Chapter One
Brinique and Davisa Powers huddled under the blanket fort they’d made in their room, keeping their voices low so their parents couldn’t hear them.
“I don’t like him,” Davisa declared stubbornly.
“Me neither, but Mommy and Daddy say he was like we used to be,” Brinique countered.
Davisa’s lower lip quivered and crocodile tears welled up in her big brown eyes. The tears fell and left tracks down her chocolate-brown face. “What if they decide they like him better?”
Brinique gathered her little sister into her arms and rocked her back and forth. She’d been looking after her all their lives. Before they’d been taken out of their home, she’d had to protect Davisa from the mean men their real mother invited into the house. They’d only been three and four, but surprisingly, Brinique remembered it quite well.
Christopher and Alabama Powers had fostered, then adopted them. Even though they told her that it wasn’t her job to protect her sister anymore, Brinique couldn’t just turn it off. Physically, there wasn’t anything that would hurt them in their new life, but emotionally, Davisa sometimes still struggled.
Brinique wasn’t sure what it was that Daddy Abe did, but it was something really important. He and his friends would go out into the world and keep bad guys from hurting others. He was a SEAL…not like the animal, but some kind of military soldier. Brinique didn’t really understand it all, but she knew he had to be the bestest soldier ever. When he held her in his arms and told her how much he loved her, she felt safe, so anyone he went out to help had to feel the same way.
The two years since they’d been officially adopted had been wonderful. She was eight now, and in the second grade. Davisa was seven and in first grade. They were the oldest kids in their class, but they hadn’t started school, or even ever been read to, until they’d been taken in by Christopher and Alabama, and then they repeated a grade so they could catch up.
Earlier that week, Mommy and Daddy had told them they were going to get a brother. It had been a surprise, even more so when they learned their new sibling was actually older than them. Brinique liked being the oldest, liked it even better when she and Davisa were the only kids in the house.
Tommy had been with them for four days now, and it was a tough adjustment. Brinique knew what her sister was feeling, because they’d talked about it the other night…and she felt exactly the same way.
Tommy was ten. He’d been taken away from his father because of some bad stuff the man was doing. The little boy was skinny with dark brown hair. He didn’t have a lot of clothes with him when he came to live with them, but Alabama’s friends quickly took care of that. Tommy didn’t talk much to adults…but when Mommy and Daddy weren’t around, he said plenty to Brinique and Davisa.
He told them that they were ugly. And stupid. And that if either of them ever came into his room, he’d “knock the shit out of them.”
“Why’d Mommy and Daddy have to bring him here? This is our house. I don’t like him. He’s mean,” Davisa sniffled.
Brinique opened her mouth to answer her sister when the blanket at the edge of the fort shifted. Daddy Abe peeked in. “Permission to enter?”
Not really wanting to talk to her dad, Brinique nodded anyway. It would be rude to say no, and Daddy was a stickler for being respectful, no matter what. She shifted to the side, giving him room to wiggle inside the small space with them. The blanket dropped behind him, leaving the trio sitting in the muted darkness of the fort.
Brinique sighed when Daddy Abe wrapped his large arms around both her and Davisa. He smelled good. Like soap and…Daddy. She wasn’t ready to snuggle into him like she’d usually do, but she couldn’t deny it felt good in his embrace.
“I know you guys are confused, but I’d like to tell you a story,” Christopher “Abe” Powers told his daughters evenly.
Brinique liked her dad’s stories, but if his serious tone and the look in his eyes were any indication, she had a feeling this one would be very different. Davisa nodded immediately, and finally Brinique also nodded, refusing to look up again at her daddy.
“There once was a little boy,” Abe started. “He lived with his dad because his mommy died two years ago. After the mommy died, the dad was very sad. So sad, he stopped caring about anything. He loved his wife so much that he had a hard time getting up in the mornings. He didn’t wash his clothes or the dishes and only sometimes remembered to go to the store to buy food. He didn’t go to work, because he was simply too sad.
“The little boy was also sad, but had to go to school. He tried to take care of his dad and the house, but he was only your age, Brinique. Only a kid. One day, his dad told him to pack a bag, they were leaving the house. They couldn’t afford to stay there anymore. The boy was confused and upset because he couldn’t take any of his toys and only a few clothes.
“They lived in their car for a while. Sleeping there and finding food to eat in trash cans behind restaurants. Finally, they were able to move into a trailer, but the boy’s daddy still didn’t seem to care about anything but drinking and giving himself shots with weird-looking liquid he melted on a spoon. The daddy the boy once knew was gone, and in his place was a mean man who always yelled at him and told him that he wished the boy wasn’t there.
“Other mean people came into the trailer, and the boy hid in his room, hungry, and scared someone would come in and hurt him. You see, the nasty people visiting the trailer had hurt him before. His daddy would take money from the mean men, and they’d come into his room and hurt him. This went on for months. Then one day, after a particularly bad night with the mean people, when the boy was at school, his teacher told the principal that the boy was hurt. The police came and took the boy away from the mean people and his dad.”
Brinique had turned to look up at her daddy while he’d been speaking. The light was low, but she could see his face. He looked incredibly sad. She didn’t want to feel sorry for the boy in the story, but she did. She remembered all too well how scared she’d been when mean people came into her old house and talked to her mommy. “Was his dad sad his son was hurt?”
“No, Pumpkin,” Abe told his daughter sadly. “He didn’t care at all. When the police said they were taking him away to jail, he didn’t seem to care about his son. He signed the papers that day to give his son up. The boy went into the foster care system like you and your sister did. Unfortunately, the things the nasty people did to hurt him have made him angry and sad at the same time. He’s built a shield around himself, to protect himself from being hurt again. He’s scared and confused about everything that happened, and I think he doesn’t want to risk caring about anything, or anyone, ever again.”
“It’s Tommy, isn’t it?” Brinique asked her dad in a small voice.
He nodded solemnly and squeezed Brinique affectionately. “I know this isn’t easy on you guys. He’s hurting and he’s scared. All I’m asking is for you to give him some time. Be the wonderful sisters I know you can be. Don’t take the things he says personally. You know your mom and I love you. You’re ours. We picked you out of all the kids we could have. Remember?”
Davisa nodded and shifted until she was sitting in her dad’s lap. “Yeah, you pickeded us. You didn’t care if we were purple or had green hair. You love us because of what’s inside our skin.”
“That’s right, sweetie. Tommy might have white skin like me and Mommy, but that doesn’t mean that we love you any less or him any more. He might be angry and mean now, but we know there’s a wonderful little boy in there. The protective, loving boy is there inside him…we just have to give him some time to let him find his way out. Remember how scared you were when you came here?”
Brinique and Davisa nodded at the same time, their eyes big as they looked up at their daddy.
“Right. He’s feeling the same thing. He’s scared he’s gonna get taken away from another house. He’s probably scared the mean people will find him again. And I know he misses his mom and dad. So we just have to give him some time. If he gets too nasty to you, just walk away and come into your room, or find me or Mommy. Okay? This is your home too, and you deserve to feel safe here just as much as he does. It’s not all right to be rude, and I’ve made it clear that he isn’t to say or do mean things to you two, but I have a feeling sometimes he’ll do it anyway. I love you girls. More than you’ll ever know. You’re my princesses. Mine and Mommy’s. Now…it’s late. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner a new day will come. You want to sleep in your fort tonight?”
“We can?” Davisa asked incredulously, knowing their daddy didn’t like them to sleep under the loosely held-up blankets. He’d told them it was a safety hazard…whatever that was.
“Yes, Pumpkin. For tonight, you can,” Abe confirmed, kissing the top of her head lovingly.
Abe helped drag pillows and blankets onto the floor and into the small fort and Brinique hugged him when he leaned down to kiss her good night. “I’m sorry mean people hurt him, Daddy.”
“Me too, baby. Me too. I love you. Sleep well.”
Later, Brinique looked over at her sister. Davisa was sound asleep next to her, but Brinique couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking about what her daddy said about Tommy.
He’d been hurt. She didn’t know how he’d been hurt, but it had to have been bad. She and Davisa had each other when they’d been placed into Mommy and Daddy’s house. It had been tough and they hadn’t trusted them for a long time. But Tommy didn’t have anyone to watch his back.
She scrunched her little eyes closed and sent a fervent wish up to the stars. “Tommy needs a friend. He needs someone to talk to. I had Davisa, but he doesn’t have anyone. He needs someone who will protect him from mean people. It doesn’t have to be a kid. It could be a cat or dog…or even an imaginary friend. I want to be his friend, but he doesn’t like me. I want him to be happy. To like Mommy and Daddy. To like us. Please send someone so he stops hurting.”
Feeling better, Brinique relaxed into her blankets. Long ago, she’d wished for someone to protect Davisa, and the policemen had showed up. She’d wished for a mommy and daddy, and Christopher and Alabama had taken them to their home. She’d wished to get Mrs. Noonkaster for her teacher this year, and that had happened too.
So she had no doubt that this wish would come true as well.
She fell asleep with a smile on her face. Secure in the knowledge that soon, Tommy would get a new friend.
* * *
Somewhere in the world, in a place humans didn’t know existed, lived the creatures adults liked to call “imaginary friends.” Some were in the shape of animals that humans knew and loved…dogs, cats, rabbits. Others took on the form of gnomes or fairies. Still others looked like children themselves.
But tonight, the creature that was assigned to Tommy after little Brinique’s wish arrived at their long-lost community, was the ugliest troll-like creature that called the place home.
Gamjee knew he was always picked last for assignments. Most of the time that didn’t bother him. He liked being by himself. Knew his misshapen head and furry body scared children more than it comforted them. He was only sent out when there was no other imaginary friend available, or in the most dire of cases.
When the light above his bed turned on, Gamjee sighed. He’d just closed his eyes and hated being taken away from a nice long nap. Sighing, he got out of bed and got dressed. He closed his eyes and, in seconds, had transported himself to their king’s throne room.
“King Matuna,” Gamjee said respectfully, nodding his head at the large being who looked like a genie from one of the human’s fairy tales. His bottom half was nothing but smoke, and his top half was the torso of a large human male. His face looked like a human’s, but he had a huge mane of hair that stuck out around his head and flowed down his back.
“Gamjee,” his king boomed. “You are being sent to a place called California. Your assignment is Tommy. He’s having trouble assimilating into his new home, and it’s imperative that he do so. The future of the country he lives in is relying on you.”
Gamjee sighed. He didn’t want an important assignment. He wanted to be assigned to some little kid who was scared of the dark and needed a buddy until he got over it.
But…they were never told the humans’ futures; if King Matuna was telling him that this Tommy boy was meant for big things in his world, he had to be very important.
“Yes, Sir,” Gamjee said respectfully.
“Not only is his life in danger, he’s mean. And we both know that being a mean kid can morph into being a mean adult, and that is not acceptable. Understand?”
“Yes, Sir,” Gamjee repeated. But inside, he was scowling. He was tired and still wanted his nap.
“Off with you then,” the king said.
Gamjee nodded and closed his eyes to transport to meet Tommy. The sooner he completed his assignment, the sooner he could nap.
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
