The Foster Home

Surprise, Surprise

"Socks!" Silence. "So-ocks!" I get the same response as I had been for the past half hour. My dog, Socks, named after his annoying habit of collecting socks, has run away again. He's been running away of every day of this week. Usually, he'd come back after a little while, but it was getting late, and Socks has yet to return. Even after looking for him for almost an hour, there's been no sign of his presence anywhere. "Socks!" This time, some guy told me to shut up from a nearby house. I'm pretty much ready to break down into tears.

Just earlier, Kaleb Burner had rejected me. The guy I had been crushing on for years had simply turned me down. On the last day of my junior year, I finally had the guts to casually ask him out. And what I had thought was going to be the first date of many, became the exact opposite. Even though he did it quite nicely, I am still totally heartbroken.

Even while I'm searching for my lost dog, all I can think about is him. All I see is how he looked at me sympathetically and shook his head. It's playing inside my head in slow motion over and over again. I feel like screaming and crying, while bathing in nothing but silence at the same time.

Now, heartbroken and dogless, I am kneeling in the middle of the sidewalk trying to calm down, listening for any sign of a dog anywhere. And all of a sudden - a faint jingle. One that sounded suspiciously similar to Socks' collar. I jerk my head up just in time to see a few dogs (one of which resembled Socks greatly), run into the house across the park - the biggest house for miles.

I begin walking from the other side of the park for the mansion. I walk through the small park, avoiding the tiny pond and the few ducks around it, sizing up the house that I was approaching. It's a huge, three-story house with a towery thing jutting out from the top. It's a faded peachy, orangy color, which I pegged as odd the first time I saw it, but after a while, it just makes sense. No one I know has any clue who lives there, or what goes on inside. To be honest, I'm kind of happy right now to have an excuse to knock on the door.

Finally walking up to the empty porch of this mysterious mansion, I look up to the edifice standing before me. Now that I'm right under the extremely tall building, it's hard to tell how many floors there are. I don't think it's three. I grab the ornate knocker in hand and bang it on the door a few times. I hear barking from inside and soon a boy comes to open the door.

As soon as he opens it, a blur of fuzz whizzes past me. I turn around in alarm to see a couple dogs (none of which were mine) run on a path that I figure leads to the backyard.

"Hi, can I help you?" The first thing I notice is that his voice is really low. The next thing that I notice is that he's pretty tall. And craning my neck to look at his face, I see that he has incredibly dark hair and eyes that looked tired like mine.

"Uh, yeah." I clear my throat. "My dog ran off, and I was wondering if you might've seen him."

"Does your dog happen to be a beagle?"

Oh, thank God. "Yes. He does happen to be a beagle."

"Well I'm pretty sure he's in here, but I'll have to find him." This guy has yet to show me any emotion.

"Oh, well I can help you look for him," I offer.

"Nah. It's a big house, but it shouldn't be too hard to find him. But you can come in and wait if you'd like." He steps aside so I can walk inside.

At least he's polite. "Thank you," I say smiling my signature smile that's so warm that it makes people feel fuzzy inside. But this kid has no reaction to it.

He leads me inside to the large, almost cavernous foyer, with almost no furniture. It remind me of a dance studio because of its spaciousness. There is a grand stairwell at the back, which splits into a banister type hallway on both sides. There is a hallway to both my right and left, a doorway in the back to the right of the stairs, and an elegant double door immediately to my right.

He guides me down the right hallway and through an open door on the left. In the small room, there is nothing but an old couch and a coffee table inside. "You can sit here. I'll be back with your dog." He turns, heading out.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" I call out.

Without turning around, he responds, "I'm sure." Maybe he's not so polite after all.

Looking around the room, there really isn't anything special about it. On the wall, there is a black and white picture of a young man. He's outside in a field, smiling at the very edge of the photo, but no one else is in the picture. Other than that, and a cat lurking in the corner, the room is empty.

A little yorkie trots inside, and jumps on the couch, sitting beside me. I scratch his head, when another cat startles me by crawling out from under the table across from me. Is this some sort of pet haven? As if on cue, a guinea pig crawls on the floor outside the door.

Curious, I get up, leaving the yorkie to nap on the couch, and look outside the room to the hallway. Looking both ways, I see that all the doors (and there are a lot of doors) are wide open. Even the one at the very end of the hall which leads outside is open. That's probably kind of dangerous. Then I see the guinea pig disappear into the foyer room. Just as I'm about to go follow it, the boy appears at the end of the hallway and look who's following him..."Socks!" Socks wags his little beagle tail and runs up to me. I bend down so he can jump and lick my face. I laugh and pet his head. "What were you doing here?"

He just keeps wagging his tail. He may be a cutie, but he isn't the smartest. I look up just in time to see what's-his-face's smile before it disappears again. "He's been coming here all week."

"Oh, I see." So this is where he's been. "Well thank you so much for finding him."

"No problem." He doesn't move, waiting for me to get up.

"Alright," So I stand. "Let's go buddy." We follow him back to the foyer which is now almost unrecognizable.

It is teeming with animals. There are dogs, cats, rodents, birds. And then there are weird ones, like monkeys and mini cows, and alligators, and ponies (there are a lot of unicorns), and... A mini elephant? Yeah, a mini elephant. I can't even identify all of them. Bizarre animals are passing through hallways and doors. It occurs to me that there might be more if I looked up. I see mammals flying. There's a flying dog and a flying squirrel. And I don't mean the type that glides. I mean a squirrel with white fluffy wings. Socks seems oblivious to all of this, otherwise I think he would've already died from a heart attack. "Whaaa..." We stop in the middle of the room and I think my mouth is hanging wide open, because what's-his-face gives me a look. "What is this place?"

"This is..." He tilts his head in thought, and he takes me by surprise by smirking. "A foster home." He walks further and opens the door for me. I walk to the door, but I don't leave.

"Why is that dog flying?" I ask, and I know my mouth must've been open, because my mouth was already open when I started talking. My mind is still frozen, and I can't think of any explanation that would be appropriate for this situation. Like, this doesn't make any sense.

"I'm not going to answer anymore of your questions." He says, remaining emotionless to the creatures that I didn't know really existed, behind him.

I'm turning my head left and right, trying to take in everything. "But I still have a few more." Socks is on the porch waiting for me, and this kid doesn't respond. "What's your name?"I stop moving and look at him.

"Samson." He says.

Aha! He has a name."Okay, mine's Alyson, and one more." The flying squirrel disappears through the doorway next to the stairs. "Can I come back?"

A few seconds of silence, and then... "Yeah."

"Great." I say, all smiles. "See ya." When I turn to leave, I'm still so preoccupied with the flying dog and the mini elephant that I almost don't see the silhouette of a giant person at the left hallway. But I did see it, and I'm left utterly confused when Samson shuts the door.

I walk home, Socks at my side, and all I can think about are all the impossible things that I just saw. And I can't shake the feeling that this "foster home" isn't what it seems to be... The funniest part is that I don't even know what it seems to be.

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Okay, so I'm working with a really complex concept, which is why this first chapter was kind of all over the place. If you have any feedback, I'd REALLY appreciate it (God knows I need to listen to it, as well).

Thanks ^_^