Speak and Ocean of Words - Book One

Chapter Six

Percy

I didn't want to get into the social worker's car, nor did I want to go to a foster home. To be honest I just wanted to go back up to our apartment and go to sleep in the lumpy bunk bed and wake up to find out this was all a very horrible dream and that we would be going to Montauk in a few hours. Except I knew it wasn't going to happen and I needed to face that. I looked over to see Laney sitting quietly beside me, our bags in our laps, I couldn't read her facial expression so I had no idea what she was thinking about, but I didn't want to, heck, I didn't even want to be in my own brain right now. Everything was messed up, more messed up than it had ever been when we had been homeless, more messed up then when mom had to send us away for school starting with first grade. The social worker, we'd learned her name was Karen Williams, kept trying to talk to us, telling us about the new place we would be going to until someone adopted us, that's actually what caught my attention and I gave her a strange look. "Adopted, but we have a dad. Can't you just find him and have him take us?" I asked. We knew nothing about our dad, except that he had disappeared at sea before we were born. "Do you know his name? If so, I can contact him first thing in the morning and get all the proper paperwork sent so that you can go to him." Karen told me. I looked down, we had no family left. Mom's parents had died in a plane crash when she was five and then she had gone to live with her uncle who had died from cancer a little while after she had gotten pregnant with us. I was trying to think of someone she could have mentioned to us that was still alive, but I came up blank so I shook my head. "We – We don't know anything about him, can't you find him?" I asked her, my voice was quiet. "Oh, well I can try and find your dad for you, but until then you'll be placed with the Erickson's." The car then went back to being silent, so I decided to get some sleep and rested my head against the window.

My body was being shaken, roughly too so I woke up with a start and a grumpy expression on my face. I don't remember what I had been dreaming of, so I was pretty happy about that, it meant that I would probably be a bit restful since most of my dreams were vivid and woke me up every time. "Oh, we're here already?" I asked in a sleepy voice. Laney, who had been shaking me only gave me a nod. The two of us got out of the car and collected out bags. "Come on you too, the front porch is right here." Karen was waiting for us on the sidewalk. I was looking around, we were near the woods and in a nice neighborhood too. "Coming," I told her, without looking at my sister. Karen knocked on the door and within a few moments a friendly looking older woman opened it, she looked a bit tired so I guessed we had woken her up. "I thought you said there were two children Karen? I don't see the little girl."