Free Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 by Claudia Hall Christian Page B

shocks me
to see what nice, good people Nash, Noelle, Sissy, and you are. It
always surprises me that these are my children, you know? But I think
you should take notice of how nice people react.”
    “ Why?”
    “ Because these boys have a
little industry of selling videos and photos of their encounters,”
Aden said.
    “ How do you know
that?”
    “ Seth told me,” Aden said.
“He didn’t want Sandy to know, but of course that’s the first thing
she thought of.”
    “ So everybody knows what I
did,” Charlie said.
    “ You didn’t do anything,”
Aden said. “But now that you know about of this, you know Sam would
say, ‘What will you do now?’”
    “ This
life . . .” Charlie said. “It’s great but so hard.
Basketball is the only thing that gets me through. I don’t interact
with those guys very much and . . .”
    “ Knowing what you know
now, would you want to play basketball with them?” Aden asked. “I
think that’s the question.”
    Aden pulled the car into the Castle driveway
and clicked the button for the gate.
    “ I was a lot older than
you when I had a chance to meet nice people,” Aden said.
    “ But these kids, my old
friends—girls and guys—are really nice, good people,” Charlie said.
“They just lived outside because no one loved them.”
    “ They are nice people,” Aden said. “Why
would you want to play your favorite sport with guys who
aren’t?”
    Aden parked and they went inside. Aden
followed Charlie up the stairs to the second floor.
    “ I think everyone is
asleep so we should . . .” Aden said in a low
voice.
    The door to their apartment flung open.
Sandy, Noelle, Sissy, and Nash were standing in the doorway.
Charlie stepped into the hallway and they didn’t come out. For a
moment, everyone just looked at him.
    Nash broke free and threw himself at
Charlie.
    “ I’m so sorry,” Nash said.
“I didn’t mean to . . .”
    “ I’m sorry too,” Charlie
said. “I never would have given them your number if I had any idea
that they . . .”
    Sissy joined the hug and Noelle followed
her.
    “ Let’s get inside before
we wake everyone up,” Aden said.
    “ Did Charlie make it
home?” Valerie’s voice came from down the hallway.
    They heard running feet and Valerie appeared
with a baby monitor in her hand. Delphie poked her head out as
well. Sam appeared from downstairs to give Charlie a bear hug. MJ
brought Honey up to see Charlie and Jacob brought Jill down.
    Soon everyone who lived at the Castle was
standing in the hallway. There were lots of hugs and kisses and a
few baby monitors.
    For the moment, Charlie knew he was a real
part of this family and being a part of something was pretty
nice.
    “ Good thing I made a
couple of pies,” Sandy said.
    “ I have ice cream!” Jill
said.
    “ Shall we?” Aden ushered
everyone inside for a mini-celebration.
    ~~~~~~~~
    Monday night—10:37 p.m.
     
    “ I think that’s about it,”
Risa, their social worker said. She stood and gave Heather her
coffee mug. “Thank you for the cake and coffee. After the day I’ve
had, and the night I’m going to have, it was absolutely perfect.
Mostly, thank you for being willing to help out at the last
minute.”
    “ It’s our pleasure,”
Heather said.
    “ I’ll walk you out.” Blane
looked at Heather and she nodded.
    She watched him help Risa with her coat.
When Blane left to walk Risa to her car, Heather went upstairs to
check on the girls. She peeked into the room that had been Blane’s
room, but was now Tink’s room.
    Ivy was lying on the air mattress next to
the bed and Tink was on the bed. Both girls had their eyes closed.
They looked like peaceful angels.
    It had taken three washings to get all the
muck off Ivy. Tink helped her clean up and then shared her new
clothing with the girl. Of course, Tink was twice the size of Ivy,
but Ivy didn’t seem to care that her clothing didn’t fit. After Ivy
was clean and dressed, they’d been too tired for cake.