This session was a bit about the three children in my story and experiences they have in a temporary foster home. Here's today's excerpt:
For the third day
in a row Kalika woke with Taiwo curled up in a tight ball next to her stomach. The
sky outside the window was dark. She wondered what time it was. Her brother
always went to bed earlier than the others because he was small. Abeni liked to
tuck him in and sing bedtime lullabies to him so the oldest sister knew he fell
asleep in his own bunk.
Sometime during
the night he must wake and climb in bed with her. This morning his feet were
chilled and he had them tucked between her knees. She decided that must be what
woke her. They felt like little icicles against her warm skin. She put her arm
over him and he pulled it tighter against him. That’s when she realized he was
shivering and awake.
“Are you cold?”
she asked in a whispered voice.
“Yeah,” came his
reply. His voice quivered.
“Here.” She pulled
the comforter and blanket on the bed over his small body and rubbed his arm
with her hand. “Better?”
“Uh, huh.”
Looking across him
at the bunk bed, she noticed there were no blankets or even a sheet on the
lower bunk he used as his bed.
“What happened to
your covers?” Kalika asked.
“Abeni stole
them,” he whispered and shivered again.
Kalika glanced up
and indeed saw Abeni sound asleep on the top bunk beneath her bedding. She had
her back to the room, facing the wall. Wadded up at her feet were the sheets,
blanket, and comforter that belonged on Taiwo’s bed.
“What did she do
that for?” she asked.
She moved to sit
up and Taiwo stopped her.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
“She will hit me if she wakes up again.” His body shivered once more.
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