Kenny
"I'm sorry about your friends." An officer said after asking us some questions about Donna and Isaac. He was about to move on to the next person until Toni stopped him.
"What happened to Mila? Their daughter?"
"There wasn't anything in the reports about a child. No one saw a child either." The officer said.
"That's crazy. They have a daughter, she's a toddler. She could still be in the house."
"This is Brooks, we're getting word that there is a child in the apartment. Look everywhere." He said into the walkie-talkie.
"This is Walters, we've scanned the whole apartment. No child here." The person on the other end responded.
"Could she be with a relative maybe?" He asked us. Before I could say anything I noticed Toni was gone. She was heading back in the building.
"Tone!"
"I'll go, stay here." Officer Brooks said.
"No I'm coming."
He shrugged as we walked back into the building.
*******************************
Toni
I caught the elevator up to Donna's floor. There was caution tape everywhere. I opened the door to the stairway exit hoping to find Mila there but she wasn't. I went up the stairs to our floor and when I opened the door there she was on our doorstep again.
She was wearing pajamas and had a little teddy bear in her hand. She was sitting in one spot, I guess she was waiting for us to open the door again.
"I see you have good memory." I said more so to myself because I knew she couldn't hear me. She look up at me and I smiled as I kneeled down to her level. How could someone leave at child so helpless and without either of her parents?
She ran her tiny hand across my face I guess to wipe the tears. She then hugged me which caught me by surprise.
"Toni! There you are and I see you found her." Ken said as he and the officer came near us.
"Yeah." I said as officer Brooks came to get Mila but she wouldn't let go of me. For such a small kid, she had one hell of a grip. "I'll walk her down."
When we made it downstairs, there were news reporters outside yelling questions at the other officers.
"Well she seems to be okay." One of the EMTs said as some woman approached.
"Hi I'm Mary, I'm the social worker your boss called. It's sad we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances." She said to Brooks.
"Hello, this here is Mila Strauss. We're not sure about any other details since we don't have a birth certificate or anything yet." He replied.
*******************************
Kenny
As the officer Brooks was talking to this social worker lady, I noticed Donna's daughter was still holding Toni's hand. It was adorable.
"Are you two relatives?" The lady asked.
"No ma'am." I said and she nodded writing something down in her notepad.
"So what happens now?" Toni asked her.
"Well she'll be placed in foster care until we can a family member willing to take her."
"And if you can't?"
"She'll stay there until we find a family willing to adopt."
"So she has to stay in an orphanage until then."
"Well there's no foster family on our roster ready to take her in for a while." Mary stated.
"What about us?" She said making me look at her crazy.
"Well you have to be certified."
"And how long does that take?"
"Days...weeks..."
Toni sighed, I couldn't believe she was actually considering this. Mary tried to get Mila to go with her but she wasn't having it. That little girl is strong and very persistent. After about 15 minutes she gave up.
"Okay, maybe she can stay for the night and if you're serious bring her by tomorrow morning, 9am." Mary said hesitantly.
"Seriously?"
"Only if you're serious. I'm putting my job on the line because you seem like good people and she's very attached to you."
"Okay, we'll be there." Toni said.
"We will?" I asked and they both ignored me.
"Great. Here's my card."
***
After everything was over Toni and Mila were in the guest room for a while and I was in my bedroom. She came in and looked at me.
"Hey."
"Hey." I said.
"Okay...say it. What's wrong?"
"Don't you think this is a bit much?"
"What do you mean? I thought you were cool with this." She said.
"How did you think that? We didn't even talk about it."
"Kenny it's just for a short time. It's not that big of a deal."
"Not that big of a deal? How are we suppose to take care of a kid when we're barely adults? If you're leaving tomorrow evening, how am I suppose to take care of a child with special needs by myself? Here's another one; what's gonna happen when you two get attached to each other and someone comes to adopt her?" I asked all at once.
"I didn't think about that-"
"Exactly. Tone, I know you probably feel like you failed at helping Donna and now you're trying to help Mila, but you have to consider that stuff and everyone's feelings when you make decisions like that."
I wasn't angry just annoyed that she would make a decision like that without talking to me first. I went into the bathroom leaving her there with her thoughts.
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