Homecoming Pt. 1

Khalil 6

2004

I had just graduated and was packing my things tomorrow morning I would be leaving to go to college in Texas. I looked around the place that had been my home for the last few months and got sad, whenever I made it big I was going to repay Enzo and his family for everything they did for me. I looked at my watch and saw that I only had an hour left before I was going to go down to Children Services to see Devin, then later that night I was going to go say goodbye to Marcus. I walked outta my room and saw Enzo packing his bag too, when he saw m coming he stopped and smiled at me. Nothing had to be said I knew what he was thinking and he knew what I was thinking, we were going to miss each other. I walked out the house and went to go see my little brother. Once I got Children Services Devin was sitting there waiting for me like he was every weekend but today his social worker was waiting with him. I walked over to them and I could tell Devin had been crying, he saw me walking toward them and he ran into my arms crying. I looked to the social worker for answers.

"Devin why don't you give me a few minutes with Khalil alone before you guys go." Mr. Patrick the social worker said. I knew whatever he was about to tell me was the reason that Devin was so upset.

"It's okay Devin I'll be right back." I said walking over to Mr. Patrick. "What's going on?" I asked quietly.

"Khalil there's no easy way to say this but your mother got sentenced yesterday and she got five years." He said sadly, I looked at him confused. I knew this wasn't what had upset Devin so there had to be more. "And well we.... um found a family that wanted to adopt Devin." He said quietly.

"I thought you were going to see if Ms. Mary could get custody of Devin?" I asked getting pissed.

"Khalil I tried but the judge thought it would be better for Devin if he moved into a....... a more stable home." Mr. Patrick said.

"Okay so what's the deal with this family?" I asked trying to get my anger in check.

"They're nice people Khalil, they've already went through the screen process and the judge thinks they'll be a good fit for Devin. They'll be coming to get him tomorrow........ there's one more thing you should know Khalil." I looked at him waiting. "Well there from Washington and Devin will be moving there with them." Mr. Patrick said sadly, I looked at Devin and wiped the tears from my eyes.

"You mean to tell me that my brother is moving across the country?" I asked putting my hands in my pocket to keep from punching him.

"I tried to keep him here Khalil but there's only so much I could do, I really think you should try and make you're last day with Devin a good one." Mr. Patrick said patting me on the shoulder and walking away. I walked over to Devin and hugged him.

"Devin what do you wanna do today?" I asked trying to put on a brave face.

"Khalil why can't I stay with you?" Devin asked looking me in the eyes. I fought back tears, trying to come up with a way to explain this to my brother.

"Devin you know I leave for college tomorrow and I can't take you with me, but I promise you as soon as I'm done I'll find you and we'll be a family again. But for right now you have to go live with some people that.......... that an take care of you better than I can right now." I said close to losing it.

"Khalil I'm sorry for whatever I did, I promise I'll be good, please don't make me go with them I just wanna stay with you." Devin cried.

"Dev look at me........ this none of this is your fault. It's just....... It's just how things have to be and I know it hurts but......" I forced myself to look away, I hated Devin seeing me cry. I pulled out a piece of paper with my number on it. "Here if you need anything call me and I'll always pick up no matter what I'm doing." I said giving it to him.