The Foster Father and His Two Baby Girls

[Ishigreensa]

Single Foster Father

 

Chapter 1:

My New Babies

I walked into the group home not sure what to expect, really. The woman, a Sharon Rhimes had called me in the day before telling me, a 47 year old single man, that after three long years of waiting to be vetted and to finally pass through the red tape and the multiple checks that were required, that they finally had two children that might benefit from a single father like me.

My name is Alan Riverstone, and with graying medium brown hair, bushy eyebrows, and a less than perfectly smooth shave, I walked into this darkened room where even with the lights on everywhere, there seemed to be a gloom about the green walled place. My red and white checkered shirt and somewhat faded but still in good repair bluejeans hung confidently from my wiry frame. The round lenses of my spectacles took in a room full of children playing on the floor or reading in the chairs—some as young as seven or eight, and some as old as fourteen years.

I glanced around trying to see if I recognized the children that I’d finally get to father, as I walked behind the pole of a woman with red hair and green eyes.

“So, as I told you on the phone, Mr. Riverstone, these two children that somewhat fit your request, and who really need someone that they can look to for protection, have had difficult situations particularly in the last year.”

I nodded my head heavily as the woman talked to me about my new children.

“The younger child, a ten year old, was rescued from a place that didn’t believe in her so much, that she suffered from neglect because the people that were entrusted to protect her allowed their son who was nearly five years older than her to do awful things to her.”

“What, did he hit her?”

“Well, no, but what he did do, would be considerably, arguably, worse by most.”

I frowned and gritted my teeth. Who would do something even worse, not that hitting was okay, but if it was worst than that, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know what they did to the poor little one.

“What’s the baby’s name?” I asked.

“Well, she’s far from a baby,” the woman told me as though she thought I was somehow unable to distinguish a two year old from a ten year old, but I didn’t see any point in getting on with that fight. My purpose here, was to collect my two babies, and to finally take my own daughters home with me. She had said I was getting daughters that evening before.

“So, the ten year old’s name is Michelle,” she went on after eyeing me for a moment, but seemed to have decided that me calling the ten year old a baby wasn’t the worst crime any new parent has committed. “She has a lot of trust issues and at the same time, she is pretty needy.”

I just nodded. I felt like anyone that is older than three in a system that placed you with strangers rather than with familiar people would be needy anyway; even if not all of them wanted to accept it.

I walked into an office with a large bureau in the center of the room, the typical rolling chair behind it with two formal looking comfortable chairs that faced it. To one side, there were two little girls, sitting at a table, somewhat quiet, though I had the distinct impression that they had been whispering moments before the door opened.

The lady was still talking to me, as though it didn’t matter, and that the children in the office were in on what she was sharing with me already.

“Michelle’s mother was less than ideal, but the system had given her another chance, and she was taken away from her again just last month.”

I frowned. “So… I’m going to be having a parent coming around that gets visitation, but is less than ideal for the girl?”

“No,” the woman said. “She has lost visitation rights when she was caught a couple months ago using her daughter to commit crimes for her.”

I frowned.

“Michelle, honey, will you come over here? I have someone I’d like you to meet,” Sharon addressed the little girl with brown hair that had a light reddish glow to it. Her face had a few cute little spots particularly by the nose that I just adored, and she had amber brown eyes. The little one wore a green top that was quite dirty and stained, and as she approached us, I could smell that it seemed she had not taken a bath in days.

Her little legs were covered by a pair of purple pants that had holes in them, and they were quite as stained and dirty as the top, if not worse. What was worse, as I looked out the window into the winter day, and was easily reminded that it was snowing, I sort of wondered where her socks were as she did have on some shoes, but those shoes did not look like they were meant for winter. The tops of her feet were exposed, and they seemed to have blisters on them, as well. The shoes also definitely had seen better days.

I smiled upon seeing Michelle come over and show me a picture she had colored. It was actually a really nice one, and I wondered if I knew children at all, or if maybe she had some talent.

The child smiled back at me, and in her hands, was a picture of a nice little house and a nice little yard with a large bonfire next to it. Trailing out of the fire, was a length of something that I supposed at first was a snake; for I had my attention mostly on the little cutie that held it.

“Those are belts,” she seemed to guess that I had would not get that they were belts rather than snakes from the first moment of looking at the colorful picture.

“Why are the belts burning?” I asked her.

“Because that girl doesn’t like belts,” the little one pointed at the other child who had been at the little round table with her. “There’s wire hangers in the fire, too, but I decided not to show one because that older girl told me that she didn’t think that wire hangers would burn up like belts.”

I frowned as I turned to the dark blond girl who looked a little fuller in weight, as well as a little taller because of course the other little one I was getting was supposed to be thirteen years of age. Even if she was to be thirteen, I wasn’t sure if the ten year old was tall for a child her age, or if the thirteen year old was short, but the height difference between them was not as extreme as I thought it would be.

I smiled over at the little teenager, and she narrowed her eyes at me for a moment, but as I continued to just smile at her, she dropped her brown eyes to her lap, and I thought I saw a small smirk on her face as it lit up for just a moment before she forced herself to frown again.

“That one is Samantha,” Sharon told me as I looked at the baby with a brown shirt that had long thick sleeves, and a pair of jeans that had no holes at all, her panties and lower stomach was covered perfectly by her jeans top, even to the point that when she scooted out and started to walk towards us, I didn’t see the pants pull down or the shirt pull up showing any of her panty at all. I mean, that could mean she was just more decent than most girls took care to be, but somehow, by the way it looked as I looked back at Mrs. Rhimes, I felt that there was going to be a lot more to it than that, perhaps even the reason she hated belts.

“That child has been in the system since she was around four,” the lady told me. “And she had never been adopted because almost every person she has ever been tried with had returned her within six months telling us she was too much. This last family she was with lasted the longest, nearly a year with her, but in the end, they really should not have had the opportunity to even have a child.”

I frowned. “Did they...?” I grew a little worried about what could have happened to her.

Sharon nodded. “They hit her regularly most of the time, it turns out, with wire hangers, but they also used the backs of shoes, belts, and just a couple of nights ago, when she was taken away from them, a garden hose.”

I felt tears run to my eyes. “They hit her with a garden hose, and with… with…,” I couldn’t get the words out.

“...With anything that they thought would hurt her,” Sharon concluded my thoughts.

“Why on earth?” I asked without meaning to. I mean, sure, I wondered that, but I didn’t expect anyone to have a logical answer for that kind of behavior towards a child. Children are not punching bags!

“Because I’m bad,” I heard someone whisper. The whisper in the air was so gentle and soft as it seemed to linger, it was if someone took a strand of honey, that barely hung together, as if anymore pulling would break it in half, and the echo of it tortured my mind.

“No one is THAT bad,” I told her. “I don’t care what they think you did, or what you think you did,” I felt my lip quiver as I spoke to her. “No child deserves to be hit with a garden hose, a hanger, or a shoe. Those are not natural, even for someone that believes in spanking a child.”

She just looked down for a couple of minutes.

Frowning, I rubbed her arm as I held her close to me trying to hug her.

“She does have some social issues,” Sharon told me seriously as I looked down collecting myself from what I had just heard the child say. “She lies, she steals, and she sometimes bullies little kids.”

I looked up again, and then to the thirteen year old, that even while I was sitting, it felt like she was barely a head over my shoulder. “Do you like to steal?” I asked her though I was not accusing her, but just trying to give her a chance to deny it.

Samantha actually just shrugged. “Sometimes,” she mumbled. “Well, Sometimes...? Sometimes, the only way you get to eat, is if you steal.”

Michelle looked up at me from the other side, for I had each of them at each side of me as we got to understand each other. The little Michelle was nodding. “My mom made me steal from people so we could eat sometimes. The police caught me the last time, and so I got put with that other people, and now, I’m in jail.”

“Honey, do you think this place is jail?” I asked her.

Michelle nodded.

I looked over at Mrs. Rhines.

“I told you, her mother made her do crimes, and that’s one of the reasons she has lost visitation rights to see her. She was warned a couple of years before about doing that to her daughter, but the child was inside someone’s house, who let her in to use the bathroom, and they found out she tried to take money from them, and they called the police instead of her mother, who seemed to have run away.”

I shook my head. By now, with both of the girls right next to me for a few moments now, I realized that one or maybe both of them smelled like they hadn’t bathed in a couple of days.

“So, both girls have been stealing, lying, and the older one hits little kids,” Mrs. Rhimes summed it all up for me as she passed me their folders. “Now, I know that they are not ideal kids for anyone, but honestly, given you are forty-seven years of age, have no wife or woman in your life, and that you are not exactly middle class, you are lucky that you were even approved as quickly as you were.”

I frowned but I knew that I’d be judged a little bit more than most, especially since I wanted girls to spoil instead of a boy.

“But you were approved, so while these are the first girls that we have available for you, they are not the best you can get if you want children a little better behaved.”

“And what will happen to these two angels if I don’t take them?” I asked.

“The elder one will likely continue to be put in temporary homes until she gets too big for that, and then she will live a couple of years in a halfway house, and finally age out of the system….”

“With no one really loving her?” I asked.

The lady nodded and I saw her face go taut as though there was as much disgust to her about that idea as I felt the pit in my stomach telling me that I could not even think about letting that happen.

“And the little one?”

“She’s still ten. If she turns herself around and stops stealing and lying, she might have a chance, but with what she’s learned….”

“That’s just as unlikely, and she’ll end up the same way as the elder child?”

The woman nodded.

“You know what, I understand what it is like to have no one believe in you.”

The woman now looked at me as if she wondered if I was comparing what I’ve seen or experienced to these children. I explained a little bit.

“I wanted to have a nice little family complete with a wife and children of our own, but life doesn’t always give us what we want, but in the end, if we try to believe in ourselves enough, life will give us what we need.”

The lady looked at me sideways, but I didn’t want to go into the ugly divorce where Angela had taken our child with her and without even asking for child support, just disappeared.

“I don’t care what you believe, I want both of these little angels,” I told her.

Mrs. Rhimes nodded and under her breath I heard her whisper. “I hope you last longer than a year.”

I just tried to ignore what I thought I heard, and I grabbed both my little children around the waist, and even though the thirteen year old was a little big for it, and might even fight it, I pulled them into my lap anyway and hugged them. I heard the teenager suck in air as I pulled gently at her shoulder to get her in my lap, though at first I had not known which it was.

I turned them both to face me, to see if I could decide which it was.

The elder child had a look on her face, and she flinched her shoulder from me. I whispered to her. “Does it hurt, sweetie?”

The child narrowed her eyes at me for a moment, but as I continued to stare my own blue emotion softened eyes at her, she eventually dropped her cold stare and nodded a little.

“Is it inappropriate for me to see what damage they did to my child?” I asked Mrs. Rhines. “I’d rather look here, in front of another woman in front of her, so she and the younger one don’t get scared.”

“You mean you want to look at her naked?” the motherly woman sounded a little surprised.

“She just whispered out that she is still hurt, Mrs. Rhimes. You said she had been beaten a couple of days ago. Even if she was beaten a lot, it feels weird to me that she still hurts from whatever happened to her, and I am going to look one way or another because I’m worried about her. I figured if I looked at her while she is in the safety of another woman watching, she’d be a lot less scared, but if I have to, I’ll just look at her privately.”

“Well, that’s hardly something a first time parent normally says when they are adopting.”

“Just because they don’t say it,” I let it trail off wondering if I was being strange. “Look, I don’t know what being a father is like. I just know, I care if the kids are hurt, and she really seemed to try to bite her tongue the best she could, but she flinched, and she hurts.”

“We do have photos,” Mrs. Rhimes told me.

“I’m sorry, but I have a feeling that photos are not really going to do justice to what I need to know about my new children,” I told her. “I mean…, it’s not weird for a parent to worry if they think their child is hurt, is it?”

“I suppose you are right. I know I still look at my high school daughter’s owies, if she complains too much about an injury that a moment ago looked innocent.”

Michelle shivered a little bit though, and I held her to me. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“You gonna put your hand in my pants,” she told me shaking.

“Put my hand in your pants?”

“Yeah. I don’t like that.”

“Honey, I’m just going to see if you have owies, and Mrs. Rhimes is here. She is going to make sure it is safe. I bet she wouldn’t let me take you home with me if she thinks I’m unsafe.”

Michelle looked at the nice social worker, and then back at me. “Okay. But your hands stay out of my panties, both of you,” she said with a shiver.

I felt water in my eyes. I felt a tug at my heart. I hoped she was not eluding to what it seemed she was.

Samantha, the elder child looked at me for a minute, and I saw the dismissive, teenage attitude in her eyes. I could tell she wanted to say, “Loser! I don’t have to do this. You’re just being gross,” or maybe she had other even harsher words for me, but you know, when you take care of a kid, you shouldn’t mind what they think of you at that one moment, but rather, you should do what you know is right, and knowing if my children are hurt is more right than worrying about their modesty.

Samantha sighed, and she pulled up her shirt and off it went, revealing so many thin lashes that looked like little cuts, some of which did break the skin. Along with those, there were other broader lashes that left her skin darker in some areas, and then there was the heavier beatings all over her back, and then up and down her things, and eventually, without me saying anything, she took off her training bra and even pulled down her panties.

I had seen enough.

“You said that I will get the foster money in about fifteen days?” I asked the woman.

“Yes?”

“Is there anyway I can get some of it early, or maybe even just a recommendation for a doctor that will look at her before then?”

“We did take her to see a doctor about these bruises,” Sharon told me.

“Right…,” I said drawing out my reply trying to buy some time to think on how to respond in a way that was not accusing them of neglect, but wanting to point out that the hose hit her in very scary places that might have done more damage on the inside.

“Look,” the red headed woman looked at me as she nodded to Samantha that she could pull up her pants and put her shirt back on. “The doctor checked for broken bones and her heart and lungs are working just fine.”

I sighed. “She was hit more around her lower abdomen than anywhere else. I’m glad she doesn’t have broken bones, a punctured heart or lungs or whatever, but…,” and I pulled little Samantha back towards me, pulled her jeans back down to show the woman her back, her side, and where the welt disappeared into where she still had her panties up. I didn’t need to show her privates again. “She might not be okay just because her bruises will heal.”

“Look, we did check her over, and the file on my desk has her medical file in it, and the one for Michelle has hers, as well.”

“So… you are saying I’m not allowed to take her to see a doctor anyway, just to make sure?”

“No, actually, I’m kind of glad you are insistent on that. I’m just trying to tell you that you’ll have to wait for the money and the insurance process to change and put them in your name.”

I sighed. “Alright. Let’s see Michelle then.”

One thing I said nothing about, but that I had noticed about poor little Samantha, was her panties had some stains in them, but it was probably because she didn’t wipe well. It probably wouldn’t take that much to teach her to wipe better and let her know the importance of it, but I’d do that later, after she was more comfortable with me.

Michelle wasn’t really bruised much more than you’d expect from a healthy child playing around, so I was glad of that, but I did notice that she shook a lot when we had her pants down, even though I saw no reason to pull the squirming watery eyed child’s panties down. Her hands were securely on each side, keeping them in place, and she shook, as though she was ready to fight us tooth and nail if she had to.

“Her mother did…?” I started to ask Mrs. Rhines.

“No. Her mother has been out of the picture for a couple of months. Another bad situation, actually. In her case, the fostering family had a boy about five years older than her that was doing stuff to her.”

That was enough. The children had been exposed enough and scared enough. I learned what I needed, so I intended to sent the children out of the office while I signed the papers that probably went into further details about what happened to them both.

“Alright, babies,” I told them both. “While Mrs. Rhimes and I finish signing the paper work so I can take you to your new home, maybe you should go use the toilet and then get anything you want to bring with you.”

Michelle looked up at Mrs. Rhimes, and when she nodded at her, the little ten year old was off like a flash, but Samantha hung back for a moment, and stared intently at me.

I couldn’t help but look back up at her.

“No one ever checked for bruises before,” she whispered at me.

I smiled. “Well, I hope you take this as a sign that things are going to be different and hopefully better.”

“Well, um… you saw, right?”

“That you were hurt, yes, baby.”

“No, I mean, that… um… I… the reason I got hit the other night.”

“This happened the other night?” I asked her.

“The hose beating did.”

“Well, no, sweetheart, I didn’t notice a good reason to hit you with the garden hose. Do you want to tell me what I should have noticed?”

“You didn’t see that I pooped my panties?”

I frowned and looked down. “I… I did see, but I thought it was something else, baby.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I was bad, so….”

I grabbed her around her waist, and I sat her in my lap. “Bad?” I asked.

“Because I pooped my pants…,” I could see tears starting to threaten appearance through her moistened eyes.

“Baby, even if you did that kind of thing on purpose, and I highly doubt it given how embarrassed you were to even show us, and how much you are shaking to tell me about it, even if it was on purpose, it is no reason to beat a child with a hose.”

She looked into my eyes, as if she was trying to read me. I just stared blankly back at her, not really sure how to explain to a child that has been abused as much as she has, that there is never a situation where it is okay to beat a child like this.

“Samantha, go get your stuff, baby. I’m taking you home along with Michelle. You are my child, now, sweetheart.”

“You… are you still taking me, even if I poop my pants all the time in the car?”

I rubbed her back. “First of all, Yes, even if you poop your pants all the time, I’m taking you home. And if you are just pooping in the car and not really anywhere else, then it sounds like to me, that I need to learn what is causing it, so I can do something differently.”

She stared at me for a few more seconds, and then she said, “I steal.”

“Well, again, yes, I’m taking you even if you steal stuff. I’ll have to keep an eye on you for a while if that is true, but again, if you are admitting it, then it sounds like I need to find out why, and what I can do differently that will help you not do it anymore.”

“It’s not other people’s fault if I’m doing bad stuff.”

“Normally,” agreeing with her, I nodded my head as I responded. “I would agree with you. However, I’m not sure of what was done to you that made you feel like you had to steal or go to the bathroom on yourself. It’s not most teenagers that would go to the bathroom on themselves even if they are mad at someone. Something that bothers you caused this, sweetheart.”

She looked at me for a moment longer, but finally, she turned and walked off to go get her stuff and to hopefully use the toilet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Babytom948]

This one gonna be odd,lol

[parkintochter]

Always nice to see a new story from you

[Ishigreensa]

5 hours ago, Babytom948 said:

This one gonna be odd,lol

I think most of the stories are told from the point of view of the baby, so yes, this one will look out of sorts, but at the same time, the intention is that this guy is truly trying to learn to be a father, and these two girls... well, you will see....

4 hours ago, parkintochter said:

Always nice to see a new story from you

Thank you as always for your encouragement.

[Ishigreensa]

Chapter Two

Taking Them Home

After finishing some paperwork and making sure all my ducks were in a row, Mrs. Rhimes brought me back out of the office, past a few children playing on the floor or watching television, and up some stairs towards the bedrooms. The more I saw of this place, the more it made me feel a bit depressed for the children that had to stay here.

Even as I walked up the steps, and even the mood of the place, the conditions I was getting the children, and even learning that at least one of them acknowledges that she steals, I still could not be pulled out of the dream that was coming true, and I was finally allowed to meet my own children! Funny way as that may have been to others to hear me speak of this event, that is exactly as I still think of it. I was meeting my own children. There was never a question that these were my girls, it was that I was just now meeting them.

I saw the green bare walls as I climbed the wood stairs that creaked slightly under my feet.

I thought about the need to have the children seen by a doctor sooner than later, I thought about what the children had been through, and wondered what I needed to do to help them feel safe while still making sure they knew that there would still be rules. I wondered when I should introduce the rules of their new home.

“Samantha has been in the system since she was four, and she has yet to find anyone that will last even a year with her.”

That one phrase kept creeping into my mind as I came to the doorway that led into a bedroom that was fairly spacious even though it had six single beds in it. Michelle was at one of the beds, looking through a trash bag as she sat on her bed.

Approaching, worried about the fact that Samantha had not even lasted a year in any home until now, and worried about all the bruising on her body and what little Michelle had to be going through given that her own mother abandoned her in someone’s house a while back just so she’d not get caught by the police, I noticed that her bed, which only had the sheets on it at the moment, was stained all over with yellow and orange that could not be missed as wetting the bed stains.

The little one looked up at me as she was looking through the bag.

“Are those your clothes?” I asked her.

She nodded looking up at me, and I reached for her bag. “May I see?”

Michelle looked at the floor, but she did push the opening of the bag towards me.

I pulled the bag towards me. It was not really that full, and I knew I could easily lift it, but it was a bit full for a child of ten. Michelle would be lucky to be able to lift it off the floor. As I looked inside, the opening now facing me, I nearly gagged at the smells from in it.

“Are these your dirty clothes or your clean ones?” I looked at Michelle, tears starting to sting my eyes as a defense against the smell.

The little one just shrugged at me.

I turned to look at Mrs. Rhimes, but she wasn’t standing there. It seemed she had to go talk to someone else or something. Not believing this, I started to pull things out of her little trash bag of clothes to see if I could tell if anything was clean in there. The first thing I pulled out was a wet shirt that smelled like it was trapped in a bag of peed in clothes for a while. It also had a large pee stain on the back of it, much like the sheets on her bed.

The little one, just hung her curly little head, looking at the floor as I rummaged in her clothes bag. I pulled out stained clothing after stain clothing, and many of them were not only shaded a yellow stain color, and not from only one stain, but multiple wettings, but they were also quite full of holes.

“Sweetheart, do any of these clothes have any significant meaning for you?” I asked the little girl as I rummaged and pulled out ruined thing after ruined thing and dropping it to the floor, many of these things damp from obviously being mixed in with recently wet clothes.

Michelle, still looking down, shook her head side to side.

“Then we’ll just leave this bag, sweetheart. I’m just going to get you some stuff at the store on our way home.”

She looked up at me with bright lit eyes, and I saw her thumb go into her mouth.

“Do you have any toys you want to take with us?”

She reached across her bed and picked up the dingy stained stuffed bear, that was not like a traditional “Teddy Bear,” but was black, with real Bear-like markings on its face, and though the legs were all floppy, they were all at a length that it looked like the toy was meant to be played with as if it were a true bear, but with the floppy four limbs, it could just as easily cuddle with her, and at the moment, she did sit it against her trying to grasp its legs under her elbows wrapped around her, and with her free hand that was not in her mouth, she held its top paws around her neck.

Honestly, the toy was as stained as her clothes, it smelled bad, and it had a couple of holes in it where I was sure it was losing some of its stuffing, and I really would not have taken it, but the little baby was holding tightly as she looked up at me with moist eyes, and I just didn’t have the heart to take it away from her.

“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go see what your big sister is doing.”

Michelle looked up at me. “I don’t have a big sister.”

“No, maybe you didn’t,” I told her. “But you were there in the office in the beginning. I’m taking you both. You don’t have to be blood to be family, sweetheart.”

Michelle, looked down. “So… um… Sammy is my sister now?”

“That’s right, sweetheart.”

We walked down the hall until I came to the room where the thirteen year old was in another room with six beds, and hers was further into the room next to the window. She had something on her bed, and was hiding it with her body so that from the door, it was hard to see what she was doing.

I walked up behind her, and when I was a few steps from her, I made myself known.

“Are you getting things you wanted to take with you?” I asked her.

She bent her body over the bag on her bed, and closed the top with both of her hands.

I walked up next to her, holding Michelle against my side since both her hand were occupied, one in her mouth, and one on her bear.

“What are you scared of?” I asked Samantha as I reached out for her hands that were tightly grasping the bag closed.

“No… nothing?” she shook and her voice was soft and vibrated from shaking.

“Let me see,” I looked at her until she turned her head and looked up at me with her moist scared eyes. “Whatever I find in there, we can talk about it, sweetheart.”

The child nodded, her legs shaking. She still kept the top of the bag closed though, and she looked down back at the bag she was trying to stop anyone from looking in. There was no mistaking that she didn’t want anyone to see inside the bag. She had already told me that she has been crapping her pants, so I doubted she was trying to hide stained panties. I felt like she was trying to hide something even worse, though for the moment, I couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing for a thirteen year old girl to have to try to hide.

Eventually, letting go of Michelle for the moment, and using both my hands, I gently moved her fingers while looking at her face the whole time, and I whispered. “Whatever is in the bag, we can talk about it, sweetie.” That was all I could think to say, but with as much soft tenderness as I could. She told me that she steals stuff, and her record says it, and that Mrs. Rhimes said she does it. She might be taking stuff she’s not supposed to.

Her hands eventually loosened and fell away from the bag as I just held her hands gently, and had stopped trying to pry at her fingers. It was better if she willingly let me look than it was if I forced it, and the more she stood there, her hands still on the bag, the more I realized that truth, so… her hands did loosen as I stopped messing with her fingers, and just cupped her hands in my own.

“I… I was stealing,” she admitted as she dropped her hands.

“Stealing? From a place that barely has anything to get from it?” I asked her a little surprised.

“Well, it’s just stuff I need. I wasn’t being a pig about it, but I kind of need….” and she trailed off as I saw her cheeks blush a little.

I finally opened her bag, and the smells from it were not as bad as the smells from Michelle’s. The girl seemed to at least wash out any clothes with water before she put them in with her other things, but the fact is, I could tell from the top clothes alone, that there were still stained, torn, ruined clothes in this bag. I didn’t even think about the little box on top of the clothes as I dug around trying find what she was hiding that she had stolen.

I sighed as I came up with nothing that seemed to be of any value, and I looked up at her. “What are you stealing, sweetheart?”

Samantha pulled the small box out that was on top, as if she didn’t even try to hide it, and she opened it, and I saw three flat pads in it, and as I saw them, I noticed that she blushed.

“You… you were scared of not having that?” I asked her.

She nodded. “I don’t want to ruin another home because of being dirty,” she whimpered through her tears.

“Being dirty?” I asked her.

“Yeah. I was beaten and taken back to the home the next day when… when…,” and she fell silent unable to tell me what happened, but seeing that stealing these pads of all things was the only thing she truly wanted to take from this place, and by the fact she eluded to being dirty, I started to add up two and two.

“Well, how about you put these back,” I told her. “And when we go to the store because both you children need decent clothes, how about we buy you a couple of boxes of these things? I’ll even let you go pay for it in a different aisle by yourself if you are embarrassed, but you have to stay next to me while we are looking around since you’ve told me you have a habit of stealing.”

She nodded. “I… I can do that.”

“Do you need anything else in that bag?” I asked her.

“Well, they are clothes,” she reminded me. “I… I need clothes.”

“I told you, I’m going to buy you some better things. Most of what I’ve seen are ruined in there, baby. If you have something special, even if it’s ruined, I will take it for you, but most of those things are garbage, baby.”

She looked at me. “You… you…,” and I started to see her tear up a bit. “You’re gonna… get me… new… um… better clothes?”

I nodded at her. “They won’t be designer or anything because I’m not rich, sweetheart, but I did save money to get you both clothes. I’ve heard horror stories about most of the children having to wear things until they fall apart.”

Samantha suddenly hugged me of her own will, and she whispered. “I’ll never have to steal again, will I?”

“Have to?” I asked her.

She just looked down while she kept hugging me.

“No, baby. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you have what you need. You won’t always get what you want, but you’ll always have clothes, food, and some toys.”

She hugged me tighter. “Thank you!”

We left her bag of trash next to her bed, and the only things she took were a book, a notebook with the words “Dear AllIsee” written on the front, and a dingy but much less stained shoulder wrap, something like a knitted scarf or shoulder sweater? I don’t really know all the women terms for things like that.

I directed the girls to the bathroom, where we put the “stolen pads” back in their original box, and then looking at the toilet, I glanced at both girls wondering if they needed to use it. I decided to set the example.

“If you two will go out, and close the door and wait by it, I want to use this toilet.”

They left the bathroom and when I came out, they were both happy to see me and hugged me. I loitered there for a moment to give them a chance to speak up, but neither one did, and another child beat them in, so, with a sigh, I took one hand from each child, and started to walk them down and out of this nightmare.

[Drownedinp]

I love this story so far. Usually I'm the one writing about adoption.

[Ishigreensa]

3 hours ago, Drownedinp said:

I love this story so far. Usually I'm the one writing about adoption.

You like to write about adoption?  Are you usually writing from the child's point of view, the parent adopting, both, or another?  What is your favorite story you have on the site about adoption?  I'm glad you are liking the story.  I am now working on Chapter Three.

[Drownedinp]

One of my best stories about adoption is Glory Be. The stories are written from Childs and parents point of view. It is also one of my long stories.

[parkintochter]

Thanks for the new chapters. You write like the wind

[Ishigreensa]

Chapter Three

Not Foster Children?

As I opened the back door, keeping the hand of Michelle for a moment as I let Samantha get in, I looked down at Michelle. “Stay here a minute,” I told her so I could reach in and make sure my little Samantha had her seat belt secure the way it was meant to be, and because I feared she might be short for her age, I made sure the shoulder strap went behind her instead of cutting into her neck.

“I know how a seat belt works,” the little teen looked up at me as though I was treating her like a toddler or something.

“Well, I should know that,” I told her. “But, you are my first ever child, I’ve ever put in a car. Can’t you just please, you know, let me have this, just for a few times?”

“Fine,” Samantha said though she was kind of smiling a little strangely the way she said fine, as though, she wasn’t really as teenager-like attitude-driven impatient by the request as you’d have expected.

I smiled at her and kissing her head, right where here blond hair was just above and as I did, I picked up that she still smelled bad, but I knew from having just checked her not too long ago, that what I was smelling was not a potty accident. I wondered if the place that they were at even made sure the kids got baths, though if I were to be honest, there were eight rooms upstairs, and if every room had six beds, then that was almost fifty children, and from what I could tell, there were no more than three adults around. Maybe it was hard to check on each child.

I took Michelle around to the other side, and I put her in the car and fixed her car seat for her.

She looked up at me with the same expression that Samantha had when Samantha told me that she knew how seat belts worked, but as I smiled at her, she also softened her look at me and then nodded her head as she then turned to her black bear.

“Honey Paw,” I had heard Little Michelle start to address her bear as she plopped it in her lap facing her, and she started to whisper to it.

Far from judging her, I saw that Samantha already had her notebook open, the one that had the “Dear AllISee” written on the front. She didn’t seem like she was behind her peers when I was talking to her, so I wondered why she crammed “All I See” together like that, especially when the Dear before it was separated by quite a space. I decided not to address that though, and just got in the front. Our first stop had to be to get these children some decent clothes, but no, even before that, I promised Samantha some pads, and I wanted to make sure knew she could trust me, so, no, the first stop had to be a drugstore.

I started to look around for one, as the older little one was writing or drawing in her book, and the younger child was still talking to Honey Paw, her bear.

“The man seems nice enough…,” I heard little snippets of Michelle’s conversation with Honey Paw. “But he threw all my clothes away again. I can’t blame him, but I hope he does get me something right away.”

I felt a tear run down my cheek. Didn’t she hear me, that I was going to get her clothes right away?

We came upon a drugstore, and I turned off the car, and both the children already had their belts off of them when I looked in back. I frowned at them, and I could see Michelle shake a little bit, and Samantha just looked down.

“You’re not in trouble,” I told the children who looked just as I’d imagine they might look if I was about to scold them for something. “This was my fault. I didn’t tell you what I expected, so yes, I am a little worried you took your seat belts off too fast, but I should have told you.”

Both of the children looked up at me as I told them that it wasn’t their bad this time.

“Next time, will you please make sure I’ve either turned off the car, if I’m getting out too, or at least until I tell you that you can take off your seat belts?” I looked more at the thirteen year old because she was the elder one, and whatever she decided to do here, I was sure the little one would follow suit.

“Well, why?” Samantha asked and looked down. “I mean, we stopped in a parking space….”

I frowned and thought a moment about what I could do to convince her. “Sweetheart, you are my little girl now,” I told her.

“I know,” she started to cut me off.

Holding up a hand, I continued, and she closed her mouth to listen. “I know that you are a big kid, and that you can use reason to predict things to come. But, sometimes, people are not predictable,” I said thinking carefully about how to word it so she knew I didn’t think she was dumb. “Sometimes, I remember I didn’t do something I meant to, or I think I have to correct the car because I don’t think I parked it straight enough. Sometimes, I’m not done just because I’ve stopped the car for a moment. The only way to be sure I’m done, is if I turn the key off.”

“Well, you also have to move the gear to park,” Samantha wisely told me.

“Yes, that is true, however, there are times that I do that, and then realized I didn’t park right and move it back to reverse. Besides, can you really see from back there if I put it in reverse or in park?”

Samantha moved a little to the front, and now, seeing what I meant as she was sitting right behind me so had no view of the driver’s gauges shook her head. “I guess not.”

“Please let me keep you safe,” I told her. “I might sound strict, but I’m a new parent, and I want to make sure you and little Michelle are safe.”

Samantha sighed and nodded. “Alright, I’ll try to wait until you turn off the car,” she sighed towards the end through her words.

“Good little lady,” I smiled at her causing her to blush a little.

I noticed that even as I went around to get Michelle out, that Samantha waited in the car this time, and she didn’t move until I came over to her to open her door. I started to ask her about it. “You didn’t open your car door, honey?”

“I was waiting on you in case you had more rules. I don’t want to mess this up. You seem kind of nice, and you explain all your rules. I don’t think you need all your rules, but at least you are nice and explain them.”

I smiled and reached in to hug her.

“Well, maybe I don’t, and in time, I’ll learn what rules I don’t need, sweetheart. Just humor me until I figure it out, okay?”

She nodded.

“The car was safely off, and I was getting Michelle out, so unless there is some reason you need to stay in the car, you can certainly get out if I’m getting out from now on. I’m not going to park in a place where it would be dangerous for you kids to get out unless I tell you so, okay?”

Samantha nodded. “Plus, I can see if my side is on the road side?”

I nodded. “As long as the moving cars are far enough away from your door that you know you can open it fully if you have to, and there would be no chance of it being hit.”

Samantha nodded up at me. “I understand.”

I then reached down and picked Michelle up and held her in one hand while I reached down to take Samantha’s hand.

“Are you doing this because you think parking lots are dangerous?” Samantha asked me as I reached for her hand.

“Yes, sweetheart. Not just because of cars that sometimes tear out of lots when people are in a hurry, but because in a big place like this, it is the easiest place for children to go missing.”

Samantha sighed and nodded. “So no walking off away from you in the store, then?”

I turned to her and squatted down, letting Michelle rest her bottom on my knee as I did. “Look sweetheart. I know you are a big kid, and you probably do want to look around on your own here and there. I’ll make you a deal. This time around, I do need to get you both clothes, so I need you at my side for that reason, but when I’ve found enough things for you to wear for a while, I will point out a few lanes you can hang around while I’m getting boring stuff for you, and as long as you do not leave that space whatsoever, not even to use the bathroom, I will be okay with you looking there, and you will have to watch Michelle because she is now your little sister.”

“Not even to use the bathroom?” Samantha confirmed with me.

“No, baby, not even to use the bathroom. You wait until I come and get you and then you tell me where you need to go. I want to know I can find you at anytime when we are in big places like this, okay?”

Samantha nodded at me. “But this is just a drug store,” and I smiled.

“Oh, right, you are. Of course. I guess I was getting ahead of myself, because we are headed to get you girls some clothes and toys, too. So, yeah, in here, you can go get some candy if you want, and here…,” and I gave her five dollars. “You and Michelle pick out one candy you want, go pay for it, and wait at the front of the store for me. I’m going to get you your pads, sweetheart.”

“Um… I can do that.”

“No. I think I want you to watch Michelle, baby. You’ll understand later why not this time.”

Samantha nodded and when we went inside, I pointed at the candy aisle. “I’ll meet you at the front of the store in no more than ten minutes, okay?”

“No going anywhere but the candy aisle and the front, right?” Samantha asked me again.

“Sammy? Are you trying to tell me something?” I wondered if she was trying to ask me to use the toilet but was too embarrassed to say the words.

“No,” she shrugged. “I just want to understand your rules. Even if Michelle tells me she’s going to wet herself, no bathroom?”

I looked down at Michelle and took her hand. “Do you want to use the toilet, honey?”

“No,” she smiled up at me.

“Alright, well, yeah, since you are both saying you don’t need to go, then there is no reason to go to one. If you have an emergency, I won’t think bad of you, but your safety is more important than a pair of dry pants, okay?”

They both nodded at me.

I took the little ones to the candy area, and then I pointed out the front of the store. “These two places are where I will expect to find you when I’m done,” I told them. “If you are on the way to the front of the store when I’m done, then by the time I’m done paying for what I’m getting, then you should both at least be in line to pay for your candy. Okay?”

They nodded at me.

It might have been a little silly to anyone else, what I was doing, but then I was a new dad that had some very troubling little angels on my hands. One of them was a teenager, and obviously was worried about her body even though when I checked her just now, I didn’t see any indication that she needed to worry about certain things at the moment. Still, I had to think of her, so if she was worried about it, then I needed to show her that I was on it. It was one way I could show her that she could trust me. The other thing that made me not want to force the kids to come with me to get the teenager her things, was that both of their beds were wet, so they obviously needed something that would mortify either one of them if someone realized who they were for, so I decided that while I was there, I was going to get them both diapers that they could pull up and down like panties, and that meant, that I needed to be discreet as possible about it if I didn’t want to mortify them.

I walked quickly to the children’s sleeping area, and looked around there until I found some stuff I thought would fit my little princesses. And then I went to the young women’s area right after, so they could put those things in on top, so that the girls, if they saw the cart briefly, might not realize what I had actually gotten at the moment.

I was a little nervous as I pushed the cart towards the candy aisle, making sure the girls had gone from there before going to the front. They were children. Who know if they would lose track of time, and it was my job as their parent to look out for them, so of course, even though I didn’t want them to see the diapers right away, I knew that making sure they were waiting for me at the front was my responsibility more than it was theirs.

I sighed when I came up to the cashier, and I saw my little ones standing at the front with their candy in their hands.

“Go on outside, so you can eat your candy,” I told them before anything was taken out of the cart. “I’ll be out in a moment, and we can go to the car together.”

Samantha, being a curious older teen, and honestly, with her having to wear what I was getting so I couldn’t actually blame her, glanced into the cart.

“What I got you will be fine,” I told her and grabbed her hands. “If you don’t like it after the first time of using it, we can come back and get another one later. Just take your sister outside.”

Samantha nodded and walked out the store with her sister while I was paying for the things I got them.

I knew I was being sneaky, and a part of me felt guilty that I had not told them what I was really intending to get them that I had to be sneaky about, but I really didn’t want emotional big kids crying about being too old for diapers.

I settled my little children into the car first, starting with the little one.

“Michelle, sweetheart, can you come and climb into the car for me? Samantha, instead of snooping around the cart, would you please to the other side to help me buckle your sister in?”

Would it work? I breathed in relief as Samantha seemed to do what I said without an argument, and I even let her actually buckle Michelle, pretending I couldn’t get the buckle to reach a couple of times at first.

Samantha was next, and once she was in her seat buckled in so I was able to sneak the pull ups in the back with the young lady pads in the front in case Samantha got a peek later at the trunk, I finally got in the front to drive them to Kmart.

At Kmart

I looked back when I parked at Kmart, before turning off my car this time, to see if the children remembered the rule. I saw briefly before I turned my head completely, that Samantha had reached out her hand to Michelle, so when I was looking at them both, they were sitting with their lap belts still on.

I reached over and turning off the engine, but eyes still on the children, they looked up at me, but after a moment, Samantha started to undo her buckle. “You said when you turn the engine off?” she asked as she did so.

“Very good,” I emphasized good as I said it with a wide toothy smile.

The teenager rolled her eyes at me, so obviously, she thought that I wasn’t exactly addressing her like a teenager. Well, I’d have to work both on connecting with her, and her attitude when she doesn’t like something, but that was a battle for another time.

“This parking lot is bigger,” I told the girls. “So I want you to hold my hand until we are inside the store, and then I want you to stay within eyesight until I let you go to the toy area, understand?”

Michelle nodded with a big smile. Samantha just looked down and said “Yeah… yeah, okay,” in a bored sort of whatever you want kind of way.

I walked over and as Samantha got out of the car, I caught up to her wanting to have beaten her, but she was clearly out of the car before I got around to her. I did tell her that if were in a parking lot, it was okay to get out on her own, so I had no reason to yell at her, but I did feel like I missed a change. Oh well, she seemed comfortable, and so I just took her hand and walked back around to Michelle’s side, and helped her out.

As I got the little one out, I lifted her under her bottom, but it was still dry as was the car seat. I looked over where Samantha had been sitting and her seat was dry too. I was told multiple times that these girls have trouble with getting to the toilet, so of course, I thought I had to be watchful. I didn’t want them to feel alone or have moments of fear of not knowing what would happen when it eventually happened. Samantha had been beaten severely for whatever reasons people thought they had, and Michelle…, I don’t know all that happened to her, but it was alarming that she was scared we were going to do touch her in an uncomfortable way when I checked her for bruising.

After I put Michelle on her feet outside the car, I bent down to the little ladies.

“You know,” I looked into the little one’s eyes, her mouth moving back and forth like she was swishing mouthwash around, “if you need to use the toilet while we are in here, and you are next to me, I do expect you to speak up.”

Michelle looked up into my eyes, her eyes a little wide, and she parted her lips, but then just looking down, nodded her head.

Samantha looked away, and I thought she shivered a little at that thought. I don’t know, but there was something about each of them, that I felt off. The teenager, she should have been more mouthy? Especially given that her file said she had a mouth on her, and that she was a troublemaker.

Michelle, I couldn’t place it, but there was something nervous or fearful about her response.

I squatted and pulled my babies closer to me, and I whispered to them. “You are good little babies,” I told them. “Whatever you’ve been told about your behavior in the past, I don’t believe all of it, okay?”

“Whatever,” Samantha showed a little more healthy teenager attitude towards me.

“Samantha,” I took her little hands and waited for her to look me in the eyes. “I mean it. As matter of fact, I’m going to send you with your little sister to look at toys without any watchful eyes on you, and I’m trusting you not to take anything without showing it to me, and putting it in the cart because we are here to buy you toys, too. There is no reason to steal, okay?”

She frowned and nodded. “I won’t.”

I smiled at her. “I know.”

Michelle grabbed a hold of my hand. “I don’t want to go to the toilet here, though.”

“Why not, honey?” I asked her.

“Because, I don’t.”

I sighed. “Well, I won’t make you, baby. But if I catch you wetting your pants, I’ll be fixing your clothes for you and putting something on you that might not be something a big girl wears….”

“Do you mean diapers?” she looked up at me.

“You’re pretty clever, aren’t you? Yes, sweetheart, if you can’t be trusted to keep your pants dry in the daytime, even if it’s because you are scared, then you need to be in diapers, sweetheart.”

She nodded. “I used to wear diapers to bed.”

Samantha frowned. “I did, too.”

I nodded at both my baby girls. “Well, let’s go get you girls some clothes and some toys, and then we’ll talk more about this later. No point in ruining a fun shopping trip. I just wanted you to be aware that you should ask me to go to the bathroom when you can, but if you are too scared, I won’t be too upset if you have an accident.”

Samantha pulled on my arm to stop me walking towards the store and to look at her.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Um… if I asked you, what is the rule about the toilet? Obviously, you are a man and I’m a teenager….”

“Well, I need to know where you are at all times,” I told her. “I’d take you towards the toilets, but I’d let you go in by yourself if you want, and I’d wait outside. If I hear a scream that is not a whiny little girl getting in trouble for something in there, then I’ll come looking to make sure you are okay.”

“Well, what if… if… um… I wasn’t allowed to speak up about that before, and if… if… I forget your rule…?”

“Are you scared to ask to go?” I asked her.

Samantha looked down.

“If you don’t mind, sweetheart, I’ll be checking on both of you regularly anyway, so I might ask you to go. Would you go then?”

Samantha nodded. “I always do what I’m supposed to.”

The papers said that Samantha was both a troublemaker and a liar, but the more she seemed to respond to me, the more I didn’t trust the papers at all. The recorder probably just took the people that had her at their word and chose not to give me Samantha’s responses. Samantha had told me at the home, that she is a liar and a thief, without any coaxing that I could tell, so she knew or thought of herself as those things, and yet, nothing she has done as yet, has really seemed troublesome, and I didn’t get the feeling she was being deceitful in anyway. Honestly, with all the bruises on her, I wondered how many places she had been in that actually hit her and made her lie about it, or maybe even brainwashed her into not realizing that she was being abused.

“Would you be okay with me actually taking you into the toilet?” asked the shaking little girl.

Samantha bobbed her head up and down as she looked at her shoes. I saw her poor of an excuse for foot cover, and I certainly had intentions of buying both these children something far better for their feet. The little one also had her fists squeezing against her sides. She looked very scared, and so I pulled her into a hug, and I whispered to her.

“Samantha, what is it, sweetheart?”

“I… I… I don’t know,” she breathed out in nervous splattering stutters.

I sighed and rubber her back. “You are scared of the toilets, aren’t you?” I wanted to get to the bottom of this before I put her in a situation that would make her panic.

She continued to look down, and I saw her shaking.

“You are,” I doubled down, wanting her to admit it.

She nodded.

“Then we won’t take you to the toilets,” I whispered to her. “Just do your best to wait until we get to the car, and if you have an accident, don’t worry, baby. That goes for both of you.”

The little ones both shivered a little though I did see Samantha’s fist relax a little bit. I wasn’t sure what was causing her such fears, but whatever it was, it had a lot to do with the toilets, at least the ones at Kmart. I knew I had to get to the bottom of that, but now, wasn’t the best time to tackle all of that.

Michelle put her thumb in her mouth as I lifted her up to carry her, and then I held Samantha’s hand. We walked across the parking lot, and into the store. I eyed the bathrooms near the little cafeteria they had there, but then I looked into Samantha’s eyes, and I felt Michelle shake a little bit, and with a sigh, I walked past it before I put Michelle down on her feet.

“Let’s get a cart,” I told the girls.

I couldn’t help but keep looking at the little ones’ butts as they walked a few steps ahead of me, pushing the cart together while I directed to them where we were going. Asking them every five minutes if they were going to go would likely just scare them, and might even irritate the teenager who had made it known she didn’t want to use the toilet here. I couldn’t really do anything about it, but I had the nagging feeling that they had not used the toilet for a really long time.

We came upon some shirts and blouses first, the easiest part of their wardrobes to get without causing any embarrassment from especially the teenager.

I motioned for them to come to me, and then I asked them a redundant question, a stupid poser for sure, but I had to make sure. “You two know how to count, right?”

I expected Samantha to roll her eyes at me, but then I almost laughed when Michelle watched the big girl, and then when she tried it, she actually used her whole head as she rolled her eyes at me.

“H...ah...um…,” I almost laughed but tried to quickly turn it into a directive so they wouldn’t pick up on that I thought the little one’s mimicry was cute. “...um… need to make sure, so answer the question, please.”

Samantha blew out through frustrated teeth “Of course, I’m not three.”

Michelle just decided to answer by using her fingers in my face as she put one up at a time and said her numbers.

I couldn’t help it when she had gotten to eight, and I did laugh. Samantha did too.

“Alright, Michelle,” I pushed her hand out of my face. “Alright. You can count!”

She looked up at me, but didn’t stop counting. “Nine… ten…” and she waved both her hands, trying to get around mine to put her hands in my face again. That was so cute!

“Well, here is why,” I told them. “I want you both to pick out five tops. There are T-shirts, button down blouses, and pullovers in this area. The teens is just across the way. I’m going to stay here by the cart so I can look and see you both. If either of you get in trouble, please call out and come running to me if you can.”

The girls nodded.

“And bite them if they try to hold me from getting away,” Michelle told me.

“I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, bite, stomp their feet, anything to throw a fuss and draw attention, sweetheart.”

Samantha frowned. “You don’t expect me to bite, do you?”

I took Samantha by her hands and looked in her eyes. “I expect you to do anything you can to protect yourself and get away from someone that scares you, baby. If that means biting, too, then bite like you are giant lion or something, honey. Nothing is more important than your safety. If I need to clear up a misunderstanding, then I will, but I’d rather have to deal with you biting an innocent person doing their job, than finding out you were scared to protect yourself and got kidnapped.”

She nodded.

I watched both of the little ones go off in their different directions looking at shirts that they liked. I saw that everything that Samantha brought back looked rather plain, and so after she brought back the fourth item, I checked the price tags on them all, and just as I suspected, these were the very cheapest things. I watched her as she brought back the fifth thing, and I checked that price tag in front of her.

The little one smiled at me, and with puppy dog eyes, seemed to plead for approval.

I shook my head and held her hand. “Hold on, sweetheart,” I told her.

When Michelle came to the cart, I held her hand and checked her things, too. Hers had varying price tags on them, something that in my mind, indicated she was not checking prices, but just getting what she wants. I made up a lie.

“Actually, babies, your aisles are starting to get confusing and it’s hard to keep an eye on you both. Let’s finish with Michelle first and we’ll go and do this all together. It will take longer, but better safe than worrying about time.”

Michelle shrugged as though what I said made sense, but when I saw Samantha, she looked down. I wasn’t sure if she believed me, or if she was looking down for another reason.

I let Michelle continue to get her things, and I purposefully showed the price tags to Samantha, trying to hint at her that the price wasn’t that important. This was Kmart, it wasn’t like anything was going to break the bank here.

Samantha looked up at me, as Michelle had a couple of shirts that were definitely on the higher end of spending.

I patted her with a caring hand and put Michelle’s clothes in the cart as she came back with another pretty shirt.

“I love this one!” I exclaimed before turning the price tag over and showing Samantha. It wasn’t the most expensive thing, but it wasn’t cheap like Samantha was getting either every time she had come back.

“I don’t understand,” Samantha finally spoke up as Michelle brought her ninth top to me, and went off to find her tenth.

I looked at Samantha who had her head tilted up at me and an inquisitive look in her watery eyes.

“Foster kids are not supposed to get nice things. We are at a real live store, and now, you are letting Michelle get this?” she pulled out the most expensive thing in the cart.

“Honey, you are not foster kids anymore.”

Samantha looked up at me her eyes narrowed. “Then, what are we?”

“Technically, you are foster kids on paper,” I told her. “But that is a temporary thing while they watch to make sure I’m going to be good to you kids. I am adopting you, and when that happens, you are not going to be in the foster system anymore. You are going to be MY girls. You ARE my girls, as far as I’m concerned. YOU spoil your kids when you can.”

She had watery tears in her eyes. “But… I’m… I’m...b…”

Before she could finish her sentence, because I thought I knew what she was going to say, I stopped her with a finger on her lips, and I looked deep into her innocent little eyes, and I smiled.

“You are beautiful,” I told her. I had to stop her and I wanted to use her b sound to overwrite the “bad” I thought she was going to say. I wanted to change her image of herself, and I knew it was going to take more than just one time, but I had to find the right thing to say right now, and I was just pop-quizzed into this. I needed a moment to think. But I finally came up with the word beautiful.

She looked down blushing. “Everyone calls me a….”

“I don’t care what people call you, baby. I don’t believe have of what those papers say about you anyway. What I care about, is what you prove to me, that you are. So far, I’ve seen a very well behaved child that has a lot of emotional damage done by people mistreating you, sweetheart.”

She shivered and sniffled. “But…,” but she didn’t finish what she was going to say. I knew there had to be a place where the calling her a thief and a liar had come from, but for now, I was dismissing that. Eventually, I’d learn where it was coming from, and I’d correct it. All she needs, is a chance.

Michelle put her last shirt in the cart, and smiling at her, I picked her up, and I told her to look carefully at the shirts and pick two that she least wants.

She looked at me as though this was a trick, or something.

“We are going to look around to make sure that something that you like more isn’t in this section before we leave, so pick out the two shirts that you could easily replace if you found something better.”

She nodded, and she pulled out two of the cheaper ones. I knew that’s what she would do, and I smiled. “Now, if we don’t find something better, then we will keep these, okay?”

Michelle smiled and nodded, and the three of us went around the racks looking at different shirts. It turned out that Michelle like those though because one had a unicorn and rainbow on it, and the other one had on it, I have the bestest sister in the whole world in sparkling silver and red glitter.

I smiled.

I then shook my head at Samantha’s choices. “I know what heart you were getting these from,” I told her as I held her shirts at her. I want you to put all but one back, and we’ll start over. You are not to look at one price tag. You come to me, and I’ll look so I know what I’m spending, but you are not allowed to look.”

She looked at me with her mouth open.

“You looked at the price tag on all of these,” I gestured to the shirts she had gotten earlier. “You were scared to spend the money, but baby, the finances are daddy’s responsibility, and not something that you push on your children when you take them shopping.”

Samantha looked into my eyes.

I watched as she looked through the shirts, but then she held up two. “I really do like these ones. Do I have to just choose one?” she asked me.

“I’ll tell you what,” I countered. “You can keep them in the cart until the end, but after we find ten, just like with your sister, we will take one more look around, and by then, you might be more comfortable, and if you find a better shirt, then you can replace one.”

She nodded and we started to look in earnest for her. At first, the little one kept gravitating where there were obvious signs for the cheaper things, so I pulled her away from them after she got another shirt from that area, and I had her look at a very nice shirt for this store, and held it up to her.

She looked it over for a moment, and next to it, she saw a color she liked better. “Um… I like… Um… that one… it’s….,” she seemed scared to contradict me, but I just smiled and put the one I took back and reached over and picked up the one she pointed at. I checked the size to make sure.

“This one is your size, too,” I told her.

She blushed as I added it to the cart.

We walked on towards the jeans, pants, and shorts. As we did, I did look at my little one’s legs again, but they seemed still quite dry, and they were smiling and cheerfully talking to each other now.

“I’ve been in foster care all my life,” Samantha was telling Michelle. “You won’t find many people like this guy if you are stuck in it for long.”

Michelle nodded. “I had a couple of families, too. I know.”

“Your last family hurt you, too?”

“Well, I didn’t like when their older boy laid in my bed and had me alone, and sometimes, the man was… um scary too.”

“Oh,” Samantha looked down.

“Babies?” I cautioned them quietly. “Can you talk about that in the car or at home?”

“Okay, Mister,” Michelle said.

Samantha frowned and looked up at me. “Because we’re liars?”

“No, baby. It’s because I know you are telling the truth that I don’t want you to upset yourselves while we are shopping. No one would lie about this kind of stuff, sweetheart.”

Samantha frowned and looked into my eyes. “Big people lie, too,” she said.

I looked back at her intent filled eyes, and knew, that whatever my answer here was, it was going to set a stage for us, and I found myself stumbling for the right answer, so I just nodded at her with a grimace looking at the floor.

“You lie,” she accused me.

I nodded.

She smiled and hugged me.

We walked around and eventually got the girls their six pair of jeans, two pair of shorts, 1pair of sweats, and three skirts that I had promised them. Then we went towards the shoes. I was honestly putting off going to the panties as long as I could. I looked at Michelle even as I thought that eventually we did have to go there.

 

-------

I just have a story to tell, and I've had a day or two off work, so I had some time to get some of it out.  

I will be working on it some more, but the output might slow some because I do work everyday next week, and I have obligations staring in a few minutes, actually.

[parkintochter]

Thanks for the update!

 

But you did a little mistake with chapter 3. You already published the first half of the last chapter.

 

Take your time. There is no need to rush

[Ishigreensa]

I'm not sure what happened there, to be honest.  I thought I had published chapter three just once, but it looks like it published it twice, with the intended title on the second round?  In the first one, the chapter 3 was not completely.  If you look carefully, both are labeled chapter 3, sorry people.  I'll let you look at the second chapter 3 and compare with the first one for a bit, but eventually, I'll be taking the first chapter three out as it was unfinished.

[Ishigreensa]

Chapter Four

Miss Puddles

I was not prepared for what was next, and nor was I prepared for what my instant reactions would be. Still trying to stall on going to the more personal sections for my new babies, I steered them towards the shoes.

“I have shoes,” Samantha rose a shoe so I could better see that her feet was covered by laced up sneakers, though honestly, they had holes in the top, the bottom of it, the sole, was starting to separate from the main body, and it was dingier than something the cat had drug in.

“Honey, no, those are barely even wearable,” I told her. “I want to get you some nice shoes, maybe a pair for church, a pair for school, and a pair for playing at the park.”

“That’s way more than anyone ever got me before. Even one pair from here is….”

“You got what you needed, not from the heart, but just to not get the people in charge of you in trouble,” I frowned at her. “I get you what I want because I…, and get this sweetheart…,” I pulled them both towards me as though to tell them a big secret. “… you ready?”

They both nodded at me.

“I get you what I want because I capital L, capital O, capital V, capital E-- love you, babies.”

They looked up into my eyes. Michelle was quick to accept the interaction, and she hugged me quickly, but I could still see wheels turning in the back of Samantha’s mind. She wasn’t ready to trust me yet. I reminded myself of all the bruising on her body, of the insistence she said of herself being a liar and a thief, and I understood where her mistrust came from. If she didn’t even trust herself, how could she trust someone else?

I put a hand on her back and I whispered to her. “Don’t think too much on it, sweetheart. Whatever happens, you have nice shoes you don’t have to worry about falling apart, okay?”

Samantha nodded and looking down, let me lead her towards Michelle’s sizes first.

Michelle saw some shoes that had those rollers on the bottoms. I thought those would be so cut on her, and they had blinking lights too. I smiled and as we found her size, I told her the rule.

“These are play shoes, sweetie. Not for school, not for church, but certainly for play and around the house, okay?”

She smiled and nodded at me.

I didn’t hear what started it right away, but I saw Samantha glaring at a group of girls who were looking at her like she had started something. I rushed over to see what was going on.

“She threw a shoe at me,” One of the girls pointed at Samantha, but scanning the floor, I didn’t see any shoes that Michelle had not had out looking at.

“I don’t know what problems you have with one another,” I told the strange girls, “but this young lady is here with me, and I suggest you go off and find something else to do.”

“Aren’t you going to yell at her for throwing stuff in the store?”

I looked at Samantha who had her head down, her fist shaking at her sides, and her lips tightly pulled obviously keeping her words from falling out of her mouth in a loud barrage at the accusing girls.

“I’m sorry?” I asked them.

“She. Threw. A. Shoe.” one of the girls spoke to me as if I was hard hearing or I was stupid.

“And yet,” I looked her in the eye. “The only shoes out, are the ones around my younger daughter that we are trying on!”

“Don’t tell me you are this loser’s new family? Didn’t they tell you what she does at that place you got her from?”

“First of all, it is none of your business who her family is as you are obviously not friends, and second of all, regardless what her reputation is, the only troublemakers I see right now, are the three of you.”

“Fine.” one of the kids said as though she was ready to end this. “But make sure Miss Puddles stays out of our way.”

I had had enough, and started to follow the girls around until they left the store. I watched until a car came up to collect them, and they hurried into the car obviously telling their side to the driving lady.

She yelled out at me. “I’m calling the police!”

I shook my head and took my little babies back into the store. I probably could have handled that better, but honestly, I wasn’t trying to catch up to them at all. I got what I wanted. When the lady started to drive away, I glanced at the license plate, and I went to the front and asked for a pen and scratch paper. They gave it to me not really knowing what just happened, I assumed.

“What are you doing?” Samantha asked me?

“I’m keeping her license plate number handy,” I told her. “If there is any further issue, I’ll be presenting our side of the story along with the license plate number to prove that I was only following them so I could find an adult who was of course unreasonable because the girls were able to say one side of their story before I caught up with the mom.”

“But…, all the others just punished me,” Samantha said her mouth dropped a bit.

“For what?” I asked her. “There weren’t even any shoes on the floor around you or her, and I knew for a fact, you were with me the whole time. Sure, I took my eye off you for a second, but there was no reason for you to throw a shoe.”

Samantha shivered as she looked into my eyes staring right back at her bright brown ones that shined in the light provided by the store’s illuminations overhead. “You’re not supposed to believe me,” she looked down after a moment.

“And why is that?” I reached over and put an arm around her shoulder.

“Because, I’m just a foster ki…,” but my frowning at her made her stop. I narrowed my eyes at her.

“What?” she looked down nervously.

“You need to get it through your head, baby. You are NOT just a foster kid anymore, and secondly, it doesn’t matter where you come from, but rather, how you behave that matters. I know you didn’t throw any shoes, and you know it. Right now, those three kids that tried to start in with you are the liars, sweetheart.”

She nodded but still looked at her feet.

“Did you know who those girls were?” I asked Samantha after a moment or two of processing everything that happened, by which time, we were then nearly back at the shoes again.

Samantha nodded. “They are just some girls I went to school with last year. They are really nasty to people that they think are… not good enough.”

“Well, then,” I patted her back lightly. “Lucky for them, we don’t live in town, so they won’t have to see you anymore.”

“You mean, lucky for me,” Samantha frowned.

“Nope, I said it right the first time. You see, your last fosters didn’t support you and obviously would have punished you by the way their attitude suggests, but you wait until someone tries those tricks with your family. If she thinks getting chased off was scary…,” and I let that linger on my daughter’s minds for a minute.

“You can’t hit a minor,” Samantha reminded me with a serious eye.

“I wouldn’t need to, sweetheart. People are going to find out that you have a parent that supports you, and if they think their trouble making shenanigans is going to work on you around me, they have something else a coming.”

“But, that means, you… you believe me,” Samantha whispered and I couldn’t miss the surprise in her voice.

“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked her. “Besides all the evidence being on your side, you haven’t lied to me once today. You even warned me of things you were afraid would happen because of how you were conditioned, and I’ve not really seen anything troublesome about you at all.”

“But, they might not have stopped and caused you trouble if I wasn’t with you.”

“That’s on them, baby, not you. They had a choice. They could ignore you because you don’t like each other, but nope, they came over with the intent to upset you. That makes them the trouble makers, sweetheart.”

Samantha nodded.

“I was about to start throwing shoes at them,” Samantha suddenly said after a moment that I was trying a shoe on Michelle.

“But you didn’t,” I was now tying the shoe. “You stopped yourself, and stilled your spirit. I watched your little hands, shaking with the effort it took you to not retaliate, and it was me, that retaliated.”

Samantha nodded.

“Honey, everyone wants to do things when they feel bad, but what makes you a young lady and not some neanderthal, is your ability to control the impulse thing, and rather, to try to calm yourself and think of the wise thing.”

Samantha sighed. “I think I started it though.”

I frowned. “Tell me what I didn’t see then.”

Samantha frowned and put her finger on her lips, as though she was thinking. Whatever she might have done to start it, that had eluded her as much as it did me, and you could see it in the way she was trying to think about what had happened.

“Baby, they came into YOUR space, and they started trying to get you into trouble. By the looks of your shaking hands for a bit there, they were lucky you didn’t lunge at them, and I am glad you didn’t.”

I reached out for her and hugged her again around the waist. “You are my babies,” I told her. “Just like her mom’s job is to believe that brat…, I believe you, and what is more important, is that you were not the liar this time no matter who believes who. Don’t let people second guess what you see, sweetheart.”

I pulled her into my lap, and I kissed the side of her head. “You are a person, too, sweetheart.”

She nodded.

I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take, or how many times I’d have to repeat myself before she got it, that she had a family that was actually on her side, but I didn’t care. I would defend her as long as I need, and reassure her as long as I need. It is criminal what those people did to her that were responsible for her before, and if I had any power at all, they would be going through the hell they put my little Samantha through.

We had the shoes I wanted for Michelle now, a pair of beige Mary Janes with a buckle strap for church, a pair of sneakers that had rollers on the bottom for the house and playing in, a pair of sneakers that were for school, and a pair of boots that would be used for the colder season.

“Now, how about we get some shoes for our bigger girl?” I asked both of the children, dreading that I would have to go to the underwear and undershirt and bra section soon. Wait, they need socks! That might be a bit of a longer delay.

I did want to get them everything they wanted, but I was sort of worried about being there with them, that things that Michelle went through might be revisited by her little mind or that Samantha would be embarrassed. I had to do it, but I didn’t know what to expect, only that there would probably be some kind of drama.

Could I send Samantha by herself? Maybe, but honestly, especially after those kids came up on her trying to start a fight with her, I wasn’t so keen on leaving them alone anyway, not even to look at toys. Samantha has a reputation, and though there were signs everywhere, that maybe she was as bad as they say, what I saw standing next to me right now, was a well behaved and a very patient teenager.

We stopped by the teen girls’ footwear area, and I smiled as I gestured at the racks of shoes. “Let’s just look together so if anyone else that has a problem with you is close by, they won’t have the opportunity to call you a liar and a trouble maker.” I told Samantha.

The cart was getting pretty full as we stopped it at the area where we checked her foot size.

“Take off your shoe,” I told the teen. “I know, you probably don’t like to do that, but I want to make sure we get you the right size. I don’t trust the size in that shoe since you really didn’t have a good fit the last time someone was placed with you.”

Samantha nodded and she pulled her foot out of a very tight shoe. I saw the socks she had on were not even worth being on her feet, they had such tears and holes in them, and worse, her feet looked a bit blistered.

“How long have you had tight shoes on your feet?” I asked my little Sammy.

She shrugged.

“Last year?”

“Um… a couple of years, I think, was the last time I got shoes, and they were a bit tight even then.”

I shook my head. “It’s a wonder all the people that took care of you until now are not in jail. That is neglect, baby.”

She shrugged. “It’s called being a foster kid.”

I sighed. This was not what I’d expect even from the worst of caregivers. A child with lashes on her back, bruises, blisters on her feet from tight shoes, worn, stained, torn clothing, and the girls smelling like they were in the sewers playing for a week!

What could I do though, so I just tried to refocus on what we came for.

“You’re not putting those shoes back on,” I told Samantha. Michelle’s shoes were at least her size and comfortable even if they were not as nice as I’d have liked. Samantha’s were a disgrace though. I felt my blood boil that someone could do that to a child.

I helped Samantha choose her shoes, and she got some she liked that would fit her, but I left her barefoot the rest of this trip. I was not putting on her old shoes on her again, and I wasn’t even sure the new shoes would help her blisters at the moment, not to mention we had to pay for them. It wouldn’t hurt her to go barefoot in the store, and if someone had a problem with it, then they could talk to me. I don’t see how a caring person could have the heart to force her to wear shoes that were tearing up her feet.

Getting socks didn’t take nearly as long as I wanted, and before I knew it, I was pushing the cart into the unders, first for preteens, since I wanted to get Samantha’s things first. Maybe if Michelle saw me getting her things and that she wasn’t getting hurt by it, then maybe she wouldn’t feel threatened when we got her things.

I decided training bras would be best to start with. They are more or less a bit less intrusive, and they would prepare both Samantha and Michelle for where we were going.

“This way, ladies,” I said directing them to push the cart to the left.

“Um… those are… um… do you what those are?” Samantha looked up into my eyes.

“Yes, sweetheart. You need some, so… um… actually, let’s get some help so we can figure out what size to get you, okay?”

Samantha nodded.

A young woman came over, and she looked down at Samantha’s feet.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “She has these, but they are far too small for her, so please, just this once? She’s a helpless child that doesn’t have any decent shoes yet. I just got her from starting the adoption process, and I don’t want to put her feet through anymore torture.”

The woman smiled and nodded, and for the moment, ignored her feet.

“I think this is her first time to get bras, too. I’d like her to get twelve or so? I’d like her to pick out what she wants, but I want them to fit. Can… well, I know it might take a while as she is a teenager and stuff, but… I… I’ve never gotten little ladies personals before.”

The woman was a young maybe late twenties nice young woman who had brown hair and green eyes.

“Of course, I’d be happy to help her. Just know, if a manager sees her not wearing shoes, you may have to talk him into letting her shop here.”

I shrugged. “I’ll talk to anyone I have to. She’s my child now, and health code or not, it’s not healthy for to not have stuff just because her last home, if you can call it that, decided that she didn’t need any shoes that fit her.”

The woman smiled and nodded, and she soon started to talk to Samantha and started to show her around the bras. I just stood back a bit and listened as they talked, not interrupting them, but just holding my little one for now.

“Daddy,” Michelle whispered in my ear while I held her. “What if I gotta go?”

“Can you wait a few minutes?” I asked.

She nodded and laid her head on my chest.

Patting her back, I just comforted my little squirmy ten year old. I wasn’t going to leave Samantha on her own for even a moment, and I wasn’t going to have Michelle go to the toilets by herself either. I just felt, well, maybe I was a paranoid new parent, but I didn’t want anything to happen to my babies.

Samantha kept giggling as she picked some training bras out. Apparently, according to Samantha, she was still a little flat for even As, but just the same, she enjoyed picking out some cute little things that she could wear, and she whispered at me once we were on her seventh one.

“Michelle can get some, too. Look!” And she point out where they did have some Michelle’s size, or so it seemed, and with the designs on them that an elementary school kid might even like.

“What do you think?” I asked my little squirmy Michelle.

“Can you carry me?” she whispered up at me.

I smiled and nodding, I carried her in that direction. “But you stay close where I can see you while Michelle and I are looking at a couple for her,” I called to Sam.

“I will,” there was a slight hint of teenage irritation in her voice, but at the same time, she smiled at me when I looked to see just how upset she was.

“He’s a new dad,” I heard her telling the lady. “I don’t know. He doesn’t do anything right…,” she sounded like she was complaining about me, but I ignored it. If I got upset every little thing she whined about, I would not be much of an example to her.

“Do you like The Little Mermaid?” I asked Michelle as I found one that didn’t have Ariel on it, but I still thought I saw this little Mermaid in the movie.

“That’s Melanie,” Michelle told me. “She’s Ariel’s daughter.”

Oh, she did know her. “But what about this one? I like Elsa.”

I smiled as I recognized the Princess-queen from Frozen.

We picked up two bras for Michelle, and then we went back to join Samantha where I heard her still telling the store clerk about me.

“He doesn’t get it. He’s buying us that whole cart of stuff, but that’s not what you’re supposed to do with kids like us.”

The woman frowned. “Well, what are you supposed to do with kids like you then?”

“Well, not spend all your money on us. You get hand-me-downs from friends and goodwill, and you spend the money on better things that….”

I cut across Samantha as she was talking to the woman. “Samantha, baby? That was your past. Those people were wrong. They were dead wrong. If you don’t want to raise a kid, you don’t go and get one. You certainly don’t treat them like you’ve been done, baby.”

She looked down. “Am I starting trouble.”

“No, sweetheart. I’m just trying to correct your thinking.”

We finally got her bras all in order and started towards the panties.

“I need to see what ones you get,” I told the girls. “I know I’m old fashion, but even if they are undies, I’d rather that at your tender ages, that what you get are… well, more for children right now.”

The girls nodded. Honestly, the look Samantha gave me, rather than a disgruntled whatever, it looked more like a grateful thank you look. Of course, that could have just been my wishful thinking, but at least she didn’t look mad.

Finally, the clothes shopping was done, and we were headed to the toys when we were stopped by someone with a manager pin on his uniform.

“Excuse, but where are your daughter’s shoes?”

I showed him. “She’s been wearing these a bit long though. Can you look at her feet with me before you decide she has to put them back on?”

He nodded, and when I had Samantha lean against me, so she could put a foot up at him, and he saw the blisters, the tears in her ankles and heel, and the overall condition of her feet, he looked up at me.

“I just got my babies today from the adoption agency. We are in the process, so they are just being fostered at the moment, but the kids both need clothes, shoes, and toys.”

As I was talking, it seemed it was too long for Michelle, and that was on me because she did tell me a bit back, that she wanted to go, and we heard splattering on the floor. I looked over and I sighed and shook my head as Michelle looked down in shame.

“Come here, baby,” I called her over to hug her. “I’m sorry, baby. You did say you wanted to go potty, didn’t you?”

She nodded and put her little thumb in her mouth as if she was a baby.

I held her close to me, and kissed her head.

The manager sighed, too, and as he saw big tears in her eyes, and then asked, “So no clothes or toys,” the manager walked away and told us to just go on with our shopping as he walked away.

I picked up my wet little girl and hugging her to me, I whispered to her. “We can get you some toys. Then we’ll go to the car, okay?”

She smiled and nodded. “Please don’t put your hand in my panties?”

I shook my head no, and I hugged her tighter. “No one is going to do that to you anymore, baby. Anyone that tries, you tell your daddy on them right away, sweetie.”

She nodded.

The little one still shook a little bit, and I worried that she was still scared, so I put her gently on her feet, and reaching for her hand, led my little ones to find toys that would interest them.

[Ishigreensa]

Table of Contents

Chapter 5 I Said You Are My Baby

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 5

It’s Okay, Babies

I brought the children in the traditional younger girls’ section first. It was probably a mistake. Even the ten year old might have outgrown most of these things, but still, I was a new father, and I really had no idea what they would be interested in. The girls did seem to just look past most of the toys in this area, until were were at the end, just about to turn the corner, when both girls’ eyes went to some of the stuffed animals sitting there.

I smiled as I waited, the girls just kept my hands, looking up at me. It felt a little odd, but they just didn’t move. They looked down, actually, and I saw the thirteen year old blond start to blush while the curly brunette ten year old just whispered. “What kind of toys are wet getting?”

“I told you, babies. You can get anything that interests you. I know at least Samantha wants a game, and I will be taking you in that direction eventually for you both to look, but right now, if you want a stuffy, you most certainly can have one. That goes for you, Samantha. You both can have two, three, five stuffies. I really don’t care.”

Michelle trembled a little bit. Samantha mumbled that Foster kids are not supposed to get one thing or another, but I didn’t listen this time. It was the same thing she just kept repeating.

I led them closer to the stuffed animals, and pulling a couple down, I handed one to each of the children.

“Come on,” I told them as I hugged my little ones. “Choose some stuffy buddies, girls.”

Michelle looked up at me, she whimpered. “What about Honey Paw?”

“What about Honey Paw?” I asked her.

“Well, if you get me new ones, then you will take Honey Paw away from me.”

I frowned and shook my head. “No, sweetheart. You have Honey Paw? Did you say its name is? You have that one because it is special to you, and I’d never take something special away from you like that.”

She hugged me.

After a couple of moments, Samantha finally reached out and picked out stuffed Elephant. Then Michelle reached out, and that was all it took for them to start adding toys to the cart. I had to go and bring another cart and now, the two girls had to push the one while I needed to push the second one. Of course, them being children, I let them push the one that had mostly toys in it.

As we got to the front, someone walked over to us, and I looked up to see a stern man about a foot taller than me.

“We have a policy here,” he told me.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “But what policy….”

“That girl is with you, isn’t she?”

“Oh, well, if you looked more carefully at her feet, you’ll find that she is blistered and as we are about done and about to leave, can’t you just let her be for the last of this?”

“She should not have been in here at all like that,” the man told me.

“And you think her wearing these…,” I pulled out her dirty, torn, holey shoes and I pointed at her foot again “...is better?”

He frowned at me.

“Look, I’m not trying to get an attitude, sir. I just got these kids from the system, and they gave me this child like this, and when we went to measure her feet for better shoes, I couldn’t bare make her put those shoes back on her feet.”

“Well, it is polic….”

“I understand,” I handed him the old shoes.

“What? What are you?”

“You said it is policy. She won’t fight you. If you want the shoes back on her feet, then help her.”

“Sir, she quite old enough….”

“She is a child with owies all over her feet,” I told him. “She needs help, and if you are unwilling to do it, then so am I. Her feet are hurting, and you’d have to be blind to not see that, so you can let us pay for this stuff and get out of your hair, or you can put her shoes back on her.”

He sighed and bent down as if he was about to… well, he did, but when she sat on the floor and lifted her blistered and torn foot up at him, he shook his head. Putting the shoe back into my hand, he whispered. “Just get these kids out of here. That one is wet and that one doesn’t have her shoes on.”

The cashier was about to press a button, I could see, but the man that stopped us shook his head at her and walked away, and so we were rung up, and started our way out. Samantha had to be more careful with where she walked since she had no shoes on, but it seemed a lot more comfortable to me, to have her walk without shoes than to even put her new ones on her right now.

We got to the car, and squatted down and pulled both my little ones to me before opening any doors, grabbing them from their waist, and so accidentally touching Michelle’s wet bottom, and she jumped.

I didn’t even think about it, and it was a moment before I realized the reason she had jumped was I was touching her wet bottom. But I talked to them, slowly moving my hand when I noticed the problem so that Michelle wouldn’t think too much about it as I put my hand to rest on her shoulder instead.

“Samantha shouldn’t try to go into any other places, so I’ll stop at McDonald’s, but I want you kids to eat in the car. Is that okay?”

“I don’t want to be out in the car by myself,” Michelle said looking up at me.

“You won’t. The McDonald’s usually have a drive up, so we’ll get it at the window, and then drive around to the parking lot to eat.”

Michelle nodded.

Looking back at my little children, I smiled and winked at them. They were so precious. How could anyone treat these little children so harshly as they have, and little Samantha, probably the only lie she has ever told me, was reminding me of the things that were said about her being a liar and a thief. She had nothing on her when we left the store, she had not once fibbed to me about anything that I could tell, and she certainly was no trouble at all. The little one obeyed every rule I set for them, and she was certainly was no trouble at all.

I turned around to start the car and start taking them to get them something to eat. Both of my little ones needed a bath as soon as we got home. It bugged me still, that even though the home may have been rather busy, that somehow, the girls smelled like they had not had a bath in over a week. Michelle had acted like she wanted to just wet herself when we first started shopping, but when it came to go, she actually tried to get my attention, but I was too late in taking her. It didn’t feel right, natural, or even self invoking to me, that they wanted to be wet all the time.

The little one was still in soaked pants, and I really needed to get her changed. Maybe I should try to take them into McDonald’s after all. “Maybe if I can somehow hide or make Samantha’s feet less noticeable, maybe I could get away with at least bringing them to the bathroom if nothing else. Surely, if Michelle tried to back out of wanting to wet herself at the store at the last minute, then Samantha would feel the same way and not want to actually wet herself, either.” I really didn’t want to put anything on Samantha’s feet right now. “Her feet needed to relax, and I probably should take her to see a foot doctor,” I thought to my self at the time.

As we pulled into McDonald’s, sighing, I spoke back to the girls. “Change of plans. We are going inside, ladies. But remember…, you leave your seat belts on until I have stopped the car.”

I looked in the rear view mirror, and both of the girls nodded.

Once I had parked the car, I turned around to them. “Okay, we don’t need them stopping us from going in right now, so wait for me to come and get you individually,” I told my babies. “We have to find a way to make Samantha’s feet less noticeable, and I want to make little Michelle’s accident less noticeable, too, so you aren’t as embarrassed until I can get you into the bathroom to change you, honey.”

The girls nodded and they waited in the car while I went around to the back of the car, and I rummaged through it getting two diapers from the diapers, one for Michelle from her package and one from Samantha’s. I collected them in an old plastic bad I had in the front. Then I looked around until I found a blanket, and then I came around and handed Samantha the blanket.

“Put this around your shoulders, sweetheart. As we go in, let it drop some so it drags on the floor that way it will hide that you are not wearing shoes.”

She nodded at me.

“What about my wet pants?” Michelle asked her finger in her mouth.

“Still work…,” and that’s when I noticed she had her finger in her mouth, and pulling it out of her nervous lips, I hugged her and picked her up. I handed the little bag to Samantha, not worried she’d see the diapers in it, since I also put some new clothes for each of them on top of it. Even though Samantha wasn’t wet, I wanted her to change out of those stained smelly clothes.

I brought Michelle back around to the back of the car and looking through her stuff, and with a sigh, I set her on her feet and frowning, I asked her. “Can you pull your pants down sweetheart?”

“Right here?”

“Just your pants, not your panties,” I tried to make her feel as little discomfort as I could. “I’m going to slip a skirt up on you, and then when we go in, no one will know you are wet, and then we can change your wet panties in the bathroom.”

She looked around nervously, her fingers slipping back into her mouth.

“You can either do that, or I can carry you in with your pants wet, sweetheart.”

“I… I’ll go in wet pants,” she said looking down. “I don’t want to pull my pants down out here.”

“What if I let you do it in the car?”

She shook her head.

With a sigh, I picked her up, and with a hand in Samantha’s free hand, I took both my children into the restaurant. I was glad for the family bathroom, where I directed them into. Michelle looked a little scared as I brought her in. She was shaking, and her fingers were again in her mouth, and her eyes, they were so wide, I could tell she was trying to hold in all her fear.

I brought the baby in to the center of the room as I addressed Samantha.

“I know it’s not idea, sweetheart, but I don’t want you children separated from me right now. You can either change out of those dirty clothes here, or you can do it in the car, but honestly, those clothes are making you both smell worse, sweetheart.”

Samantha frowned and shivered for a moment. I thought I saw fear in her face, too.

I put Michelle down, and I pulled my little babies towards me, and then caressing their little backs, rubbing them up and down in the middle of their backs, I tried to comfort them.

“Babies,” I looked more at Samantha at the moment. It looked like she was least likely to have been assaulted in a certain way that terrorized Michelle. “No one is in trouble. I only want you to be comfortable. Michelle has wet clothes on, and your clothes are barely rags at this point, Samantha. I just want you to be comfortable.”

“I… I’m not getting in trouble for being dirty?” Samantha asked as she was still somewhat fidgety in my arms as I had one hand trying to rub her back and keep her calm.

“No, baby. Your smells and your clothes are not your fault. I don’t know when you last had a bath, sweetheart, but I’m sure you haven’t had one since yesterday.”

Samantha looked down.

“I’m not judging you, baby. It’s not your fault. You just need something a bit cleaner on until we can get you home and into a bath, okay?”

She gave a sigh, almost, sounding relieved. Her shoulders and her back relaxed, and she nodded.

“Let me change you first so Michelle knows what to expect, honey. Michelle is a little girl, and she’s scared for other reasons. If she sees what is going to happen, she will be less nervous.”

Samantha nodded.

“Before we start dressing you, I want you both to know what I plan to do before I pull it out.”

Samantha looked at me, almost as if she was scrutinizing what I had planned. There was a level of mistrust in her eyes as she waited for me to explain, and Michelle, she put her hands on her privates, and pressed against her pants. Obviously, with what she had been through, she didn’t want her pants pulled down right then.

“Before I do this to you, Samantha, let me explain my thinking, and if any of it is wrong, you let me know, sweetie.” I looked at her for a minute making sure she understood that I want her to speak up.

Eventually the girl nervously, shaking, eyes looking down nodded.

“Your report claims that you wet the bed all the time,” I told her even in front of Michelle. The reason I didn’t feel bad saying it in front of Michelle, was that being in the same house, I didn’t think we’d be able to hide it from her anyway. “Your clothes are stained, and there are some of your old clothes that we left behind that have poop stains in your panties….”

“Yeah, I wet the bed a lot,” Samantha got frustrated with me telling her all the evidence, or maybe she was tired of Michelle hearing about it.

I reached over and hugged her. “I’m not trying to embarrass you, sweetheart. I just wanted to let you know why….”

“You snuck diapers in the stuff, right?” Samantha asked narrowing her eyes at me.

I tightened my mouth in nervousness, and trying to keep eye contact with her, I eventually said, “Yes, sweetheart.”

She nodded. “And you want me to wear a diaper right now, right?”

I looked into her brown eyes trying to get a read on what she felt about that besides maybe a bit annoyed. Eventually, I nodded.

“You can change me,” she nearly whimpered as I saw tears in her eyes. “That means no more toilet chances until we get home, right?”

I hugged her. “No, no, no, baby! If you need to go and want me to stop, let me know as soon as you can. I will stop. The diaper isn’t for forcing you to do anything.”

She looked back up at me, and her eyes glistening, she listened.

“Baby, we still have a long drive ahead of us, okay? It’s getting late, and you did admit that you have accidents in your sleep….”

She nodded.

“The diaper is so you don’t have to worry about wetting your new clothes, sweetheart.”

She almost smiled, almost. But her mouth only twitched a little before she nodded and stepped closer to me.

“You wanted to do it?” she asked.

“Well, it might make Michelle feel better about me changing her if you let me change you, and she sees that I won’t do anything mean to her, but you know, you are thirteen. If you feel weird about that, I get it, and I’ll let you do most of the dressing yourself.”

“Um… I’d rather do it?” she looked up at me with pleading eyes.

“Of course, sweetheart. Go ahead and take off your dirty old things, but do it completely. I have to put a diaper on you, sweetheart.”

She nodded and started to take her clothes off.

While she was taking her things off, I walked over to Michelle to give Samantha a sliver of privacy, and bending down to her level, I whispered to her.

“You don’t want people messing with your pants or your panties, do you?” I asked her.

She shook her head no rapidly.

“How about if I let you get your pants off by yourself, and your panties, but before that, can I take off your shirt?”

She looked up into my eyes for a long minute. I could see her shining eyes, the lights in them changing position slightly as she thought about it, but after a few seconds, she did nod her head, and raising her arms, she waited.

I slipped off her dingy and frankly, stinky shirt. It would have smelled a lot better if she had just peed herself or even just pooped her pants recently, than her shirt smelled at that moment. Her body had such a body odor from it, that I knew I was right in thinking they had not bathed in over a week.

Once I took her shirt and undershirt off, I glanced at the garbage can, but then thought the better of it, and took her shirts to the sink to rinse them out.

When I was done rinsing her shirts out, a shirt was added to it, the hands that put it in belonging to Samantha.

I smiled up at her face, knowing she’d feel uncomfortable if I looked at her properly before I at leased started to diaper her.

Michelle came over and started to add her wet panties, but I touch her hand and shook my head down at her.

“Honey, I’m washing out your shirts to use as rags in case we need them. I’m not going to run your face with clothes that had direct pee in them, okay?”

Michelle smiled and nodded. “What you wanted me to do with them then?” she asked.

“Are they special to you?”

She shook her head.

“Throw them away, then, honey. Your pants too, if you don’t need them anymore.”

She nodded and went to the trash bin under the towels and dropped her wet panties and then her pants into it. I heard Samantha move up behind her and throw her things in there.

When the girls were ready, I called Samantha to me first, and I started with washing her face, neck, and upper back off with her shirt. I used soap on it, so while it wasn’t the best thing, she was at least getting a little cleaner for now.

“Let me see your hands,” I told the older girl.

She presented them, and I cleaned her hands as best I could up to her elbows, and then I finally started to rinse out her shirts.

“You’ll see your clothes in the bag,” I told her. “Go ahead and put on your shirts, but wait on the pants until I can put your diaper on you.”

She nodded moving away, while I picked up little Michelle, and I touched her nose, which actually made her smile despite me holding her while she was fully in her birthday suit.

“We are going to wash your face, your neck, your upper back, and your hands,” I told her. “Just like we did with Samantha, okay?”

She nodded and let me wash her. She shivered a little, and I paused making sure she was okay and not getting nervous, but in the end, she was as clean as I could get her, and I directed her to do the same as Samantha had been told.

Turning to Samantha who walked up to me with her shirt on, and the training bra I had gotten her under her shirt, she looked down at her feet.

“Sweetheart, how about before me putting you in the diaper, how about you going to the bathroom?”

She sighed heavily, and I saw a tear fall down her face.

“What is it?” I asked her wondering what the pause was.

“I… I already went,” she nodded her head over at the blanket, but I didn’t see anything to elude to what she was talking about. “It’s… it’s under the blanket.”

I frowned. “Baby, that blanket was being used to hide that you don’t have shoes on. Are you saying that it’s covering a puddle on the floor?”

Samantha shook as she nodded, her lower lip quivering and tears slip down her face again.

I hugged her and patted her back. “Baby, how long were you holding it?”

She shrugged with more tears still sliding down her face.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I should have made you sit on the toilet first.”

Her voice shaking, her hands balling into vibrating fists at her side, she spilled the beans.

“It w...w...wouldn’t ma...ma...mattered,” there was a high pitch whine to her voice.

I pulled her tighter to me and hugging her, I whispered to her.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s okay.”

Michelle heard us, as I hugged the bigger girl, and still struggling with her shirt, getting her left hand in the arm hole, she walked over to us, and she looked up at me.

I pulled them both close to me.

“Babies, I’m not ever going to be mad about an accident,” I told them. “Even if you think it’s on purpose, I’d rather you tell me what happened. We can solve any problem as long as you are willing to tell me that a mistake or something out of your control cause you trouble.”

The girls looked up at me, Samantha still shaking.

“Next time something like this happens, and I’m trying to cover your feet, Samantha, just keep the blanket out of the puddle, okay? I’m not going to hit you. I’m not going to scold you. I know it’s an accident and that you probably waited a long time for whatever your reasons were, likely today, because you are still not used to me, and you are a little scared seeing as how you were hit all the time.”

She nodded as I started to talk about her holding it a while, about her not being used to me, and about being hit all the time, so I felt like I had called out exactly what happened to the little one. She had probably been holding it since shopping at Kmart, at the very least.

Rubbing her back, I whispered to her. “Let’s get your diaper on, sweetheart.”

She nodded.

I held the front of the diaper up to her, and smiling up into her eyes, I asked her. “Can you be a big girl and hold this over your front while I fix the back?”

She nodded, and I pulled the diaper through her legs and around to the back and flattening it out, I spread the tabs to the side, and then pulled them around her sides to tape them to the front of the diaper.

“This is just for sleeping and for long car rides,” I told her. “It’s for when getting to the bathroom quickly is impossible. I still want you to tell me if you want me to pull over and we’ll try not to force you embarrassment by making you use it, but if you have an accident, it will hold a good wetting and not get your clothes wet.”

Samantha nodded.

After fixing her tapes as best I could to center her diaper, I smiled at her and waved at her clothes. Of course she had some panties in there because I felt like the panties might make her at least feel like the diaper is hidden more. I also had her sweats in there since they would likely fit best over the diaper without showing off what it was.

She started to dress, and I turned to Michelle who had her shirt on by then.

“Did you see what I did with Samantha?”

She nodded.

“Are you okay doing the same thing?”

She nodded, though I saw her body shudder as though she might still be scared.

“Okay, baby, I understand,” I put a hand on her shoulder. “Samantha, when you are done getting your sweats on, will you come here and help me with Michelle?”

Samantha nodded giving me a small frown.

I let Samantha pull the diaper under and between her legs, and even let her flatten out the diaper in back so the little Michelle could see my hands at all times, and I watched to make sure that Samantha didn’t do anything that scared her. Together, we got her diaper on her and fixed, where I finished by adjusting the tabs, and then together, we finished dressing Michelle in her sweats.

“The blanket is wet,” I sighed at Samantha. “So, we’ll just fold it up so it gets you as little as possible and you’ll just have to carry it, and we’ll hope they don’t notice your feet at least until we’ve given our orders. I’ll just get it to go, and we can eat in the car.”

[Ishigreensa]

I've noticed a couple of things.  I'm pretty sure I proofread my story but when I reread it, it seems somehow either This forum does like the copy and past from my word program which is a free source and not Microsoft, or there is something else going on.  More importantly, I don't think it is working as well telling it from the foster dad's point of view, so I am thinking about restarting it from Samantha's point of view....

So I'll be rewriting the previous chapters and probably be adding more information about Samantha since it will be from her point of view.

 

Update, I did try to think of how to retell the story from Samantha's point of view, but honestly, that isn't really going to tell the whole story.  So, think what you want, but if you read this with an open mind, you might find out that this story is not that bad.  I'm not intending on going to any place weird here, but for those of you that think I've already crossed that line, I just think maybe there are issues both in society and your own personal lives that are likely getting in the way of you reading this as intended.  I definitely don't fault you for that.  I know there are scary monsters out there, that I wish did not exist.  Of course, if they didn't exist, then stories like this one would not be a thing as this story is about trying to help children that have had a rough time because of monsters.

[Allman90]

Most people read stories like it's a fantasy they wished would happen to them. I think most people write stories like that also

 

When you write from the perspective of the adult, they think the same thing

When it's a man and young girls people will probably think the worst, a while lot of sick stuff 

Your probably going to get some comments like that. As long as you know where the story is going and it's intentions are pure, you only need to worry about staying true to that.

 

Also, did you finish that other story? The one about two girls staying at their cousins house for the summer? I was following it but it seemed to stop. I hope i didn't miss it

[Ishigreensa]

7 hours ago, Allman90 said:

Most people read stories like it's a fantasy they wished would happen to them. I think most people write stories like that also

 

When you write from the perspective of the adult, they think the same thing

When it's a man and young girls people will probably think the worst, a while lot of sick stuff 

Your probably going to get some comments like that. As long as you know where the story is going and it's intentions are pure, you only need to worry about staying true to that.

 

Also, did you finish that other story? The one about two girls staying at their cousins house for the summer? I was following it but it seemed to stop. I hope i didn't miss it

I had run out of steam on that one, but I did look at it a couple of times recently.  I am thinking about picking it back up as long as the admins don't get mad for Necromancy (Bringing a dead story back to life).  

Thank you, I was thinking about changing it because I thought people were not going to follow this one because of the perspective, but honestly, even when I tried to think of it from Samantha's perspective, it just isn't going to be told the same way.  I have decided to try to trudge on as is, and see if the story can actually survive as intended.  After all, I'm not writing it for anyone else in particular.  And there is a story.  Besides, how many single dads to be are denied children in foster care just because society doesn't trust men?  I know there are a lot of, well, whatever they are, I would not call them men, out there that hurt people and children, but just because you want to be a dad to little girls, that doesn't make you a bad person.  What makes you a monster, is when you do things that should not be done to children.

[Allman90]

18 hours ago, Ishigreensa said:

Necromancy (Bringing a dead story back to life). 

I don't think anyone will ever have issue with reviving an unfinished story. 

 

I'd love to read more of that one, but if its not working for you forcing it usualy wont help

it doesn't work for me

 

18 hours ago, Ishigreensa said:

I would not call them men, out there that hurt people and children

filth, trash, lesser than animals

[Ishigreensa]

Chapter Six:

All is Quiet:

We were lucky enough to get through the line in McDonald’s without anyone commenting on Samantha’s feet, and I led the young ladies out to the car and after I put the food in the front, I opened each back door and made sure each child had their seat belt on, but that each one was comfortable before I got into the front and handed back their food.

Samantha looked up at me as I handed her her food, her hands shaking, and her whole body hesitant at first at the though of eating. She looked a little scared to eat at first.

“Sweetheart, I know what is going through your head right now,” I told her. “You’ve been saying it all day, that this is not how foster kids are treated, but baby? You are not just a foster kid. You are my daughters, now. You get the same thing as everyone else does who have families that care about them. You don’t have to worry.”

“That’s not what I’m thinking,” she whimpered in a whisper.

“What are you worried about then?”

“I embarrassed you in there. I peed on the floor and then I ruined your blanket.”

I shook my head and gave her a little frown.

“That blanket was ruined a long time ago, baby. You did nothing wrong. And. Even if. Even if it was brand new…. I don’t care about the blanket as much as I do you, baby. The only one had a head down the whole time in the restaurant, sweetheart was you. And of course I know it’s embarrassing to wet yourself. I’m not sure why you keep doing it, but I don’t buy the reasons I’m given just like I don’t buy that you are a thief or a liar, baby.”

Eventually, she did take her food.

“I am your daddy, now, honey. Nothing you do will embarrass me. I do need to know when you have problems though so I can help you through them, at least until you are strong enough to work through them on your one, after you are… say… thirty-five?” I smiled at her as if to let her know that thirty-five was a joke, but the way she looked up at me with her innocent eyes shining, I wasn’t sure if she knew I was joking or not.

“Look, honey. Accidents happen. You are not bad just because you don’t know what you are supposed to do sometimes, and just because your little body can only wait for so long, and you are too scared to tell me certain things. Eventually, we will get through this. You are my little ones, and I’m so sorry both you and Michelle were caused to wet yourselves in public.”

They both looked down.

“We’ll work on this, and maybe in time, you won’t have to worry about what you are allowed to do or when. Eventually, we will understand each other enough, that you both will be a lot happier, and you won’t be getting embarrassed or shamed because of whatever you’ve already been through. We just have to figure each other out. You understand?”

They both looked up into my eyes. They had such beautiful innocent brown eyes, and Michelle had a mouth full of hamburger in her cheek while Samantha had a fry in her lips, the end of which was held daintily by a forefinger and thumb.

Deciding to change the topic hoping to make them worry less, I brought up Samantha’s notebook.

“Is that some kind of journal you brought from the group home?” I asked her. “I noticed that you had written All I see on the cover.”

“It’s called Dear Alice-y” she frowned up at me.

“Oh,” I wondered about her spelling.

“Well, you know, Alice is a real name, and yeah, it’s basically notes I write to myself about what is going on around me, so I sort of squished the words All I See into once word, and then as I picked it up, everyday to write, I always read the front cover, and in time, I somehow started to see how when scrunched together like that, it kind of sounds like Alice-ee, and then I wrote Dear later and gave my Journal the name of Dear All I See that I now pronounce as Alice-y.”

I nodded and smiled at her.

“This is Honey Paw,” Michelle held up her stained, torn, old stuffed black bear.

“That’s a cute name for a bear,” I commented trying to get her to talk.

“It’s what name my mom gave it when I was little. I didn’t question its name. That is just its name. But Honey Bear and I talk about everything. A lot of kids that I invite to my room used to make fun of me for talking to Honey Bear about stuff, so I kind of tried to stop, but when you move from a mom that some reason, doesn’t want you no more, and then someone else is mean to you, and then someone else calls you a liar and believe someone else who is doing weird stuff to you, and you can’t talk about those things, the only one I have left to talk to… is Honey Paw.”

I shook my head and smiled at her.

“I used to talk to a little stuffed animal until I was around fifteen. I had other reasons, but I wasn’t popular as a kid either, so for a long time, my little Ms. Fox was the only one I could really talk to, unless we had a pet, then I talked to the dog or cat in private.”

Michelle smiled and nodded. “Because animals are your bestest friends ever! They never tell your secrets to people, and they love you no matter how much you don’t understand stuff.”

I nodded. “Exactly.”

We finished eating, and the two girls looked at one another for a moment, as if they were really seeing each other for the first time, and cute little shy smiles appeared on both of their faces. I know that they had not been around each other that long considering Samantha had only came to the group home a couple of days ago?

“So…, you’re really going to be my little sister?” Samantha asked Michelle.

Michelle looked down shyly, and I turned around to start the car. I would let them get acquainted.

I pulled into get some gas about an hour later, and looking back at the children before I climbed out of the car, I notice that my little angels were asleep, and the little ten year old had moved and buckled herself in the center belt, where she then was leaning against the elder girl. They were so cute, as the elder child was holding her with her arms protectively around the younger child.

Samantha’s back and head were against the door, and I smiled at their position. It was like they were big and little sister forever, even though they had just started talking to one another, probably today, for all I could make out.

I went on in and paid for the gas, and then came out to pump the gas into the car. The children still sleeping as though they had not noticed the stop. I hoped that this meant that they were starting to warm up and trust me. Only time could tell. Samantha had dark circles under her eyes, bags that cried out that she was too scared to get too comfortable. Michelle had her thumb in her mouth. I didn’t care about that right now. I wasn’t going to wake her just to get her thumb out of her mouth. They needed sleep, and they needed to feel safe.

Another half an hour, and we were pulling into the alley that went behind my rather empty four bedroom house. There was a fenced year, with a neighbor to the left with a high wooden fence separating our yards who had a noisy dog and a neighbor to the right that had a shorter chain-link fence with a smaller terrier dog that was as quiet as you please.

The large dog started barking the moment we pulled along the gravel alleyway, and the car crept into the parking space. My little baby girls lifted their sleepy heads and started to rub sleep from their eyes. It was pretty late, and they really needed to sleep the rest of the night.

I got out and walked to Michelle’s side first since Samantha’s back was still against the door on her side. Opening the door, I smiled in at my little ones, who were holding each other.

Samantha was holding Michelle tightly.

“Don’t hit her,” Samantha had pleading teary eyes. “Hit me! I set the bad example. Hit me.”

“Hit you?” I asked surprised. “What do you mean, hit? I told you, you are never getting hit again. And I don’t even see anything you did wrong.”

“I… I…,” Michelle started shaking as her mouth shivered as if from cold, and she found herself unable to speak through her fearful sobs.

“She undid her seat belt,” Samantha told me. “Except, she didn’t,” and Samantha was shaking too. “I did it. I pulled her closer to me so I could prot… te… tect her.”

“Babies, she has a seat belt on, and that’s all I care about. She was safe. Did you change the belt while I was driving?”

Samantha nodded.

“Well, that was dangerous, but I’m sure you know that, and I hope you don’t do that again. If you want to sit closer together, then fix yourself in the center belt when you get in. If you didn’t know we were going to be driving that far, and changed your mind, then maybe next time, just tell me you want to change positions. I don’t mind pulling over if we are driving for a while, children.”

Michelle looked up at me as I explained that she wasn’t in trouble for the seat belt. “But I was bad again,” she whimpered.

I shook my head. “I still don’t see anything you did wrong.”

“She had her thumb in her mouth,” Samantha tried to help her.

“I know,” I said simply with a smile on my lips. “It was kind of cute, and since she was sleeping, I didn’t want to wake her just to tell her that she’s too old for that.”

“How come you’re not mad at us for changing her seat belt or for her sucking her thumb?” Samantha’s eyes were shining at mine. Her mouth was nervously twitching and her eyes were narrowed at mine.

“Not mad because the little one wanted someone to comfort her to sleep? Not mad because the little one needed more security and resorted to something gives babies a little extra comfort in their sleep? Babies….” I wasn’t sure how to finish what I wanted to say.

“I wet,” Michelle suddenly told me.

“It’s okay. You both need a bath before you go to sleep tonight, anyway,” I told her. “You have both not bathed for at least a couple of days, and you both had accidents earlier today.”

Samantha looked down.

“I’m not going to hit you babies. You are not in that kind of home anymore, girls. I have your files. I know that you are going to be wet most mornings when I get you up. That’s why we got you both diapers, understand?”

The children looked at me unblinking for several moments.

“Now, I want little Michelle to grab her Honey Paw, and undo her seat belt and come to me so that little Samantha can grab her AllISee journal and get out, and so we can go in and inspect your new home.”

The children nodded, and Michelle pushed herself from Samantha. She undid her belt, grabbed her black little beat up bear, and she reached her arms out towards me, so I picked her up. As I lifted her up and settled her, I heard Samantha close her door, looking down as she closed her door.

I closed Michelle’s door, and I started to walk with my little children up the back steps because the main part of the house had the back door off of the higher part of a split-level house. It looked from the front, if you were to look out from that direction, that it could have been a four unit apartment, but as you went in through the back door that went into the little dining area next to a tiny narrow aisle kitchen, you could see that it would be impossible to ever imagine this place as even a two unit apartment building. It was just a unique style.

I put Little Michelle down and putting a hand on Samantha’s shoulder, she still flinched when I reached for her unannounced, I waved a hand inward.

“Your new home, girls,” I told them. Your bedroom is next to mine around the corner and down the hall on this same floor. There is a bathroom across the hall from my bedroom.” That bathroom was perpendicular to their room since their room was through a door at the very end of the hall.

The living room was split and easily seen as done so by the sofa back to us, and it had an easy chair to one side and a large screen television. “I’m afraid that’s the only television in my house at the moment, and there are no computers or anything like that,” I told them. “But you do have your new DSIs to play with, and in time, we’ll get internet in this place and a lap top computer since you will need one for your school work when you get in high school.”

The girls just nodded at me.

“Let’s go down the stairs.”

The stairs at the top split the short hall from the bedroom area and on the other side, the main living area with the living room in view over a halfwall as you came up the stairs, and then the wall of the hall blocked your vision around the corner to the small kitchen.

We walked down to the point where the front door was. There was only a small landing there, and then stairs that went up on the left from entering the door and stairs that went down on the right. And down the stairs we went, where there was another hall, with four doors. Two doors led to empty rooms that were the size of bedrooms. One door went to the second bathroom here, and the last door, the one on the right left from the stairs, led into a huge open unfinished room, where it looked like someone had started to build a wall, but stopped after just putting the slats that went ceiling to floor where they might have attached more wall to split off the huge space into two rooms. I had my washer and dryer in this room against the wall that faced the backyard and you could see my car in the parking spot just beyond our short chain fence.

“That’s where I do laundry,” I told the girls. “I’m thinking about making this space into a large recreation room, but I just haven’t decided what to put in here yet. I’ve always known I wanted to have children, so the space should definitely have space for both little teenagers to play in, but also a space I can have my own, stuff. So that division there, someday, might be finished, and we can separate the space, or we might leave it like that, and share the whole area. I’m not sure yet.”

The children just looked up at me, their eyes drooping like they were tired.

“Right, I have two tired little ones! I should have realized that I should have done the tour in the morning. Okay, let’s go get you two a bath.”

I picked Michelle up again, and Samantha followed us up the stairs and to the bathroom there.

“Can you two get stripped down to your diapers?” I asked them. “I’ll go out and get some of your clothes so you have some pajamas to sleep in, and when I come back, if you need help, I’ll take off your diapers for you. If you can get your diapers off on your own, then you can go ahead and run a bath and get in. I’m sure that would probably be more comfortable anyway, especially with a teenager, right?”

Samantha nodded and smiled up at me.

I left the bathroom to go do as I said, and I did take my time bringing in everything I thought they would need for the night, that being all of their clothes since they would need something to dress into in the morning, and all of their toys, that I crowded around the dining room area reached as far in as up to the back of the sofa that divided the space, and then I went to their room to make their bed for them. I sighed and I knocked on the bathroom door after a bit.

“Girls, I have your pajamas in your room, so I’ll just wait in the living room for you. I should put you in diapers for bed, but I’ll leave that up to you. We’ll just have to figure out a way to dry the bed in the morning.”

I walked back to the living room to wait for them.

Both of the girls came to the living room, and looking down, they seemed to hesitate, but I wasn’t really sure what they wanted.

“Do you want something to snack on or anything?” I asked them.

Samantha shook her head while Michelle continued to stand there with her head down.

Walking towards me, Samantha started to speak softly. “Michelle is a little bit scared still. But…. Well, you were nice to me earlier. I don’t want to mess up the bed, so um… can you put me in a diaper?”

“Honey, there is little reason to put you in a diaper if Michelle is scared to wear one. We can’t force it on her.”

“I don’t care,” Samantha had tears in her eyes. “I… I want one. I don’t want it to be my fault if the bed gets wet.”

“Of course, we can put a diaper on you if you want one, sweetheart. I just don’t want to force you into one for no reason.”

“I… am I going to get hit if I wear one?”

“No, baby. No one in this house will ever hit your Michelle for needing diapers, even if you are not able to wear one right now.”

Michelle looked up at us talking, and she lowered her head and whispered so softly, I had to have her repeat herself.

“I… I don’t mind diapers,” she shivered. “Only…, um… can Samantha do it, you know, like we did earlier?”

I smiled at her and nodded. “Of course, baby. You don’t even have to wear one if it scares you or makes you feel upset.”

“It’s not the diaper,” she shivered. “I… I don’t like to be touched when I… I don’t….”

“When you don’t have pants on?” I asked her to help her finish her statement.

She nodded.

“Take your pajama bottoms, Michelle, and then Samantha will help you into a diaper first, okay?”

She nodded.

“If you lie on the floor, Michelle, daddy won’t even need to do anything and I can just tell Samantha what to do, to even fix the tapes.”

“You… you’re not even going to touch me?”

“Not until your pajama bottoms are back up, unless Samantha can’t get it on you right. This is her first time by herself, so let her try, and if she can’t, just realize it’s not her fault, okay?”

Michelle nodded. She pulled her pajamas down and lie naked from the waist to her knees for Samantha.

“Lift up a little bit,” I told Michelle. “And Samantha, slip the diaper under her until the larger flat area is able to go around her back, and the front will still cover up towards her stomach, both as even as possible. Michelle, be patient, honey. If you get tired, you can relax while she is adjusting, and you might have to lift up two or three times, okay?”

Michelle and Samantha both looked at me blinking. I wasn’t sure if they were surprised I was letting Samantha do this, if they were scared that I had to watch, or they were worried about something else, but I had to watch and make sure the diaper was on right.

Samantha did a pretty good job, and I smiled at them both and told Michelle to go ahead and pull her pajamas over her diaper. I would have fixed it better, but I thought that perhaps they needed this. If it didn’t leak in Michelle’s sleep, then it would give Samantha confidence, and it would make Michelle feel a lot better that I didn’t have to touch her, and that I wouldn’t without her permission. If it did leak, then maybe Michelle would not be as scared to ask me, if I didn’t touch her this evening.

When it was Samantha’s turn, I asked her to lie down too.

“If it’s easier to do it with us lying down, how come you didn’t do it that way earlier,” Michelle asked as she stood nearby watching how I changed Samantha.

“I don’t trust public bathrooms,” I told her. “I didn’t know how clean the floor was, and I’m sure that a lot of little kids have accidents and pee on the floor sometimes.”

Samantha and Michelle both dropped their jaws at me. It was like they couldn’t believe what I said.

“Now, you can stand up and pull up your pajamas,” I told Samantha after I tested to make sure a couple of fingers could fit between her stomach and her diaper so she wasn’t struggling from it being too tight, but that it was snug on her.

“How come you put two fingers on her stomach?” Michelle had pulled her wet thumb from her mouth to ask me.

“Well, I wanted to make sure she can breath,” I told her. “If it’s too tight, it’s not good.”

“You didn’t tell her to do that with me.”

“I could tell that yours was a bit loose,” I told her.

“Oh,” she looked down. “What happens if it’s too loose?”

“Well, there are a few things that could happen, but none of them are that bad, honey.”

“Please tell us?” Samantha looked up with pleading eyes, and her hands were near her face, as though she were guarding it.

“Well...,” I motioned for my little ones to come over to me. Michelle walked over a little faster than Samantha did, and I could see Samantha’s legs shaking.

“Samantha, baby, don’t be scared. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But I… I questioned you,” she said with a quivering lipped frown.

“Questioned me?” I asked her trying to think when she showed any kind of disrespected.

“I asked you to tell us.”

“Sweetheart, that was a reasonable request, and I could tell that you just wanted to know. You weren’t being disrespectful at all.”

Her eyes glistened in the low light, and she looked down, but eventually she came and sat next to me while Michelle got into my lap. I wasn’t sure how the little one could get into my lap one instant, but be scared to death to be touched another. But then, she did have all her clothes on.

I held my little ones for a moment, one in my lap who looked up at me with her little eyes beaming at me, and the other teen next to me, and I calmed them before I started to explain.

“Well, nothing really bad would happen if we don’t get it closed tightly, which is why I’m not worried if Michelle’s diaper is a little loose. The worst thing that might happen, is her diaper falls down, but since you have pajama pants on over it, then it doesn’t matter if it falls down a bit. You can just pull it up.”

I felt Samantha breathing heavily as she lie against me, as though her body were settling down, and she was about to fall into slumber. The little one was not far behind her.

“If the diaper is not on you that well, or if it falls down some, then you might not be able to…,” but they were already breathing heavily and their eyes were closed. They might be asleep, but just in case, I went on. “...to keep your pants or the bed dry should you start wetting. It’s okay though. I care less about a wet bed than I do about you little ones being healthy and comfortable.”

The children didn’t stir.

I let them rest there for a few minutes, letting them get as far into dreamland as I could before moving them. They definitely had a long day today, with getting a new home where they were probably going to have to learn new rules and quirks, and they were eating fast food, it seemed like, for the first time in a while, and on top of that, it seemed like they had little in toys, and really, little in real care besides just keeping them alive.

I finally started to lift myself off the sofa worried a little bit about the nightmares the kids might have that night. I carefully adjusted Michelle as I got up, and I carried her back to the bedroom and put her in the big bed there that she and Samantha would share for a little while, until I was comfortable with them and they were comfortable with being here, then I might move them downstairs into separate bedrooms. But for tonight, and for a while, that room next to mine was going to be their bedroom.

I put little Michelle’s bottom on the bed, but her hands tightened around my neck, and she didn’t seem to want to let go of me. I bent down to get her closer to the bed, but she held on to me like a pit bull grasping its favorite bone.

I didn’t really know what to do, so I lifted her up again, and carrying her with me, I walked into the living room where I had seen that Samantha had stretched across the sofa, her eyes still closed and her breath coming out in short puffs of snores.

I bent down, Michelle’s bottom on my knee, and I lightly pushed at Samantha’s shoulder. She flinched, her eyes popped open, and she started right away with her fearful apologies.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to. I don’t know how I got here, honest! I didn’t leave my room. I promise!”

I couldn’t bare to see her so scared, so apologetic, and so worried with her body tightened up and her hands in front of her face. I felt a tear run down the left side of my face.

“Baby, you are not in any trouble,” I whispered to her as I tried to hold her stiffened hands. “It’s okay. You weren’t put to bed yet, honey. It’s okay….”

I don’t know how long I sat there, one knee up to support Michelle’s bottom, one knee down as I tried to comfort and wake my little teenager since I couldn’t hold them both at the same time. “You are okay.”

She shaking teenager finally opened her eyes, and she stared at me while I continued to try to softly talk her down. It took more than ten minutes for her arms to soft and her hands to come away from her face. It took a few more minutes before she finally relaxed her legs and her body, and then a few more, before I could get her to stand up and walk to the bedroom with me.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said looking up at me with sincere eyes. “I’m sorry I fell asleep on the sofa. I would have wet it if you didn’t wake me up.”

I shook my head. “You have a diaper on, honey.”

She nodded.

I led her to one side of the bed and she climbed in. I put Michelle down right next to her, and Michelle’s hands immediately transferred to holding on to Samantha. Samantha smiled.

“Take care of your baby sister,” I told her.

Samantha smiled up at me, and she whispered. “I will.”

I finally slipped out of their room, and all was quiet during the night.

[kerry]

Is the stuffy Honey Bear or Honey Paw?

[Ishigreensa]

1 hour ago, kerry said:

Is the stuffy Honey Bear or Honey Paw?

The Bear's name is Honey Paw.  

[Dirkimaus]

Eine tolle Geschichte ich habe sie in einem Rutsch durch gelesen.

Bitte schreib schnell weiter.

[parkintochter]

32 minutes ago, Dirkimaus said:

Eine tolle Geschichte ich habe sie in einem Rutsch durch gelesen.

Bitte schreib schnell weiter.

why do you think Ishigreensa speaks german. Write english like the rest of us

[Ishigreensa]

Chapter Seven

She Just Stood There

The night was quiet after they were both in bed. I didn’t hear even a word from them and though I did get worried a couple of times in the night, woke up, and checked on my little babies, they were covered up and snoring somewhat peacefully.

Michelle had eventually relaxed her hold on Samantha by the time I checked on them at around two in the morning, and they were sleeping seemingly, comfortably. I pulled the door closed and smiled and went back to bed. I guess being a new parent, even if your children are not actual babies, it’s still giving, at least me, the jitters.

It was around eight when I came out of sleep next, and I listened for a moment, expecting to hear little pattering feet running here or there, or maybe the hum of the television in the distance seeing as children often do not realize how loud they have it on, but it was so silent, I started to wonder if I had dreamed all of the night before, and if I were supposed to pick them up today! As I pulled on my trousers, however, I knew that yesterday was too real for it to have been a dream. So where were the little noises of children watching television, running around here and there, or trying to get breakfast on their own? Surely, the teenage was old enough to reach and get the cereal if she realized this was her house.

“I’m a thief,” I remember her saying as she had looked down at that moment. Surely, she wouldn’t think getting breakfast was stealing? And then I remembered more.

“Those welts on her body, the beatings she got, they seemed to be the only way she was punished by the last people that had her.” I remembered: She was beat for the simple matter of having had a potty accident in her pants.

I felt something chill my soul, and I pulled on my pants a bit faster than I was going to, and slinging a shirt around my shoulders, I ran the two steps out of my room, one foot into the hall, and opening the door, the shirt around my body now, and the top two buttons already buttoned.

I saw the ten year old baby, at that moment, her mouth had just been open as if she were talking, but now, she froze mid-word as if scared of what was going to happen. The teenager was out of bed, and her knees slightly bent, I saw the insides of the legs of her pajamas were soaked. There was a puddle on the floor, and she stared startled at me for what seemed forever, her jaw quivering, her eyes shining, and her hands wringing on each other.

I looked concerned towards them, wondering what they had to suddenly shush about, and I approached Samantha wanting to comfort the wet little teenager.

“I...I… um… I’m not lying,” she shivered still not even telling me what she was not lying about. I put a hand on her shoulder, and I lifted her head up towards my eyes with my other hand. “Honey, you didn’t even say anything yet,” I reminded her. “It’s okay. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

She stood there, still shaking.

“I mean… I didn’t. Um… the door was still closed. I promise. I didn’t….”

I put both my arms around her and rocked her on the spot on her feet. “It’s okay, baby. I know you didn’t,” I tried to let her feel that I was on her side. Whatever she thought she had done wrong, even if she did do something, she had to know, that she wasn’t going to be hit first and foremost. That life was behind her.

“I didn’t leave the room,” she finally managed to say in a very low and pleading voice that begged that she was believed.

“I know you didn’t,” I whispered to her.

“You… you do?”

“Your clothes are all wet, and there is a puddle under you,” I whispered to her. “There wouldn’t be a puddle under you if you had left the room.”

She looked up at me, her eyes bright and shiny.

“You are a teenager, baby. If you had left the room, then I don’t know why you’d have wet your pants when you were fully awake and aware of it. However, given that you were so scared of being punished in your past, and your pleading that I believe you, the door closed, and you shivering here even as I hold you, I know what happened.”

“That… that I peed my pants?” she looked up at me with her eyes about to spill tears all over her face.

“That you were scared to leave your bedroom,” I whispered to her not wanting to make her think that I was just seeing a messy little child. “You were too scared to leave your room in time,” I told her.

Michelle pulled the blankets off her head, for she had put her head under them for a few minutes while I was trying to comfort Samantha.

Samantha looked up into my eyes, as though she were studying me for some reason, and after a while, I saw tears coming down her face.

“It’s just… I know I’m not supposed to leave the bedroom, and you were so nice, I didn’t want to steal from you,” she looked down.

“Honey, this is YOUR house now. You are not supposed to stay somewhere unless you are asked to because of something we need to work out. But in the mornings, especially when I don’t need to get you up for school or something…, I fully expect you both to be running around and watching television until I get up.”

The child looked into my eyes again, her shining eyes dancing as though they were trying to open me and find out what was truly hidden behind the pupils of my eyes. I knew that I only had hopes, dreams, and truth for her, but I didn’t think she really understood my intentions at all.

I just swayed a bit longer, and Michelle pushed down the blankets.

Looking over at her, she smiled a little bit, as though she were satisfied or proud of herself for something, but that smile only lasted a moment, before she frowned and looked down.

Her pajamas were soaked, and there was a wet spot in the bed, that when Samantha caught me looking, caused her to shiver a little more in my arms.

“Michelle, sweetheart?” I motioned at her to come to me. “Did you just wet yourself on purpose, baby?”

She got out of the bed, and with her head down, she started to try to mumble out her excuse for doing it, an excuse I kind of expected given her file and the history that was in there.

“I… I thought… um… didn’t you want me to?”

I reached down and picking her up, I touched her nose. Her wet little body came into contact with my waist as she wrapped her arms and legs around me, and I patted her back.

“I’m not mad,” I told her as I held her so we were face to face. “But no, I didn’t want you to just lay there and pee on yourself. It’s not healthy and it’s not really comfortable for you either.”

She nodded. “Are you going to put your hands in my…?”

“No,” I kissed her on the head. “No one is going to do that here, honey. You don’t have to worry about that kind of thing around your new daddy.”

She looked at me for several minutes as though she wasn’t sure I was telling her the truth.

I sighed knowing it would be a while before she really understood, and before Samantha would understand.

“Come on, girls,” I reached for Samantha’s hand while still carrying Michelle towards the bathroom again. “You both should take a bath.”

“I believe you,” Michelle eventually told me just before we got into the bathroom.

Putting Michelle on the floor, so she could take her clothes off, I looked over at Samantha.

“Don’t be scared, baby. I know you have accidents, and you are not getting hit, okay? Just do me a favor, and after you are undressed, help your little sister. I don’t want her getting scared.”

Samantha nodded and pulled off her nightshirt not even caring that I was right there in front of her, but I did turn around. My attention was on filling the tub for them.

When I looked back at them, I noticed that Michelle didn’t have her diaper on, and then it made sense how she got herself and the bed so soaked. I frowned, but decided not to push at the moment. The girls needed to learn that this is a safe place first, and then what the rules are second. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what the rule should be. If she didn’t want to wear a diaper, I wasn’t sure it was a good thing to make her wear it.

I reached my hand out towards the girls. One at a time, Samantha first to move, they came over and I helped them get into the tub. Once they were in, I squatted down by Samantha.

“Do you think you can help your little sister get clean?” I asked her.

Samantha nodded up at me with a bit of a frown.

“No one is in trouble,” I told her again knowing that she probably needed to hear this over and over by the way she kept looking up at me. “I just want to make sure you are both clean and comfortable.”

Samantha nodded her little head and still staring up at me, she whispered as I started to stand up.

“Can… can you stay?”

“What? Do you mean in the bathroom while you are bathing?”

Samantha nodded.

I looked into her little innocent green eyes, and then with a smile growing on my face, I nodded. “Sure, baby. I’ll just sit over here so I’m out of your way.”

She smiled and nodded as I sat down on the toilet pulling the lid over so I had a seat.

“I… I’m sorry I peed my pants this morning,” she whispered as she ran a drenched cloth of soapy water over her chest.

“I told you baby,” I whispered back to her. “It was an accident.”

“I… I did it on purpose,” she nearly stumbled over the words.

“No, baby, you were scared. If you wet because you are unsure of something that scares you, then it’s an accident. A little lady your age doesn’t just wet yourself for not reason, sweetheart.”

She smiled, blushed, and looked down as she wet her washcloth again.

Michelle was wetting another cloth, and being behind Samantha at the moment, she was running her wet cloth down the older child’s back.

In her file, something that I distrusted more the more I looked at it, I remember reading from the perspective of one of her old abusers: “She just stands there and pisses herself like some animal or something.”

It was no wonder the little one had little self confidence, and why she thought everything was her fault. This particular person that had had her was just accusing and mean to the baby all the way around.

Eventually, Samantha turned to face Michelle.

“Did you wash your chest yet?” she asked her.

Michelle shrugged.

“Well, you’re a big girl, so how about you show me that you can wash your front and I’ll just help you where you miss, and then you can turn around so I can wash your back?” Samantha whispered to her.

Michelle shrugged and then started to wash her own little chest.

Those children were really cute together, and I couldn’t believe nearly everything in the files I had of them. Samantha was not bullying towards Michelle at all. She had not gotten up and taken so much as some cereal this morning when she woke up for breakfast, but rather waited in her room, to the point that she couldn’t hold it anymore, and wet herself. Michelle was a little bit needy, but she wasn’t really that old of a child. Ten years old, okay, maybe she was a little more needy than other ten year olds, and maybe she did wet herself on purpose this morning, but someone has taught her to do that. That is not natural for a child her age.

When the girls were done, and they moved to start standing up, I got up and went to the tub.

“Since I’m right here, can I help you both out?” I asked them. “I just don’t want you to slip on the wet floor, and since I’m right here….” I trailed off wondering if especially Samantha might be a little upset that I wanted to help, but she just smiled up at me, and reached her arms up at me.

I lifted her out of the tub, and sat her further from it away from all the water all over the floor. Then I looked at Michelle, who had seen me lift Samantha up. She smiled up at me, and nodded reaching her arms up as she had seen Samantha do, and I put her out of the area of the wet floor around the tub.

“You two go ahead and go to your room. Your new clothes should be in there in your dresser and your closet.”

They ran off giggling, and I started to mop up the floor, so that no one would slip.

 

[Arendeth]

Thanks for the story.