When you saw how miserable the girls looked, you knew you couldn't leave them in the elements. "Yeah, come inside," you told them. "Let's get you dried off."
The girls' faces instantly lit up. "Thank you mister!" they said as you showed them inside. You went to get them towels and some of your old shirts to wear so that you could dry their clothes. You introduced yourself to the girls as you got them dried off. The girls all appeared to be 8 years old. The first was brown-haired Molly, who was in front when you opened the door, and she seemed to be the unofficial leader of the group. She was joined by Kelly and Katie, who looked like twins. Kelly had her blonde hair cut to just above her shoulders while Katie had longer hair tied back in a ponytail. You were certain that you were going to get them mixed up in the future, but for now you could remember.
"So why were you out alone in the rain?" you asked the girls after they were settled.
"Well," Molly began, "we kind of, um. . . don't have anyone to stay with."
"No family or friends?" you asked. They nodded. "Like, you're orphans?" The girls nodded again, and Kelly looked like she was about to cry. There was no way you could let them go now. Not without first doing everything in your power to help them. "Tell you what: you girls can stay with me for as long as you need to. I'm going to do whatever I can to help you find a permanent place to stay. That sound good?" By the sound of their cheers, you could tell that they were all for your plan.
Next order of business was to get the girls to bed. Unfortunately, you only had one spare bed in your guest room. Luckily, the girls assured you that they were fine sharing. You wished the girls a good night's sleep, and quietly shut the door.
In your own room, you got out your computer and tried to find any information you could about missing children or orphans that might give you a lead on who the girls were and where they came from. Even after what must have been hours of searching through hundreds of articles, you couldn't find anything useful to you. Eventually, sleep overcame you, and you fell asleep at the keyboard.
The next morning, you struggled awake, still slumped in front of your computer. Slowly, the details from the previous night that lead you to your unconventional rest came back to you. You went to check on the girls, and the three of them were still sound asleep where you left them. You decided to leave them be and went to your kitchen to make some breakfast.
As you settled down with your cereal, you noticed a letter you'd left on the table. It was addressed from an orphanage called St. Lucretia's, which you hadn't found any mention of in your searching last night. Reading the letter, the orphanage's director was thanking you for agreeing to adopt the girls, and continued on about how much of a difference you were making in their lives.
Your eyes glossed over the rest of the letter as you tried to process what you read. According to this letter from an orphanage that doesn't exist, you were now the adoptive father of the three girls that you had met the night before, a sequence of events you were absolutely certain had never happened. Could this be some kind of cruel prank the girls were playing on you? You had to get to the bottom of this, and went to wake up the girls.
By the time you got to the guest room, Katie and Molly had already woken up, with Kelly still sleeping on the bed. They greeted you with a quiet "good morning Mr. Anthony," when you opened the door. "Hey girls," you replied. "I need to ask you something important. Do you remember when we first met?"
The two girls shared a confused look before Katie answered. "It was like a month ago, I think. It was this really rainy night and you let us stay with you. Then the next day you talked to the orphanage and you adopted us and we've been here ever since." She tilted her head. "Is something wrong? Are you gonna send us back?"
"No, no, no, nothing like that," you quickly assured them. "I just was having trouble remembering exactly how long you've been here, is all. Sorry to make you worry like that," you said before leaving them again.
Her response only raised more questions for you. Was this another part of the prank? Katie seemed sincere when you asked her, and Molly didn't react as if she was lying. Still, something strange was happening, and you couldn't find out what it was.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2025 Jadaquarious (UN: jadaquarious at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
DeeKayWon has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author