Where Life Takes Us - 15. Chapter 15 - Have A Nice Day

It had been just over half a year since Owen moved in with his aunt Wanda and uncle Fredrick. His aunt Wanda was his mother's younger sister. They had two children of their own: Julian, age 12, and Ivy, age 10.

At first Owen remained to himself having minimal contact with the rest of the household. As time went by, he found his place in the house, the maid.

He was expected to pick up his cousins right after school. He was to walk them home and then start cleaning up around the house. They said it was for him to “earn his place” in their home. Julian and Ivy would leave things extra messy just to make him work harder.

When his aunt and uncle came home from work they expected something to have been done for dinner. And since the younger ones didn't know how to work a microwave, it was once again up to Owen.

In late January, one day Owen had not met with the expectations of his aunt and uncle. “What the hell is this!? Why isn't the house cleaned up?”

Owen was up in his room and didn't hear his uncle. His aunt came up to his room and opened the door. “Why isn't the house cleaned up? There are toys all over the living room, breakfast still on the counter and laundry in the hamper!”

“I have a project I need to get done.” Owen replied never taking his eyes off the computer screen.

She tapped her foot as she spoke, “The project can wait; you have cleaning to do.”

“It's due tomorrow, and I've barely touched it. I need to get it done.” Owen continued to work as his aunt stood in the doorway. “Why don't you ask my very capable cousins to clean up?”

“It's not their job to clean up.”

“It's not my 'job' either. Why do I have to clean up after them? They are old enough to clean up after themselves.” Owen had stopped working on his project. His hands had balled up into fists, which were shaking in anger.

In the past he had thought it would change. It was obvious that his new guardians were not the cleanest people. He began it as more of a favour, hoping they would clean up after themselves as time continued... Owen was done.

“When you live under your own roof, you can make your own rules! While you live under ours, you will live by ours. Now get to cleaning the house!” There was more anger than dominance in his aunt's voice.

Owen looked over at his aunt. His eyes as furious as a raging fire. She actually took a step back before Owen spoke. “I didn't ask to live here; you asked me to. You know damn well that if I report this to social services they will side with me. If all you are going to do is use me to clean up your and your children's messes then I'll leave.

“I'm not here to do everyone's laundry all the time. I'm not here to clean every dish in this house weekly. I'm not here to pick up after preteens. I'm here 'cause you said 'you should stay close to your family' and for no other reason.

“I thought you were doing me a favour, not making your own lazy-ass-self become even lazier.” Owen got up to shut the door. His aunt backed away as he walked towards her, “And don't worry about making any calls, I'll make them as soon as I'm done with my homework.”

Having slammed the door Owen walked back to his computer. In only a few minutes he had done everything he could do at home before losing his focus. He grabbed his coat and made a phone call. After a few rings it was answered, “Owen! Hey!”

“Meagan, can I come over? I... I need to talk to someone.”

“Hold on, I'll do my best.” In the background Owen could hear Meagan explaining the situation. In a few moments she was back on the phone, “Ya, you can come over. When do you think you'll get here?”

“Since I'm not sixteen and I have no money for the bus... half an hour, hour tops. I'll see you then...” Owen was about to hang up when Meagan cut him off.

“I'll meet you at the park. It sounds like you should let some steam loose before you come over.” Owen was silent knowing that Meagan was absolutely right. “I'll be sitting at the usual spot. See you in a bit.”

“Ya... Okay, see ya.” They hung up the phone.

Owen made his way downstairs and out the door. He didn't even hear his uncle ask, “Where the hell do you think you're going?” He just left before anything else could be said.

From Owen's Notes:

I must have walked faster than normal that day. I mean I was at the park in about fifteen minutes. When it got in sight I slowed down a bit. Man, did my legs hurt. I mean, it's not like we get a lot of snow here, so there wasn't much resistance. It was just me walking so fast.

There Meagan was sitting on the bench she usually sat on. I walked up and sat down beside her. “Hey...” was all I said as my head sunk down.

“What's up?” She looked up from underneath my face. I cracked a smile and then told her everything.

I told her how me living with my family wasn't the best choice. That I could have gone with Wyatt's parents if I wanted to. I told her how my aunt had practically begged me to come live with them and how I couldn't say no.

It continued, I didn't stop there. I told her about why I hadn't been able to hang out lately. That my schedule was filled with being the housemaid. How 'they' were taking all the child's tax credit for themselves and I haven't seen a single cent.

After I was done I think I punched the bench a few more times than I should have. It felt good though. If benches had feelings I would have apologized... Sorry bench?

Meagan just looked at me. “Well if you think you need a change of scenery then I agree with you. I think you made the right choice. Have you called child services yet?”

“No.”

“Then let's do that. I'll call my parents at the same time to see if they would mind having you bring your service lady over for a bit.” Meagan took out her phone and was already dialling.

I dialled my 'service lady' before Meagan took the phone from me and told her everything. Like Meagan, predicted she wanted to talk to me. I told her Meagan's address and said we'd meet her there in a few minutes.

It was set... I was probably getting out of my aunt's house for good. Thank God for that.

It was an early January morning. February was right around the corner. Over the past few months Meagan's words had festered in Vivian's head. 'Would you take him in?' she had asked.

Bran was reading the paper and having his coffee when Vivian walked into the room. “I've been thinking...”

Bran looked up from the paper and took a sip of his coffee. “About what, honey?”

She pondered for a moment. “About what that Meagan girl asked of us half a year ago.”

“Didn't she say that the matter resolved itself?” Bran set down the newspaper and paid full attention to his wife as she spoke.

“She did but that isn't what I've been thinking about.” Again she pondered to herself for a moment. “I want a child to care for.”

“That is... out of the blue for me.”

She nodded. “I know. I've been thinking about it since that girl came by. The way she wanted to help a friend out. It inspired me to want to have a child.”

“Then why don't we try for another one then? We've done it once before we can do it again.”

“No.” Bran's expression became confused. “You're right, we have made a child before and we could very well do it again. I don't want to though. We've sent one child into adoption; we should take one out of it as well.”

Bran shook his head and rubbed his temples. “Again this is very sudden Vi. There are so many questions to be answered.”

“Like what? There can't be that many.”

“How old should they be? Do we want a newborn? Or maybe one that is a few weeks old?” Bran raised his brow as he continued, “Do we want to know the parents? How will we tell them they are adopted? Those are just some questions that we would have to answer before adopting a baby.

“Now there are even more to go with older children who know they are adopted. How will we explain to them why we are adopting them? Will we decide on a whim?”

“I get it! And there are plenty of questions and even more that will come when we do adopt and they start to grow up. I truly do understand it. I still think that we should adopt.” Bran sighed, “I'm not wavering from my position.”

“I know you aren't... Lets talk about this once we've gotten home from work. That way it will have marinated in my mind for a bit.” He got up and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek. “Just let me do my own thinking after work we'll have a more detailed conversation.” Bran made his way out to work. The conversation never leaving his mind.

“Hello, Owen. My name is Hilary Kings, and I have taken over as your social worker. Glenna is retiring.”

Hilary Kings, to Owen, was a kind looking individual. Her hair had some greys scattered about but was mostly a dark brown. Her eyes looked as gentle as a mother's eyes could.

“So where am I gonna go now?”

Hilary sighed, “Well, what you have said about your aunt and uncle is pretty alarming. The most important thing is that you have gotten no money or clothes since you moved there. If they have taken the money that was meant for you then there is a reason to remove you from them.”

“Like I asked, where am I gonna go?” Owen grew impatient.

“I can see that you believe that you will be moved.”

“I'm not going back there, that's for sure.”

Hilary nodded. “Yes, I expected that. For now you will stay at the Freedmin home. It's close enough to your current school, and I trust them to give you your due amount. I will contact you once we have found a place for you to live.”

Owen smiled as Hilary got up. “Thanks... Can you try to keep it close to here?”

“I promise nothing but my best to keep you close to your friends. The likelihood though is not very high... I apologize if you must move even farther away.” Hilary left, leaving Owen in low hopes of staying close to his friends.

“So, like I said this morning, I've been thinking about it.” Vivian and Bran had just sat down for dinner. Their dinner topic, children. “I agree with you. We need to find a way to get a child a good home. I differ in option though.”

Vivian swallowed the food in her mouth before speaking. “What 'option' are you thinking of?”

Bran cleared his throat. “Well you gave the option of adoption. That is a valid option, but I think we should go for a different one for now. We could take in a child in 'the system'.”

“One of the social worker children?” Bran nodded.

“That way, we can't specify the age of a child and see where that takes us.”

“We have never been true parents; do you think they'll let us.”

“The number of households for these kids to go to is small. They accept some awful people into this. I don't see why they won't accept us.”

“Okay, how do we register?”

“Leave that to me, Vi, I'll get us on that list.”

From Wyatt's POV

So I was just sitting around in the social services place when the worst thing possible happened. I was there waiting with Owen because Meagan was super busy with a project. We were gonna meet the people that Owen was gonna live with.

The way Hilary described them was simple. “They are the only household open in the area for you to stay here. They are new to parenting, which concerns me, but there could be worse.”

“But it gets me to stay around my friends right?” Hilary nodded. “Then it could be the devil himself, I'd take it.”

That was about an hour ago. Now we were sitting around playing cards when 'they' came in. 'They' actually stopped in their tracks as they saw Owen and I.

Hilary started the introductions. “Owen, this is Bran and Vivian Fouse. They are the couple who are welcoming you to their home.”

Vivian looked at me, then back to Owen. “You are Wyatt's friend Owen?” He nodded. “Wow... this is...” She was at a loss of words.

“Apparently you already know each other?” Hilary seamed to be feeling awkward as well.

Bran spoke next, “We know of him. His friend Meagan tried to get us to do this some time ago. I assure you we only learnt it's gonna be those boys now. Sadly, we know next to nothing about either of them.”

Hilary seamed to have let go of a breath. “Good, or else I would have had to find someone else. Well Owen, these are your guardians now. They have signed the papers and everything.”

Owen looked at me. I avoided eye contact. “Can I have a moment with Wyatt, alone?” The adults nodded and left the earshot. Owen began whispering, “Are you okay with this?”

“I can't promise I'm gonna come over anytime soon but I don't have a problem with it. If it keeps you close by, I'm okay with it.”

Owen gave me a hug. “If you ever have a problem with it just say something. Don't be afraid to tell me.”

“Look at Owen here being all emotional and such.”

He punched me for that one. “Oh shut it, you!” We had a laugh before he went to his new home. Hilary was gonna bring the rest of his stuff once he got settled.

Owen's house is gonna be a little awkward now...

Chapter end.