Читать книгу Paralyzed - Ashlynn Dee - Страница 4

Three weeks later I was put in the Foster care program. The first place I went to was a small but cute cottage; it had two bedrooms and one bathroom. It was just a lovely old lady, named Tabitha, and me. Often I would find myself lost in my thoughts lying by the small pond trailing my fingers in the water, it was peaceful and calming.

When Tabitha died less than a month later, I was put with a family of four, the mom, two younger boys, and a four-week-old baby girl. I lasted about a week there.

My third foster home was a tiny apartment. The parents were nice, but the cat hated me. I left when it attacked me, and the couple didn’t want to get rid of their “precious baby.”

The next family I went with was the Matchens. The only thing that I didn’t like was the fact that everyone there said I was a cripple, worthless, and pathetic. I never told the social worker, Jain.

On May 27, 2417, Jain came with the news that I had been chosen to be adopted.

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The family that wanted to adopt me looked amazing. Jain gave me a picture and portfolio of information before she left. There was a mom, a dad, an older daughter, a tall skinny boy, a younger more bulky looking boy, three girls who looked almost identical, and two younger kids, a girl, and a boy. They were the royal family of the Aurica Kingdom. Their surname was Arindes.

I didn’t know why they wanted to adopt me; I was nobody. The closest I had gotten to fame was being the sole survivor of the first plane crash to happen in almost a full century. I thought that maybe it was because they were doing one of those charity things, where the royal family has an orphaned kid come live with them until they help them, and then they give them back to the orphanage, but Jain assured me that was not the case.

So I agreed to meet them next Saturday, at a small vintage restaurant. Jain says if I liked them, then we could set up a second meeting. I was nervous but excited at the same time. I had no idea what their individual personalities were going to be. Or what they looked like now, the picture I had of them was a few years old. I suppose they were too busy to get another family photo.

The next week crept by at a turtle's speed. I had school to go to, and after that, I had chores that needed to be done. Mrs. Matchens said even if I was crippled and unable to do many things, I still had to earn my place. My chores consisted of doing the many dishes, making sure to scrape every little speck from the dish before I put it into the large dishwasher. Then I was “privileged” to change the twin’s diapers. They were four years old and still not potty trained. The last thing I had to do was clean the whole house spotless while the rest of the family went out to dinner and then a movie or some other special event.

I didn’t mind it when they did this, which was often; it meant I got to have time to think. And sometimes, when I knew they were going to be gone for a while, I would sneak into the oversized pantry and fridge, looking for a treat to eat. I often found something that satisfied my cravings for actual, sustaining food.

When they figured out what I was doing, they hired a babysitter. The funny thing was, the babysitter they hired was Jain’s younger sister. She knew what the Matchens were like, so she helped me to find a better way to hide the thievery.

Finally, the day came, I was going to go and live with the Arindes family. The original meeting had gone well, the restaurant was very nice, but it was secluded due to the family's status. Everything had gone smoothly, and I couldn’t wait to arrive at the family mansion. I packed all that I owned, but it wasn’t much.

Since I was never going to ride a plane again, I was going by Tube Train, with Jain. The Tube Train was a way of traveling incredibly fast, faster than a plane. It consisted of a system of tubes all over the continent. In each tube was a specially-made capsule that could travel up to 3,000 mph, but was set at a slower pace of 895 mph. It was a long trip, and we were traveling it in the space of 12 hours. We would stop once in a small town just past the border of the Gem states.