Reyona’s Revenge

Reyona supposed she wouldn’t want to go anywhere with such a woman.

“Would you prefer to go with the other lady?” Reyona asked.

Before he could respond, the woman had moved forward with her click-clacking heels. “Really, this is not necessary. I have seen…”

“Miss Feathery, is it?” Maxwell asked in a forbidden tone.

“Featherington. Claudia Featherington.” the woman declared self-importantly.

“Good. Please, shut up.”

“I… hmm. I mean…” Maxwell’s look was enough to shut her up.

When she got no encouraging look from Mary or Cliff either, she humphed and grumbled. “Very well, then. Please wrap this up. I have other things to attend to.”

Then she click-clacked out of the kitchen, almost brushing against Mary and her husband.

Finally, “So, do you want to go with someone else?”This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

“No, I don’t want to go at all. I want to say here! I want to stay with grandma! I want grandma and Leah to come home but Ally says they can’t. I wanted to go home, but Ally said Mum and Dad didn’t want us anymore. She says we have to go to the government. I don’t want to go to the government. I want to stay here! Mary makes good cookies. The government won’t make cookies!”

The confused outrage on the boy’s face was enough to pierce through Reyona’s crumbling armour.

She drew him closer and hugged him tightly. “I am sorry. I am so sorry” she said over and over again without even knowing what she was apologizing for.

She firmly held her tears back because she knew that was not what the boy needed at the moment.

She pulled back from the hug, faced the boy, and lied.

“I need you to know that your dad and mom still want you. They just can’t come to get you at the moment, but they love you so much. I am sorry, but you will need to go to the government for now. Your mom and dad are going to come back, and they will take you out of there.”

Junior gave it serious thought and asked “When are they coming?”

Reyona swallowed hard and said “Very soon. As soon as possible, okay?”

Junior nodded without conviction as he asked earnestly “Will you come to see me and Ally at the government house?”

Reyona couldn’t lie to him about that. So she simply said, “I will make sure that your dad and mum come to get you soon.”

“And if you don’t want to go with that lady, I can take you,” Maxwell said as he crouched beside Reyona again.

Grateful that he butted in before Junior asked her more questions, Reyona nodded and asked with a smile. “You will like that, right?”

Junior only looked at Maxwell like he was about to disagree.

Mary swiped at her face as she came forward and said “I already packed some cookies in your bag, but I will get you some to munch on your way, okay?”

“Will you give Ally too?” he asked eagerly.

“Of course, of course. Come wash your hands first, okay? Then you can…”

As Junior hurried after Mary, Reyona only stared ahead and wished she could just be all alone at that moment.

“Are you okay?” Maxwell asked for the second time that evening. “I know this is a weird situation for you to be right…”

Reyona looked at him as she said briskly, “I am fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Right,” he said as they both straightened.

Cliff looked at them, smiled wryly and went after his wife.

They heard Junior calling Allysyn to tell her that he had got some cookies for her.

Reyona wished his exuberance and liveliness would never be curbed.

She felt Maxwell’s gaze on her and quickly left the kitchen.

She ignored his footsteps behind her and watched as Allysyn collected the cookie without much enthusiasm.

Mary started crying as she moved forward to hug the girl.

Allysyn stood still for a moment, then she sluggishly raised her free hand to pat Mary’s back.

Reyona remembered all that Junior had learned through his seemingly quiet sister. She sure had a lot to say. Not just to any of them.

“What is going through her mind?” Reyona wondered as the girl disengaged from the hug and went to pick up their bags.

“Let me do that, kiddo” Cliff said eagerly, as if happy that there was something he could finally do.

The social worker was seated in her car with her hand on the steering wheel. All that was left to complete the picture was for her to blast the horn.

Reyona shook her head at the amount of dislike she had no idea she could have for someone she had only interacted with minutes ago. Yes, she had seen her once before but Reyona had spoken with her colleague, the cause of all this, that day.

What a fine time for the woman to fall ill!

Reyona suddenly grabbed Maxwell’s hand as he was about to head to his car. He looked at her in surprise, and she suddenly dropped his hand as she realised what she had done.

With her head inclined towards the direction of the woman, she said “Get her off their case.”

“Sure,” he said so readily and simply that she looked at him.

She must have had a questioning look on her face because he said “I hate her too.”

Reyona had no idea she smiled until he said while passing, “Oh, look at that. Miss Dexter smiled at me.”

As she turned away in embarrassment, her eyes met with Allysyn while she still had the remnant of the smile on her face.

She took a step towards the girl, but the latter had already turned away from her and was following Cliff to Maxwell’s jeep.

The social worker’s protest was hushed with one statement from Maxwell as he settled the kids in his car.

Junior waved again and again at everyone.

He even reminded Mary to tell his football friends that he was coming back soon.

“Oh God,” Reyona wondered if she had done more damage than good with that promise.

Allysyn only kept looking forward without so much as a wave.

Just when Reyona was beginning to wonder if there was something seriously wrong with the girl, she saw her kneel on the backseat where she sat.

And waved.