The Imposter

Chapter Two

    The following morning I woke up to check if my mom or dad had called to check in on us, but nothing. It was strange, by now they would have messaged me. I was worried.  I heard a knock coming from downstairs. It must be Abel and Lailah I thought. So did my sister.  She ran and  opened the door for them. As I walked down, I heard a man’s voice that I couldn’t recognize. “Excuse me,” he began. “Is there an adult here that we may speak to?” As I got further down the stairs I saw a woman and another man next to him. I walked faster down the stairs. “Who are you and what do you want?” I asked them. They looked over my sister’s shoulder and saw me at the bottom of the stairs. The men and the woman looked at me, then the man who was talking to my sister cleared his throat. 

    “Good morning, my name is Sheriff Thompson, this is Ms. Richardson from Child Protective Services, and Mr. Gonzalez from Koala Playground (my father’s company, I know a weird name). We are looking for an adult.” I glanced at him and then at my father’s boss, didn’t he remember that my dad was on a trip? And what was Child Protective Services doing here? “Well my father and mother are not home, my neighbors are taking care of us, I can call them if you’d like?” I said with a shaky voice. “That would be wonderful, may we sit down?” I nodded my head to them. They headed towards the sofa. I pulled my sister aside. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but you have to go to your room and stay there until I come and get you okay?” My sister did as I told her. I quickly walked to the phone and called Lailah and Abel. I told them what was going on and they said they were on their way. 

    I walked to the strangers on the sofa. I sat there with them. They looked at me as if I were some strange bug that they had just discovered. Soon after Lailah and Abel came. They shook hands with the guests. Sheriff Thompson looked at me and then back at Lailah and Abel. “Do you think that we could have this conversation in private?” he asked them as he looked back at me. In private, why was this conversation such a mystery? “ I want to be present also. I need to know what’s going on” I pleaded with them. Lailah looked at me “please Erick go upstairs, we will go get you as soon as we can.” I had no choice, I went upstairs. 

The conversation lasted for hours. It was almost lunch time when they left. Abel came to my room, where was Lailah? Was she with my sister? What did they say? I had so many questions for him, but I couldn’t find the words. Abel sat down next to me on my bed. He grabbed the iPod from my hand and signaled me to take off the headphones. I did. I put them down and looked at him. I could see it in his eyes that he had something to say, but didn’t know how to. I striked up a conversation.  “Did they leave?” He nodded yes. “What did they want?” He hesitated before clearing his throat. “Erick… how can I say this?” He began to twirl his fingers. “What’s wrong, just tell me are my mom and dad okay?” That’s it I thought, they must have been here because of my mom and dad. A tear began to fall from Abel’s eye. 

“They came to tell us that your father had an accident as he was getting on to the subway in New York.”  I looked at him. “An accident? That’s all? But he’s okay right?” There was no answer. A few minutes later, he finally found it in him to tell me. “Your dad had an accident and he didn’t make it I’m sorry.” I felt my heart sink. I understood why my dad’s boss was here, but Child Protective Services?  “What about the lady from Child Protective Services, why was she here?” I asked, he could see my confusion. “Well, the thing is that last night your mom also had an accident.The plane she was on crashed.  She didn’t make it either.” I couldn’t believe what he had just said. He tried to reach to hug me but I pushed him. I got up, but my legs didn’t respond. It was too much for me. I fainted right into his arms.

When I came back to my senses I could see Lailah and Abel whispering about something. I slowly got up. They came to help me. I could see that they had both been crying. It was true then? It wasn’t just some sort of sick joke that they wanted to play on us, my parents were really gone. Lailah hugged me and began to cry. I could hear her muttering that she was sorry. Sorry for what, it wasn’t her fault that my parents had left my sister… Valeria did she already know? “Lailah what about Valeria does she know?” Lailah shook her head “we couldn’t tell her, we thought that you should be the one to tell her.” I agreed. I wanted to let her  know what had happened. As I walked out the door, I had one last question for them. “Why was the lady from child services here?” Abel and Lailah glanced at each other. 

Lailah got up from the bed and grabbed my hand. “She told us that since your legal guardians are too far away, you will have to go to foster  homes.” What foster care? I couldn’t believe that. What if they seperated us?  “Will we go together?” I asked. Abel got up from the chair he was sitting in “no, the couple that will take in your sister doesn’t want any boys. You will go to one home and your sister to another. Don’t worry we are going to do anything to get you guys back.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Not only did my parents pass away, but my sister and I were going to be seperated. How could this have happened? Why to us?