“Hunter, you alright?”
“Did something happen, Nurse?”
“You passed out in the car. I was worried.”
“I was scared. I don’t like being in a place I don’t know.”
“I know. Let’s get you in the house now. We need to get you situated around the others that live here.”
“Others live here…?”
“Yes. Don’t worry. They’ll be fine being around you because of what I told them about your situation.”
Hunter is lead into a house that is bigger than he’s used to. He’s used to having just one room to himself that isn’t very big.
Now, he has a quiet place to himself. He always wanted this. Then, Why is he this afraid of the room?
“Hunter, Come on. I need to introduce you to the others. You can put your stuff away later on.”
Hunter, being the nervous child he is at the time, puts all his stuff away first. This is his only method of stalling from meeting, what he expects, to be the family of Ms. Everett.
Half an hour later, when Hunter finally musters the courage to go meet them, finds out that he’s being introduced to Luke and Lucky instead.
Luke is a young child Ms. Everett had adopted years ago from the same orphanage Hunter had been living in. Lucky was a puppy that Ms. Everett had gotten quite recently.
“Hunter, I know I didn’t mention to you the fact that you have a temporary sibling, but I adopted Luke years ago. He’s from the same place you are and I hope you two will get along. Lucky is my, our, new puppy. I got him to see if he could be someone you connected with. I remember you liking dogs and Luke has always wanted one.”
“Thank you Ms. Everett, but if I’m not staying very long, what will happen to Lucky?”
“We’ll all worry about those details later. For now, I hope you can get settled in here and that we can learn to be some form of a family. It will help us all to be around each other for awhile.”
As Ms. Everett says those last few words, she gets a call from the owner of the orphanage. Hunter’s father had called again. He wanted to see his son. This worried Ms. Everett because she knew the story quite well. She hoped they could convince the father that Hunter still needed healing before they could meet again.
“Luke, show Hunter around. I have to take this call. It’s important. Enjoy staying with us Hunter.”
“Thank you, Ms. Everett, For everything,” Hunter whispers.
“Let’s go, Hunter. It’s going to be nice for me to have a friend. Even if you are young, maybe this’ll be fun for both of us. I hope you can get used to me.
