Sam & Penny Short-Stories *English*

ORPHANS - Betrayed

Sam kept his promise and took the children with him to the mountain rescue center after breakfast, where he took them on a sightseeing flight thanks to Tom and Wallaby2. Penny had come along to keep an eye on the children, but had stayed on the ground and used the time to talk to Malcolm on the phone. She had told him everything they had found out that morning. The children had told them about the accident, confirming both their suspicions that they had actually belonged to the woman who had died according to the report.

The children had also told them that their mother's name was Arwen Chesterfield, which sent Penny into a chaos of emotions. She had no idea whether her sister had married or not during the years they had been out of contact. But the first name was rather rare and so she didn't rule out the possibility that it was really her sister. It would explain why the children looked so much like her when she were in the same age, and why her sister had looked so familiar to Nickie in the childhood photo, and why she herself felt so attached to these children that she behaved completely irrationally .

But what if it wasn't like that and she was just getting lost in some ideas? The children would be taken to their real aunt and they would certainly never see them again.

After the sightseeing flight it started to rain and instead of going to the park as planned, they went shopping. Sam had offered to do the cooking while the children tried out the two games Sam had bought them, but they hadn't found any activity in them for a long time and preferred to play hide-and-seek. Penny had played along for a while, but quickly gave up when she was found first again and again. Sam didn't need any help in the kitchen either and so she treated herself to a short break on the couch, like she usually did on her days off.

Sam had now finished cooking and had set the table. Grinning, he looked after the children, who had now started playing catch. They raged and laughed like wild people and he indulged them in the fun, just like Penny, who he looked at when he came into the living room, so that she was concentrating less on the words in her book and more on the children when they came running past.

He thought back to the gloomy mood the children have had at breakfast when they had told their story. Seeing them playing so exuberantly now warmed his heart and he almost felt sorry for dragging them out of there by calling them for dinner.

Julie ran past him again while Nicki stumbled so badly on a carpet that he slammed into Sam. The boy caught himself immediately, but Sam didn't. Nicki hit him in the back so hard that he spun and fell forward.

At the last moment, Penny noticed Sam coming toward her when she let go of the book in her hands in shock and held her hands in the air to catch him. But she couldn't do much about his weight.

It was all the better that he managed to at least catch himself on the backrest with his left hand, while his right hit the edge of the seat, but immediately slipped over it and that only brought his face even closer to hers - so close both of their noses touched.

They both found themselves frozen, just staring at each other, completely entranced by the moment and each other's closeness. The children squealed happily as they clattered up the stairs as if there were a pack of elephants in the house, but they were only aware of it in a muffled manner.

"I...I'm sorry, I...Nickie has..." Sam stammered, but didn't move a bit to follow his words with action. Her closeness had made him freeze and his head suddenly seemed to have gone blank.

"Kicked you off balance?" she tried to reassure him, struggling to think clearly. His closeness and his warm breath on her lips almost drove her crazy. Was she wrong, or was he really getting closer to her?

"Right," he murmured and they could already feel each other's lips against theirs when Julie stormed back into the living room so she could hide behind the couch. This immediately startled Sam, but he was lying so awkwardly that in his haste he fell backwards and over the back of the sofa, right next to Julie, when Nickie came in and looked at him in confusion with his head cocked to the side, just like Julie.