Page 132 of The Quiet Witness

A Boy and a Girl

The stuffy smell hit her first, the chipped beige walls second. They closed in around her like shadows just as they had so many years ago.

It wasn’t even the same place, yet it starkly resembled the one she’d wandered into back then. Lucien appeared beside her, following her eyes to the quote splashed over the wall. Foster care is a chance to show a child they are worthy of love and joy.

“You good?”

She slid her focus to him. “Hmmhmm, yes. All good.” The knowing glint in his eye told her he knew she was lying. But instead of pressing for more, he simply stepped back, gesturing for her to follow a lady in scrubs.

“This way, Mr Evans.” Their shoes squeaked over the floor. Kate hoped it would muffle the creaking of her joints as flashes of the past appeared unannounced in her mind.

Left foot first.

The splintering of glass… It had been the first warning to the life she was to live.

Right foot followed.

The second was the push that made the car tumble over and over.

Left.

Flickering orange lights had flashed over the deserted road, just like those in the fair, where she had ridden the white horse with its pink saddle and halter on the carousel.

Right. Her foot made the linoleum sing beneath her.

Her mother’s face stuck to the airbag. Her sister, dark brown eyelashes pressed shut tightly with blood dripping down her beautiful face.

A soft touch on her shoulder brought her back to the surface of reality. “Kate, are you okay, for real?” Lucien regarded her intensely, eyes scouring over her face with concern.

She forced the hair plastered to her forehead out of her face. Nodding once. Some things she had to go through on her own, this visit, whatever its uses, was a part of that.

His arm shot out, blocking her path forward. “I mean it, we can go back if it’s… too much.”

“You’ve brought me here for a reason. I want to see what it is. It better be worth it though.” Her attempt at a joke fell flat when her voice shook.

A loud beep rescued her from Lucien’s intensity. Kate nudged her chin towards the double doors in front of them. “They’re waiting on you, Mr Evans.” She shot him a careful wink, shrugging past his grip towards the lady waiting for them.

The small light the key card had been swiped over turned from red to green, allowing them passage to whatever lay behind.

Grey-painted doors lined each side, one of them left ajar. Kate peered in to see color pencils strewn across a deserted notebook. Squinting heavily, she could see the blurred outlines of a drawing. Three stick figures, one colored in blue, one in pink and the other in bright orange. Mommy and daddy was written in big, drawn out letters above the figures, and a sun lingered in the right upper corner of the paper, its colored rays shedding light on the family.

Not unlike something she’d drawn back then, with an added stick figure representing her younger sister, Lynne.

Lynne. The one who had raced around the garden to escape her fingers as they played tag. Long hair bouncing across her back, she’d thrown a look over her shoulder, sparkling blue eyes dancing with laughter.

A scream rattled through the hallway. Goosebumps raced over her arms as the sound of it clashed against the walls. The lady they’d been following rushed forward to help her colleague. A young girl stood between them shouting at the top of her lungs. “Mommy is coming back! I know she is!”

“Did you? Ever wait for them?” Lucien reappeared by her side, glancing at the poor child in front of them.

“No.” Her eyes narrowed at him. Why was he being this… curious about her past? “I knew they wouldn’t come back, I don’t know what’s worse.” She jerked her chin to the girl being herded back into her room. “Hope where there is none, or knowing this is it.” Her eyes followed the girl, silently wishing that the young one would find a family deserving of her.

“She’s about the same age as I was, back then.” Her throat bobbed, once, twice, as the girl disappeared from view.

“You’re not that girl anymore.” His deep voice rumbled between them, gently brushing up against her ears. Even now, when she refused to be touched by him, somehow he was still able to comfort her racing thoughts.

Even though she knew better. In a way, she was still the same young girl. Waiting for resolution from someone else. But she smiled at him, the lie pulling at her lips. “I know.”

“Just in time.” A young man strode toward them, with his brown hair tousled over his features and chocolate brown eyes widening in admiration toward Lucien. He introduced himself as Eric, shaking her hand enthusiastically before gushing. “So nice to meet you, Kate! And to see you again, Lucien. Ethan is beyond excited for today. And all that due to your generosity.”