Early in the morning the knock from the door woke me, it was my father. I quickly jumped out of my bed and unlocked the door. My father was carrying Kegan.

“Daddy there’s no food, and we didn’t eat last night, we are going to need breakfast this morning. But it seems like we are not going to eat, what I must say to Freedom when he’s awake, or Kegan. What must I do when he wakes up and cries?”

I was in tears, my father just looked down and said, “I know my baby. I will make a plan but right now I need to go and find your step mother because she is not here, and I can’t afford to lose her like I lost your mothers.”

He walked out with Kegan and closed the door. I woke Freedom up and he went to the bathroom and he came back with Kegan.

“Alicia, look I have found Kegan sleeping on the couch alone,” Freedom said sadly.

Kegan was still asleep. Freedom saw that I was angry and mad about what our parents did to us.

“I can take him to our neighbours’ house. Maybe they can take care of him and maybe Mrs Williams can makes us lunch boxes again,” said Freedom with a smile on his face, trying to comfort me as well.

My mind drifted to what happened last night. I took Kegan out of Freedom’s hands, “Look go take a bath, I will clean him first and if our parents don’t show up we will go to the Williams house, okay.”

Freedom quickly cleaned himself. He was waiting for me. I bathed Kegan and changed him and then I quickly got ready too. There was still no sign of my parents, and it was getting late so we had no choice but to go to the Williams house.

Mr and Mrs Williams were already waiting for us to show up there.

“Hey morning guys. What took you guys so long to show up?” Mrs Williams asked. Kegan woke up then.

“Oh ok now I see, you are with this little guy,” she took him and played with him.

“Mr Williams, I’m sorry for what happened last night.”

Mr Williams knew what I was talking about, and so he tried to stop me, “No, no it’s ok my Angel. It wasn’t your fault guys, you know what. You guys are going to be late for school. Take your lunch boxes and I will drive you to school. And Mrs Williams is going to take care of your brother.”

They gave us our lunch boxes and Mr Williams drove us to school, “We will see you guys after school. Don’t hesitate to come there after school, you are always welcome at my house,” said Mr Williams after dropping us off at school.

After school we went back to the Williams house as instructed.

“Oh, you guys came back?” asked Mrs Williams playing with Kegan.

We went inside and sat next to Mrs Williams and watched her playing with Kegan. I saw Kegan happy for the first time of his life and I experienced the warmth of family. My heart was at a good place and Freedom was playing and enjoying himself for the first time. Mrs Williams asked me to help her with preparing the food for us. Mr Williams was sitting on his sofa looking worried. I’m sure he was worried about what was going to happen if our parents found us here, especially my mother. The scene she caused yesterday seemed to make him worry.

“Mrs Williams, I’m sorry but we have to leave,” I said that because I was trying to save them from the drama that was going to be triggered by my parents when they get home and found that weren’t there. Mrs Williams knew the reason why I was saying that.

She looked at me and said, “I know my baby, and I understand. Have you ever prayed before?”

I was confused, and that bewilderment was written all over my face because no one ever told me about praying. I grew up without praying, and no one ever prayed for me.

She smiled and said, “You know what, let’s eat first and we will talk about the importance of praying when we eat.”

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