By “someone” I saw that she meant one of us “fosters.” They wanted to send one of us with Alexis to act as her servant.
“You know that won’t work,” Gary objected. “What if CPS comes to check on the one you sent?”
“Well, I know…” Nancy sniffed. “I just hate to think of our dear little Princess so far away with no one to do her laundry and make her meals.”
“Honestly, Mother, I’ll be fine,” Alexis said. “There are laundry services, aren’t there? And of course I’m not cooking for myself— I can always just eat out.”
They continued talking and eating until everyone was finished and they pushed away from the table.
After they rose, Nancy Spaulding seemed ready to acknowledge our presence.
“Maria, clean up,” she said. “And the new girl, Kira, is not to get any dinner—do you understand?”
“Yes, Ms. Nancy.” Maria nodded.
“Good. After you all finish in the kitchen, I want you up in the work room making essential oil vials until bedtime,” she continued. “Oh and Theo…”
“Yes, Ms. Nancy?” the older boy asked, speaking for the first time.
“We have a lot of trash accumulated,” Nancy told him. “I want you to burn it tonight, understand?”
I bit my lip as he nodded his silent acquiescence. Despite the vicious dogs, I’d somehow still had hope that I might rescue some of my books and other things from the cardboard box. Now I knew there was no chance of that—none at all.
“Good. Then let’s go, people—get to it!” Nancy clapped her hands impatiently and everyone but me surged forward to the abandoned dining table.
There was a short struggle between Theo and Maria over Alexis’s nearly untouched plate. Theo won and took the plate in the kitchen, wolfing down the mashed potatoes and gnawing on the chop which only had a single bite out of it.
Maria contented herself with the remains of Nancy’s plate and poor little Minh only managed to snatch a single roll. The three of them stood around in the kitchen eating hungrily, while I had to watch, my stomach rumbling with hunger.
Afterwards, Maria cleaned the dishes and sent Minh and I up to the work room to make essential oil vials. Once we reached it, the younger girl looked around and then slid something out of her pocket.
It was the other half of the single roll she’d been able to get, I saw as she held it out to me.
“Here,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get more. I’m too little and Maria and Theo are too quick.”
I accepted the half roll gratefully and gave her a smile.
“Thank you, but are you sure you don’t want it?”
Minh shrugged with apparent unconcern.
“I’m used to going hungry. It’s the way things are around here.”
Her words struck me like a blow.
“So…this is the way it is every night? Every meal? The foster kids only get scraps? Don’t we ever get a real meal to ourselves?”
“Oh, no.” Minh shook her head earnestly. “Ms. Nancy says it’s good to keep us hungry because it makes us more obedient. She won’t let Maria make too much food because she doesn’t want us getting ‘fat and lazy.’” A worried look came over her face. “I’m not sure what we’re all going to do when Miss Alexis goes away—then there’ll be even less food to share around.”
“Can’t we do anything? Say anything to anybody?” I demanded. “This can’t be right, the way she’s treating us!”
Minh sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
“Who are you gonna tell? Grown-ups don’t believe us kids. The social workers all think Ms. Nancy and Mr. Gary are the best foster parents around.”
Unfortunately, she had a point. I remembered again my own social worker’s parting words—telling me I’d better be good because the Spauldings were the best foster family.
We were well and truly trapped here and there was nothing we could do about it.
“It gets better during the school year,” Minh said consolingly—she must have seen the despair on my face. “It’s rough during summer because we’re stuck here all the time but at least when school starts up we get away for a little while. And Ms. Nancy signs us all up for free lunches, so we get more to eat then, too.”
This seemed like cold comfort to me—the summer had just started and school wouldn’t be letting in for a couple of months at least. But there was nothing to do but endure it—for now, anyway.
After a couple of hours of filling, labeling, and packaging the tiny glass bottles of “essential oils,” it was bedtime.
We trooped down to the basement where everyone was told to “strip.”
I stood there uncertainly, not moving even as the fosters around me undressed. I had never been forced to get naked in front of other people before—Auntie Amelia had been a big believer in personal privacy. And there were men in the room—Mr. Gary and Theo were right there. I didn’t feel comfortable taking off my clothes in front of them.