Disclaimer: Disclaimer: The next three chapters contain depictions and/or strong implications of abuse and neglect.
The next day, she got up really early in the morning and was bustling about in the kitchen. I woke up and slowly strolled into the kitchen to see what was going on.
"Good morning," I said after a long cat yawn.
"Good morning. I am going into work today, so please watch the kids. I am making breakfast and you guys can heat up the spaghetti from yesterday for lunch. I'll be home to cook dinner at about six o'clock. Ask the girls to do some prep work if they want eggplant parmigiana today. You do remember how to make it, right?
"Of course," I lied.
"Okay," she said as if doubting the truth in my claim.
"Don't worry about it, we will be fine," I stated reassuringly.
She turned from me and continued making breakfast. Since I could not help with my current predicament, I left her to her process.
Walking out of the kitchen and into the living room. I found a nice spot on the couch to stretch out and got comfortable. I soon fell asleep again. The next thing I heard was the door locking behind me and the car starting outside. I awoke to find the house quiet and a sweet smell coming from the kitchen. "Alaina?" I called out, even though I knew that was her leaving for work.
I jumped up on the chair and I saw that she had made a stack of crepes on the kitchen table. She had prepared the sliced strawberries in a simple syrup. All we had to do was load the crepe with berries and dust them with a bit of confectionery sugar. But without opposable thumbs it was still hard to do.
So, of course I had to use magic to move these items. I wiggled my ears and a plate floated out of the cupboard and landed softly on the table. I pointed a paw at the crepes and the top one floated to the plate. Now the tricky part, I pointed at the spoon in the strawberries and mimicked the motion of scooping strawberries and then that floated to the plate, unfortunately dripping syrup along the way. I folded the crepe with my paws, then licked away all the delicious syrup that ended up smeared on the fur. When I was all clean, I pointed at the confectionery sugar and sprinkled it on top. "Oh, that was a lot of effort," I sighed. "It would be so much easier if I could be human again."
With that last thought I started gobbling up the crepe in a not so charming manner. Chomping at it and pieces dropped from the plate as I ate. When I was done, I wiggled my ears again and the plate floated to the sink, dropping it in the water to soak. I took the kitchen towel and wiped the table the same way.
I then had to clean my fur, because I had syrup dripping from my face and whiskers. I spent the next half an hour doing so.
By the time I was done Avari came throttling out from the bedrooms. "Good morning dad, where's mom?"
"She went to work early today. Your mom made breakfast before leaving. Go brush your teeth and wash up before breakfast," I ordered.
We waited for Skylar to wake and have breakfast, then we started packing. The girls were very helpful and did not complain too much about the amount of work that needed to be done. Alaina returned around six o'clock and started dinner. We chatted over dinner and the girls helped their mom wash and put away the dishes. They watched a bit of television and then the girls went to bed around ten o'clock and then Alaina would retreat to her room. Each day passed just like that and soon a week had gone by.
On this day Alaina was a little later than usual and when she walked in, she was holding a pizza. She called the girls to the dinner table and then asked that I follow her.
I was wondering what was going on. We walked into the computer room, and she closed the door. "Remember that day when I yelled at you when I caught you looking at my files?" she asked.
"Yes of course. Why do you bring that up now?" I asked inquisitively.
"Well, I had arranged to meet with the foster parents at the speech therapist office and when I arrived, the therapist pulled me aside and said that she suspected that something was wrong. She said, not only was Cameron not making any improvements, but it also seems that he was regressing. She had thought maybe he might be in the Autistic spectrum, but it is too early to tell. But that was not her main concern, she patted him on the shoulder today, he winced in pain. She asked to look at his shoulder, but the foster mom stopped her, and the mom offered an explanation. The mom said that he had accidentally run into the corner of the credenza the other day and there was a cut on his arm near his shoulder. Then she assured the therapist that it was all bandaged up so there would be nothing to really see anyways. The conversation seemed to make Carmeron very uncomfortable, so she decided to not pursue the matter in front of Cameron. But as a mandatory reporter she needed to say something to me about it since she had her concerns," she said. She moved over to the desk that was still in the room and from a locked drawer she pulled out the file that I was looking at the other day.
While flipping to the photos, she said, "It was then that I remember that you also thought that there was something wrong with the house. What was it that you saw was wrong?" she asked.
"Well, there was that picture, it was the one in the kitchen," I told her.
She rumbled through the photos and finally found the one that I was talking about. She lifted it up and asked., "Is this the one that you are talking about?"
"Yes. If you look closely under the table, the tiles seem to be lifted and there seems to be an opening under that tile. In a normal kitchen, even if the tile was broken, the gray cement underneath would be visible. But look how dark that area is, it looks like there is an opening, maybe a tunnel underneath there. I may be just guessing, because it reminded me of our tunnels that we covered up with the floorboards," I explained.
She took the picture and examined it closer. "You might be right. I think I need to pay them a surprised visit tomorrow," she said to herself more than to me. "Well thank you for that. I apologize for yelling at you that day. It just annoyed me so much that you were just casually looking through my stuff. First, the files that were on the coffee table and then I find you in here looking at these files. I just lost my cool. I am sorry."
"It was totally my fault; I shouldn't have done that. It was so familiar coming back here that I just made myself at home. I overstepped," I said apologetically.
"Well let's go out before the girls start missing us," she said as she opened the door to let me out.
"May I go with you tomorrow?" I asked.
"Why would you want to work with me? Then with a smirk she added," It would be a little unconventional, but I guess I could bring you along as a comfort animal, as long as you don't mind being petted, squeezed and held by my co-workers," she said playfully.
"It will just be the price I have to pay, to learn if my instincts are correct. Truly, I am just curious," I chuckled. Truly my intention was to keep her safe. If I was right, it may turn dangerous for her.
"Well…" she said as she thought about it. "I guess it couldn't hurt to bring you along. But you have to be really good. You have to listen to my every order and don't cause any trouble. Promise me?"
"No problem, I won't even talk," I promised.
We ended the night on a pleasant note. Before retreating to her room, she especially stopped, petted my head and said good night.