George Roberts
I looked at my watch and it was 9 p.m. Elaine would be waiting and I did not want to face her anger.
"Luke, it's time to go. Mom will be waiting for us." I put my book, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde, on my desk and told my son we should head home.
"Ugh... I just don't want to read this book. I'm getting more tired nowadays." Luke complained as he puts his book,'A Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens, on the desk, just like I did.
You must be wondering why Luke and I were reading books in the office. Well, the credit goes to my lovely wife, Elaine. It happened when we got to know Luke doesn't spend his time wisely (plays video games all the time) back in high school. I had no problem with it but Elaine has. Since she was a bookworm in high school, she made Luke read novels and write an essay about that novel. That went pretty well for 4 years(even in college), but our son as caught red-handed. Actually, he had asked his friend to write all of those essays and he didn't read even a single novel. He was then supposed to do the same thing but to hand in the essay in two weeks (because he was busy with college and.....SUPER LAZY!!!) and he always felt it was impossible. Now, thanks to him, I have to read too in order to encourage him to do the same.
"Luke, do you think I like reading? I am doing this now because of you. If you did not ask your friend to write for you, I wouldn't be reading."
"But Dad, reading is not my thing. You could see how much I hate it."
"Then, tell your Mom that you want to play video games your whole life." Luke was silenced. My wife can get really SCARY and I couldn't count how many times I had to hide from her when her temper rose. I sighed as Luke and I were walking out of our office. But then, suddenly...
"Mr Roberts! Mr Roberts! You've got to see this."The lorry driver, Noah Heinemann, just came out of nowhere. He usually says ridiculous stuff he saw like once he said that there was....never mind. It was too terrible to say. I didn't want to feel disgusted.
"Look, Noah. Luke and I are exhausted. Don't tire us more with your observations today."
"No sir. Trust me. What I saw is true. A girl is in our lorry."
What? A girl in our lorry? Dear Lord, he couldn't be doing that again?
"Dad, I think we should check if he's telling the truth." Luke was right. We needed to make sure Noah wasn't ridiculous. I nodded and we all rushed out of the building towards the lorry. The door of the load was open and some boxes were on the ground. Luke and I couldn't believe our eyes when we looked inside. Noah was right! There indeed was a girl in the lorry ans she was shivering as she slept. There were bruises and wounds all over her body.
"Oh my God! Dad, we should take her to the hospital." Luke started to panic.
"But, the hospital is an hour away. And she seems to need immediate treatment."Noah replied.
"Luke get her into our car! Elaine would know what to do." I remembered Elaine was in the Red Cross Society in high school for extra credit. Luke nodded as I instructed him. He got into the lorry and lifted the girl in his arms and ran towards our Ferrari 458. I started the engine and sped home. I even asked Luke to inform this to Elaine. As 15 minutes passed, we reached home and Elaine was at the doorway. Luke lifted the girl in his arms again and went up to the guestroom of our home. Elaine shooed us out and told us to get some rest. All we did was obey Elaine.
***Two days later***
We were all still worried of Tara. She hadn't woke up in two days and since she was here, she had always been crying or yelling in her sleep. Something must have made her broken. Luke and I went home early from work to check on her condition. Elaine was in the living room as we walked into our home.
"George, Luke, Tara's awake now. But it will wouldn't be easy to send her back to her home as soon as possible." Elaine sounded really sad.
"And why is that?" I asked Elaine, feeling very confused.
" Why Mom? I thought we agreed on this two days ago." Luke had the same confusion playing in his mind.
Elaine sighed and said,"Her parents died three days ago and she doesn't know where her sister is. She always bursts into tears when I asked her about her home and told me she didn't want to talk about it for some time because she couldn't move on if she kept thinking about it."
I really sympathized Tara. Being alone without your family is very difficult to handle. Luke looked really down too. I sat down and got lost into my deep thoughts. How would I help her? Then, an idea struck me.
"Why don't we foster her? We can help her move on and feel better."
"Honey, that's great news! I'll tell this to Tara soon."Elaine went upstairs and Luke looked at me deeply.
"Dad, do you think you made the right choice."
"In my whole life, I think this decision will change our lives in a good way."