After being promised to have the park handyman come over and work on cleaning up the mold in the trailer, Erik went and informed his mom about it. It didn't take long for the guy to show up with a bucket of cleaning supplies, but when he did, he scratched his head in confusion.
"Uh, am I serpposed ta clean or babysit these kiddos? Look, if I'm ter get this mold and mildew treated, I can't have these littles underfoot. 'Sides, these chemicals ain't good fer 'em." The handyman said in a thick accent Erik couldn't identify.
"Erik, Nikki, take your sisters and baby brother over to the lake across the street and see if there's anything you can find to occupy yourselves for the time being. If you have to, you can find whatever toys and books that managed to come with us, but don't come whining to me if any of them get lost. I can't afford to be buying you all more right now." Julie told her children.
"Ma'am there's a full park cross da way, got play 'quipment an everything. Great place for youngins." The handyman helpfully butted in.
"Alright, Mom. We'll be back in a couple of hours. That should be enough time I hope? I don't want to be sleeping out in the van with my sisters if this place isn't fit for habitation by the time it's bedtime for Heather, Kirsten, and Emily." Erik said, referring to the youngest three of his sisters who were all under nine-years-old. His three sisters that were older were all preteens and teens, so they shared his bedtime since he was the oldest of them all at 17.
"Should be. Tis quick 'n nasty, but effective!" The handyman added.
"How safe is this stuff really?" Julie asked.
Erik didn't stick around to hear the rest; he could barely understand the guy and didn't want to get scolded by his mom after she had already given her orders. He picked up Tyler, his 4-month-old brother, while his oldest little sister, Nikki, took the two youngests' hands while the middle girls followed them through the trailer park, looking for an exit that was more convenient then the one their mom had driven in from. Once they located a pedestrian exit, they quickly found a pedestrian crosswalk that had a flashing signal. It was a really old school one where there were no barriers that arose from the street, so it was a bit nerve wracking attempting to cross the street, having to trust that people would slow down and stop.
Surprisingly all traffic came to a halt while they crossed. That was strange. It was like the cars knew they were there and stopped driving without input from the drivers. In his experience, people who could afford cars that did that were super rich elite assholes that looked down on people like him and his family. His mom still had a car that required manual driving since they were about as cheap as a vehicle you could get nowadays. Although they needed a special license to drive them and special reflector stickers to let the self-driving cars know they weren't self-driving, unlike the super elite expensive cars that he witnessed stop for them.
Making their way across the street without incident, Erik could hear the sigh of relief from his little sisters who were probably as nervous as he had been. It was going to take getting used to this town they lived in now. But he was sure that they would move just about the time he got used to living here as was the norm for him. He had given up ever thinking he and his family would ever live a normal life. Normal for them meant moving in about 6 months to a year and then repeating the process over and over again. He couldn't even remember what cities they had lived in, there had been so many.
When they got to the park across the way, not only was there the giant lake that offered an area for swimming, but there was a large grassy area with a smattering of shade trees, a picnic area with covered shelters, a playground with two types of play equipment for different age groups and a few people here and there just enjoying the park. They all looked well off with the way they dressed, nobody was wearing faded or too small or too big clothing. It made him feel self-conscious since previous places they had lived, at least the slums they lived in had people that were more like them in appearance then here.
Despite this park being literally across the street from the trailer park they were living in, you couldn't even tell there was a low-class housing area across the way. It was all blocked by tall cypress trees and a sturdy fence. By all accounts it was like they were trying to disguise the trailer park from the rich that came here to play and relax. This park was never meant for the likes of them to be. But currently they don't have a choice. It was here or play in the street.
"Erik, do you see all the rich people? This isn't a slum park…" Nikki said as she nervously looked around.
"Yeah, I see. We just have to be careful not to get in their way. Make sure to keep an eye on Heather, Emily, and Kirsten. I'll look after Tyler, Kylee, and Sarah. If we offend any of these people, they might demand something unreasonable…" Erik said in a low voice, holding his baby brother a bit more tightly as he adjusted the diaper bag over his shoulder.
"Kylee, Sarah, Heather, you remember how we play in places like this right?" He asked his little sisters who were 13, 11, and 9.
"Yeah." The girls were old enough to remember past incidents where they had been discriminated against for playing where the rich flocked. It had scared them, ever since and from then on, they were a lot more wary of the rich people and carefully avoided bumping into them or interacting with them. It was better to not draw attention to yourself. The three younger girls had yet to encounter this discrimination, so it was better to keep an eye on them and not let them accidentally interfere with the lives of those that were better than them.
With that said, Nikki let the younger kids loose to play on the play equipment while Erik watched over Tyler under a shady tree and kept his eye out for any possible situations that his little sisters could potentially encounter. With Tyler not quite mobile yet, he was still learning to crawl so he was happy as long as he could sit on the old blanket that had once upon a time been Erik's baby blanket but had been passed down to each of his sisters before becoming Tyler's. He had an ancient teething toy, one of the few that had survived this move, so he wasn't too fussy yet.
As the younger kids played, Erik observed three shiny new and expensive looking cars pull into the parking lot and three girls around his age, and a little boy around Kirsten's age, exit them. He couldn't help but think that the girl who seemed to be the leader of the pack was beautiful. He gave himself a mental shake. He couldn't be attracted to a rich kid; it would only end in disaster. He had learned that the painfully hard way.
Observing them, he noted they all wore the same outfit, even the little boy. As they got closer he realized that they were wearing a school uniform for what he assumed was a rich kid private school. He definitely didn't want to get involved with them if this was the case. Rich kids that attended private schools were even worse than their parents. Snobby assholes that would love to humiliate you at the drop of a hat. He shuddered at the painful memories that were brought back.
For a time, he was assured that his sisters were playing nicely on the play equipment and that Nikki had a good handle on things. But as he was distracted by the soccer game that these four rich kids were playing, he lost sight of Emily. Emily was the youngest of his sisters and only 2-years-old. He swore she was right where she belonged just a minute ago, but now she wasn't anywhere he could see. He stood up and looked around a bit frantically. Cursing when he didn't see her right away, he called for Nikki.
"Nicole! Where's Emily?!"
"I don't know! I thought you were looking after her!"
"No, that was your job! I had the older girls!" He then recruited the older of his little sisters to look for her.
That's when he finally saw her, she had toddled from the playground over to the grassy field where the rich kids were playing with a soccer ball. He barely had time to register her there before seeing the pretty leader of the pack with a halo of fiery blond hair get blown into her face, just as she kicked the soccer ball. It was flying toward Emily who was completely unaware of the danger she was in.