“How was your day, baby?”
“Good, Tim and Lionel let me play with them today.” Jeremiah said in his still childish voice.
“That’s good.” Raina said with relief.
It broke her heart every evening to hear his hurt ridden voice, when he explained about which of his friends didn’t want to be his friend on that particular day. Raina’s heart felt like it was constantly being pulled apart. How did parents do it? She had only been at it for a year and she felt as though she had aged by the same amount of time.
The girls strolled through the tiny garden gate, their gait slower and more measured. They were growing up, Raina thought. Her insides twisted with sadness at the realization that the girls’ maturity was a result of being orphaned. A kind of somberness surrounded them that was too mature for eleven-year-olds.
“My girls!” Raina exclaimed, infusing her tone with cheer.
“Hi Aunty.” They chorused.
Though not identical twins, they still did a lot of things together, like speaking at the same time, as though an invisible cord joined their brains.
“How was school?” Raina asked, knowing that she would get the same reply she always did. They didn’t disappoint.
“Fine.” They said in unison.
“Do you know that every time I ask you girls about your day, the answer is always ‘fine, fine’? How about more details this time?” Raina said, imitating their voices.
They erupted into giggles. She placed an arm around each girl and they followed Jeremiah into the house. Bags were dumped on the living room floor and they went to wash up in the downstairs kitchen before settling at the table to eat their meal. Even though she had a ton of chores to do, Raina sat with them.
Jeremiah was doing well; or, at least he never talked about his parents. That made Raina sad and relieved at the same time. It would be a shame for him to grow up without any memories of his parents. It was as if he had lived with her forever. He never spoke of what life was like before his parents were killed in the crash.
“You’re very quiet today, Princess Crystal.” Raina said, observing her diva niece nibble on her cornbread daintily.
She was the more talkative of the two girls. Crystal lifted her face and looked straight into Raina’s eyes. Her senses grew alert when she saw the dull look in her nieces’ eyes. She looked at her sister. Chantal appeared her normal composed self.
“What is it, sweetheart?” Raina said softly.
“We have a father’s day at school next week. We’re supposed to bring our dads to school with us.” She hung her head.
Raina felt sick, her mouth suddenly tasted bitter and she fought to breathe easily. She closed her eyes. How had she not foreseen this? These types of dates always crept up on her. Maybe because she did her best to forget them, hoping that maybe the kids would do the same.
Suddenly, she felt overwhelmed by everything. She felt like dropping her head on the table and bawling like a three-year-old. She missed her sister more than anything in the world.
Instead, she put on a brave smile.
“Don’t you worry about that, we’ll figure out something by then.” Raina said with a confidence that she did not feel.
Where would she get a man to go to the school with them? If only she had a brother. As it was, it had just been her sister and herself born to her parents. Her father had been a truck driver and her mother a teacher. They had both passed on within a year of each other. Her mother from kidney problems and her father from a broken heart, or at least that’s how Raina saw it.
But losing her sister and brother-in-law last year when they’d been hit by a drunk driver was the final blow. It had just been too much tragedy all at once. But she hadn’t had the luxury to fall apart. There were three kids with no one else in the world and they needed her.
Gripping the edge of the table with her fingers, Raina wrenched her thoughts from those painful memories. She inhaled deeply and let her hands relax and fall to her lap. She looked at Chantal, who was sitting and eating calmly.
“Does it bother you too, sweetheart?” Raina said. Chantal looked at her and shrugged.
“I just told my teacher that my daddy passed away. He’s in heaven now so he can’t come to the father’s day thing to school.” she explained.
Raina licked her dry lips. Why did life have to be so unfair to sweet children such as these ones? No matter how hard she tried, Raina could never make up for the absence of their parents. The kids had started in a new school and their teachers were not aware that they were orphans. Raina had not volunteered the information, thinking that she was protecting them from having to relive that memory with everyone they spoke with.
Now she wondered if it might have been wiser to tell the teachers.
“Did she ask you anything else?” Raina said.
“No, she just said not to worry, that my guardian would figure out something.”