned to him. “There’s no car in the driveway.”
“They must be out. What should we do?” His mother would be disappointed to not be able to at least share with them the meal she had sent.
“Maybe we can just drop the food off on the porch with a note or something?”
Ezekiel looked back to the house. In a sense, he was relieved he wouldn’t have to have the hard conversation with Mr. Wilford. It couldn’t be avoided entirely, but he was more than happy to save it for another day.
“Got a pen and some paper?” Ezekiel asked.
Bekah dug inside her purse and came out with a pen and a grocery store receipt. “Maybe we can use this?”
A smile playing on his lips, Ezekiel took the offering. He scribbled down a note to Mr. Wilford, letting him know he’d stopped by, and grabbing the food from the back, he exited the car.
“Kinda creepy. He should leave a porch light on at least.” Bekah followed him up to the house.
“I know, right? Watch out for that barrel cactus.” He sidestepped to avoid it himself, pulling her beside it with his free hand.
On the porch was a small metal table and chairs set that looked like it had seen better days. The paint was peeling off in thick chips, and it looked as if one hefty push and the entire set might crumble to the ground. He pressed a hand down on the table. It was sturdier than it looked. “Should we just leave it here?”
“I guess so.”
Ezekiel set the food on the table, then took the time to make sure the foil was closed tightly around it so no bugs would get in.
“Ezekiel!” Bekah hissed, making him jump.
“What?” He whipped around, glancing at the area. “What happened?”
“The curtain just moved. Someone is inside.” Bekah pointed to the front window. The curtain swayed a little. “Maybe they have a dog?”
“Yeah, maybe.” Bekah took a closer look. “I don’t know. I mean, wouldn’t a dog be barking?”
“A cat?”
“Maybe we should just knock.” Bekah held her hand to her chest. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
Most likely, she was being overdramatic, but if it would make her feel better, he was willing to check. He knocked on the door.
Something like a squeal came from inside the house.
“That’s not a dog. Or a cat. Zeke, someone’s in there.”
Ezekiel knocked again. “Jack? Ruby? Is anyone home?”
His knock was met with silence.
“He wouldn’t leave them home alone, would he?”
Ezekiel knocked again. “Jack? This is Mr. Gaines. Are you there?”
The deadbolt clicked, and the door opened. Little Ruby stood on the other side of the door, her face blotchy.
“I told you not to open it!” Jack shouted from inside the darkness.
“Jack? What’s going on? Why are all the lights out, and where is your father?”
Jack sauntered into view. “I told you not to answer the door, Ruby. Now they’re going to take us away.”
Bekah looked at Ezekiel.
“Jack? Are you two home alone? How long has your father been gone?”
“He never came back!” Ruby cried. “And we have no lectricity!”
“Shut up, Ruby!” Jack shoved his sister on the arm. “Do you want them to take us to jail?”
Ezekiel stepped inside the door. Bekah followed behind. “No one is going to jail, Jack. What’s going on? Where is your father?”
“I don’t know.” Jack lowered his head. “He wasn’t home when we came home from school, and I don’t think he’s coming back.”
“When you came home today?" Bekah stepped closer. "It's okay. Maybe he’s just running late.”
“We’ve been alone for a year!” Ruby cried.
“Not that long, dummy.” Jack admonished his sister. “Only a week.”
“A week?” Bekah kneeled down in front of them. “Why didn’t you tell someone?”
Ezekiel stared in stunned silence. How did he not know this was going on? And how long had it been since their father had taken care of them? All the days they had come to school without lunch now made sense. Jack forging his father’s signature and being so adamant about not wanting to participate himself. He hadn't wanted to bring any attention to them.
“Kids, grab some clothes.” Ezekiel combed a hand through his hair. “Bekah, can I talk to you outside?”
“Uh, sure. Go grab your clothes, kids, and be careful. It’s dark in here.” Bekah followed him out onto the porch.
“What are we going to do?” Ezekiel whispered.
“What do you mean? We have to bring them home with us.”
“We can’t ... Bekah, we are going to have to bring them to the police station.”
“What? No!” Bekah crossed her arms. “We are not taking them to the police station! Didn’t you hear Jack? This is just what he was afraid of.”
“Bekah, they aren’t puppies who were dropped off in the desert. We can’t just adopt them and buy them each a flea collar.”
“No.” Bekah’s eyes filled with tears. “They aren’t animals. They’re humans. And they are children. We can’t just drop them off at the pound, either. Please, Ezekiel.”
“Okay.” Ezekiel pulled Bekah into his arms. “Okay. It’s okay. We’ll bring them home tonight. But we’re going to have to get this all figured out.” He rubbed her back. “And at some point, we’re going to have to notify the authorities.”
“I know.” Bekah sniffled. “But not tonight.”
“I’m ready.” Ruby came onto the porch with her backpack on her back, a grocery bag stuffed with clothes, and a purple stuffed unicorn cuddled in her arms.
“Where’s Jack?” Ezekiel looked around her.
“He’s still in his room.” Ruby looked back into the house. “He’s sad.”
Bekah gave Ezekiel a pouty look. “Why don’t you go in and help Jack. I’ll get Ruby into the car.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Ezekiel patted Ruby on the shoulder. “Where’s Jack’s room?”
“It’s back there.” Ruby pointed down the hall. “The last one after the bathroom.”
Ezekiel squeezed Ruby’s shoulder and smiled. “Okay. I’ll be right back.” With one last look at Bekah, she smiled at him, and he was pretty sure he would walk off the edge of the earth for her.
Slowly, he felt his way down the hall, tripping over something that could possibly be a shoe and something else that might have been a pair of jeans.
Standing in the doorway of the last room, he peeked inside. “Jack? Buddy, are you in here?”
Jack sniffled.
“Hey, buddy.” Ezekiel stepped into the room. “You okay?” The room was so dark that he couldn’t see the boy.
A movement shifted to the left, and Ezekiel followed it, his feet shuffling across the floor to avoid tripping hazards. The closer he got, the clearer he could see Jack sitting on his bedroom floor. Ezekiel squatted and sat down next to him.
“You okay, buddy?”
“No.” Jack sniffled again. “You’re going to take us to jail, aren’t you?”
“Of course not.” Ezekiel wrapped an arm around Jack’s shoulder. “We’re going to take you back to my house for the night.”
“And then what?”
“Well, my friend. That’s hard to say right now.” How did he tell a young boy that he couldn’t just take him home forever? “Eventually, we will have to notify the police.”
“No!” Jack stood. “They’ll take Ruby away! I’m her big brother! She needs me!”
Ezekiel got to his feet. “Okay. Listen. We don’t have to think about this tonight. Let’s just go back to my house and get you two something to eat. We can talk about it tomorrow.”
“I can’t leave her alone. I have to protect her.” Jack burst into tears. “Please, Mr. Gaines.”
“I’m going to do my best to keep you two together.” Ezekiel pulled Jack into a hug, hoping there was so
mething he could do to keep the kids from being separated. “We’ll figure it out, okay?”
Jack nodded as sobs poured from him. Ezekiel's heart broke for them. First, their mother and now their father? It was too much for them to handle.
What was he going to do? He couldn’t go around making promises to Jack. He had no way to know what would happen once protective services were contacted. And they’d have to be contacted.
“Let’s get you two some food and baths, okay?” Ezekiel let him go. “It’s going to be okay.” Ezekiel had little assurance that anything would be okay for these children ever again. Even if their father did return, would he be deemed suitable to care for them after abandoning them? Had he abandoned them? There were too many unanswered questions to know for sure the circumstances that had led to them being left alone. Ezekiel couldn't think about that now. All he could do was make sure they were safe, and his parents would help to figure out what their next move should be.
Chapter 23 — Bekah
The car was silent as they drove back to Ezekiel’s parent’s house. What a shock it would be to both Pastor and Mrs. Gaines when the kids got out of the car with them. Bekah turned to the back. Jack sat on the left, staring out the window, and Ruby was next to him, her head on his shoulder, her eyes closed, her face red with tears streaming down her cheeks.
The thought of those poor children staying in a house alone at night sent shivers down her spine. Ruby was so young. She must have been terrified there without her father. And Jack, he pretended he was big and tough but he was only eleven. How had he kept them fed for an entire week? When had they last eaten? Surely, there was some morsels of food in the house to keep them going. At least the Gaines’ family had made sure they had lunches. Her heart broke for them.
Bekah had no idea what to do with them, but she didn’t want to call CPS. Jack was right. There was a big chance they could be separated, and with the town of Sunshine being so small, one or both of them could be shipped off to another city. The thought of losing either of them hurt.
Ezekiel pulled into the driveway, and Mrs. Gaines immediately stepped out onto the porch. Ezekiel sighed, giving Bekah a wary look. “You ready?”
Before Bekah could answer, his mother was at the car. “Did you give them the left-overs?” she asked as Ezekiel opened his door. “I hope they ―”
The light came on, making the kids in the back visible, and Mrs. Gaines’ mouth flew open. She covered her surprise quickly. “You brought them home?”
“We decided they should eat here.” Ezekiel got out of the car and opened the back door. “Come on, kids. Let’s get you fed.”
Mrs. Gaines gave him a questioning look then helped Ruby from the car.
“Let’s get them something to eat. I’ll tell you all about it once we get them settled down.”
Mrs. Gaines nodded. “Well, then. Let’s get you little cuties out of this car. I think we even have some ice cream in there for dessert.”
The kids shuffled out and followed Mrs. Gaines to the house while Ezekiel grabbed their things.
“What are we going to do?” Bekah asked the question that Ezekiel was sure to be thinking.
Before either of them made it to the front porch, Pastor Gaines came out of the house, tying his tan robe over his pajamas. “What’s going on?”
Ezekiel filled him in on the details.
“He left them there to fend for themselves?” Pastor Gaines' forehead wrinkled with worry. “We’ll have to call the authorities.”
“Pastor Gaines, please?” Bekah pleaded with her eyes. “Can’t they just stay here for a couple of days?”
“Well, now.” Pastor Gaines rubbed at the back of his neck. “As much as I would like to keep them here, we can’t go around taking kids in without notifying the proper authorities. We could get in trouble with the law if we don’t report this.”
“And what about when their father comes back?” Ezekiel lowered his eyebrows at Bekah. “Shall we just give them back?”
“I don’t know.” Bekah looked away. “Maybe he got hurt or something.”
“This is true.” Pastor Gaines shifted on his feet. “And if he did, we won’t know unless we call the authorities.”
“You don’t think he’d have alerted someone that he had kids at home if he was laid up in a hospital somewhere?” Ezekiel asked.
“Not if he’s in a coma.”
Ezekiel gnawed on his lower lip, thinking. “Possible, but not likely.”
She was grasping at straws, and she understood the legal consequences of removing children from their home without permission, but this was Jack and Ruby. They had lost too much to lose each other too.
“We’ll keep them here tonight. There’s no use getting the authorities involved at this late in the evening, but we will have to call sooner or later. It’s the only right thing to do.”
Bekah sighed. “Have either of you ever done the wrong thing by the law if it was the right thing in your hearts? I mean, these are our students. Ruby is in my drama class and Jack ― he’s your student. What will happen to them if we just let them get dropped into state custody?”
“The Lord has a way of working these things out. Let’s just get them fed and into bed. Tomorrow things will be much clearer on how we should proceed.”
Bekah nodded, but in her heart, she was worried for the children. God didn’t always work things out the way people wanted. If He did, there would be no such thing as a foster care system. She’d never been in the system herself, but she’d had friends as a child who had been taken away from their parents. It was not an easy thing to break up a family.
They went inside. Ezekiel placed a hand on her back. “It will be okay.”
Bekah wanted to believe him, but the situation was anything but okay. The kids had lost their mother only a little over a year before, and now their father had gone off and left them. She didn’t believe he was holed up somewhere in a hospital any more than the rest of them did. He had abandoned his children. As much as she was unprepared to care for them, she wanted to. She had no official home, she was single, and was holding onto her own life by a thread. Yet everything within her told her that these children needed her.
Placing her emotions aside, she put on a smile and went inside. It would do no good to allow the kids to see how desperate the situation was.
Jack and Ruby sat at the kitchen table, picking at the left-over spaghetti in quiet. Ezekiel sat across from the kids and tried to talk to them.
Mrs. Gaines busied herself in the kitchen, a worried look on her face.
“You want some help?” Bekah asked, pulling out a fresh towel from the drawer. “I’ll dry.”
“What happened?” Mrs. Gaines whispered.
Bekah told her the short version.
“What are we going to do?” Mrs. Gaines looked as distressed as Bekah was. “We only have one extra room besides yours. We can’t possibly provide for them.” Her eyes penetrated Bekah’s. “Nor can we let them go.”
“I’ll give up my room. I can sleep on the couch. I’ve wanted to start looking for a place soon anyway.” That was not the truth. Bekah enjoyed staying in their home, and now that the kids were there, she wanted to be there even more.
“No. You keep the room. We can put Jack out in the garage apartment with Ezekiel. I’m sure he won’t mind. We’ve got an air mattress we can throw right on the floor and Ruby can take the spare bedroom.”
It was a temporary solution to a possibly permanent situation, but it would have to do for the moment.
“Mrs. Gaines, you won’t let them be taken away, will you?”
“I don’t know that I have a say-so in that.” Mrs. Gaines gave her a sad look and wiped down the counters. “But God has a way of working things out.”
Bekah didn’t want to break the bad news to these caring souls that God didn’t always make life easy. She didn’t imagine they’d ever struggled with hardships or seen what the world outside of their little town was about. Sometimes b
ad things happened to good people. And oftentimes when it happened, especially to children, it was very damaging.
Reevaluating her own life, Bekah realized that her mother hadn’t been so bad after all. Sure, she was pushy, judgmental, and hard on Bekah, but Bekah had never gone to bed without a meal. She’d never spent a week alone in a house with no electricity or feared that her family would be taken away from her. Her mother would never win any mother of the year awards, but she’d always taken care of her. And she was alive. Those two kids had lost their mother and now their father. An overwhelming urge came over Bekah to call her own mother and thank her for all she'd done.
Later that night, with the kids put down to sleep, Bekah sat on the porch, staring out at stars twinkling brightly in the sky. Never had she wanted so badly to call on God for help. Even when her own life was going crazy, when she had to scrounge together enough money to buy food, and not even when she’d had no place to live and ended up staying with that idiot Blade had she been more distressed.
Why does it have to be so hard for these kids? Haven’t they lost enough? Bekah stared at the stars in question. When is enough enough?
“Any room out there for me?” Ezekiel stepped onto the porch.
“Sure.” Bekah scooted over. “Is Jack asleep?”
“Yeah. He thought it was pretty cool to sleep in a garage.”
“I bet.” Bekah stared into his eyes, wishing she could tell him how she felt about him. Over the last couple of weeks, she’d found a place where she fit in. She loved Sunshine. She adored the Gaines family, and she enjoyed teaching. But most of all, she was head over heels in love with Ezekiel.
Ezekiel sat next to her and put an arm around her. “The stars are so clear tonight.”
“They are.” The urge to tell him how she felt came over her, but she couldn’t do it. She’d never been good at expressing her feelings to anyone. Not when she was a kid, and not now. “I could sit out here all night and just stare at them.”
The Act of Falling Page 11