Rescue Nova

Cold Feet

Nova woke up at her usual nine thirty. She remembered that Leila worked last night and knew she would be sound asleep, so Nova was quiet as she made her way to the kitchen to get the breakfast that Kimberly left in the microwave. After heating up the plate, Nova placed it on the table and sat down.

She pondered the day's upcoming events as she ate. Today, Leila and Nova would be meeting the private investigator, known to Nova as a PI because Kimberly and Leila didn't want Nova, who was afraid of police, to associate him with the word "investigator." Nova didn't think of him as a police officer, but she was still nervous about meeting him.

Aside from always being nervous about meeting new people, she was worried about this meeting because her caregivers had warned her that he would "probably ask a lot of questions about things that are hard to talk about." However, Nova knew this man was vital in fulfilling her wish of terminating Billie Jo's legal status as her mother. So she was willing to do her best with this Jared guy who was coming over, even if some of his questions made her uncomfortable.

•••••••••••••••

After breakfast, Nova made herself useful by practicing the method Kimberly and Leila had taught her for socializing their foster pet. They had told her to help the cat get used to their presence and voices by just talking to the cat about anything. It didn't matter that Foster Kitty didn't understand. That wasn't the point. The idea was to get her used to being spoken to and to help her understand that attention was not a prelude to harm.

So there Nova sat. The cat had made herself comfortable under the coffee table in the living room. She looked ready to run once Nova appeared, but hadn't yet. So Nova sat nearby without getting close enough to provoke the animal to take off.

"I know how you feel, Foster Kitty," Nova sympathized. "I'm nervous today, too. A man's coming, who's going to help me find out my mother's last name so I can be rid of her. But I'm nervous because Leila and Kimberly said he's gonna ask lots of questions, and I don't know what I'm gonna have to tell him. I'll just have to do my best because if we can find out her information, I can make it so that she's not my mother anymore."

That's when Nova realized something that she never thought of before. "I won't have a mother anymore. I'm sad and happy about that. I don't know why I'm sad. I mean, it's not like I haven't gone most of my life motherless. I have. So why, now that it's staring me right in the face, do I feel bad about not having a mom?"

•••••••••••••••

Leila's alarm woke her at twelve thirty that afternoon. Her mind was definitely not rested enough to get up. Last night had been a typical night with Mr. McGregor. He woke up four times. Having him as a client was getting to be too much for Leila now that she could not make up for the lost sleep during the day. She was considering telling her employer to take her off the list of his HHA's.

After debating on whether or not to hit the snooze for a five minutes more of rest, she decided to bite the bullet and drag herself out of bed. She went to the bathroom before leaving the master bedroom to see how Nova was and to make lunch for the two of them.

She found Nova in the living room, pointing the remote at the television. Leila was able to tell that Nova was out of headspace. Leila was pleasantly surprised by two things in that moment. She loved that Nova was out of headspace today. Leila was expecting the nervousness that she knew the girl was experiencing about meeting the private investigator to keep her little today.

The other thing that was bringing Leila happiness right then was that she knew, without even speaking to Nova, that the girl was out of headspace. In the beginning, she had to ask Nova how old she was. Occasionally, she'd been able to tell if Nova was in or out of headspace without talking to her, but that was usually because Nova was doing something that she'd only do little or big. There had been only very few exceptions to that.