Smoke, Kenna awoke quickly coughing at the smell. She instinctively dropped to the floor and crawled to the door. The door was still cool to the touch, and she went back for her sister.
"Josie, wake up…" Kenna coughed again and took the sleeping child from her bed, and wrapped her in a blanket. She could hear the coughing of her other siblings across the hall. Kenna made her way across the hall and opened the door. "Lily, Rose… Crawl to me now!" Kenna ordered and could see the girls do as they were told. The four of them slowly made their way down the hallway and to the door. Kenna felt again at the door and realized that is was also cool to the touch; obviously the fire wasn't just outside there door. She grabbed the backpacks, which hung near their front door and threw them at the girls, she then grabbed her own bag and took the girls out into the hallway.
"Stay down!" Kenna ordered as they made there way along smoked filled hallway. Kenna pounded on their neighbour's door, unsure if she had left yet, touching the doorknob to check if it was unlocked, Kenna pulled back when she felt the heat in the metal, they soon made their way to the stairway and carefully made their way down the stairs. Kenna keeping an eye on her sisters as they did, they eventually got out of the building and the four of them collapsed on the sidewalk outside the obviously burning building.
"You can't stay here!" Someone ordered and started to help them up and down the street. "Are you alright?" Kenna noticed that it was a fireman who was with them.
"I think we're okay.." Kenna coughed and noticed that her sisters too looked alright.
"Was there anyone else in their apartment with you?" The fireman asked. Kenna shook her head.
"No, we all are out. I'm not sure about Mrs. Carzinoni though, I pounded on her door but no one answered." Kenna told him coughing a bit more before another firefighter came and took them away from the cold and into the coffee shop across the street.
"Here, it's warmer inside. " The man told her softly.
"Hey, why don't you come and sit down. Hot Chocolate and coffee on the house." A woman not much older than Kenna offered as Kenna laid her little sister onto the booth seat. Both Lily and Rose crawled close to Kenna and all of them ignored the drinks placed before of them. It didn't take long for the twins to fall asleep, none of them felt like talking and the mess in front of them was exhausting and overwhelming for seven year olds to understand. Kenna remained awake, the hours stretching out and the building they called home continued to burn. The cracking sound of the roof falling in announced that they would never be able to return home.
Two people looking like they too had been taken from their beds, came into the coffee shop and came towards Kenna and her siblings.
"Hi, my name is Julia, and this is Eric. We're from the Red Cross…" Julia introduced. "The emergency response team called us, to help you out…" Kenna looked at them blankly.
"My name is Kenna, have you heard about Mrs. Carzinoni?"
"No, we haven't heard, you were the only other tenant above this store."
"Oh, my poor dear friend…" Kenna whispered as she realized that the older woman hadn't made it out of the building. She looked back at the two and realized that they still wanted to talk with her.
"Do you have any family we can help contact? The children do they have a father?" Eric asked.
"No, we don't have any family. These girls, aren't my children, they're my sisters. We all have the same mother, but she died about a year ago. I'm their legal guardian." Kenna told them. "I have no idea who the twin's father is, and Josie, the little one her father died with my mother…"
"Kenna, we can set you up in a shelter… I'm not sure what we will be able to offer you… Are you employed."
"I've been working the substitution list with the New York City School Board. I work about three days a week, more if I can get it."
"So you are a teacher?" Julia asked.
"Yes," Kenna sighed. She didn't understand where this line of conversation was going, but for some strange reason, she felt that this woman actually was trying to figure something out in her head, but she was too distracted to ask her in more details. "I've been teaching elementary and senior elementary school for five years, I stopped full time teaching when my mother died."
"Okay, Kenna… Thanks so much for you openness. I think we'll get you to the shelter so you can rest… I see that you were able to rescue a few things before you got out, if you have proper identification, we'll be able to get you into a shelter no problem." Eric jumped in and between the three adults; they were able to get the girls up and out of the coffee shop. Kenna found herself at the door of the local mission; a kind looking worker took them in and showed them to two cots at the far end of large room.
"I know it's not much, but we'll try to find something in the morning… It won't be long before wake up call, why don't you try to sleep some…" The woman encouraged and Kenna nodded. Her sisters were sleeping soon after that and Kenna stayed awake, guarding her siblings. It was some time later that she felt her hand throb, she looked down at it in the dim light and noticed that it was blistered and burned from the fire. She grabbed a bandana from Rose's backpack and wrapped it around her hand to protect it. She ignored the pain and focused on the three women that wandered around the room, talking to them instead. It wasn't much later when the alarm woke everyone up, and several staff members came in and started to usher the group back outside. Kenna woke her sisters up and they went to line up for some breakfast.
"Kenna, I have to go to the bathroom!" Lily announced, as Kenna tried to get them to take their bags.
"I think it's were the line is." Kenna suggested as they went in the direction of what looked like a bathroom. Kenna tried to hold her own thoughts to herself as she helped her sisters clean up a bit; everyone was covered with a soft layer of soot, and dirt from their night terror. Rose looked on the verge of tears, every time she looked to Kenna, and Kenna held her close and rubbed her back.
"We're going to be okay…" Kenna encouraged as she hugged her.
"What about school?" Rose asked. School had always been something that Rose had loved, the breakfast program, the classroom and then the after school program that they participated in.
"Well we'll just take a break for a bit, and try to get a few things organized. Once we eat, I'll find a phone and call the school. Maybe they have an idea on what we can do." Kenna suggested.
"Na na…" Josie cried out and Kenna went to pick up the three year old. She was standing a short distance away from them, and looked panicked.
"Okay Josie, I'm here. Let's go get something to eat."
"I'm not hungry…" Rose sighed again. Lily the older of the twins took her hand.
"That's okay, we'll just save it for later." Lily suggested. It was late morning by the time, Kenna had rescued a few things from the clothes cupboard at the mission. The clothes were clean, and warmer and then the pyjamas' and sweaters that they had been wearing. The woman had helped them find shoes; they were all much worn looking but Kenna new that they couldn't walk around the city in their socks. Kenna thought as she ran her thoughts around the small savings that she held in the teacher's credit union. The money would not go far. She didn't even think she would have enough for a first and last months rent for a new apartment, let alone everything else they were going to need. She was so deep in thought that she almost missed the woman calling her name.
"Kenna! Oh I'm glad to have found you…" It was Julia from the Red Cross running towards her, she had a beautiful golden lab with her. She stopped just short of the girls, until they came close and wanted to pet the animal. "Come, walk with me. The park isn't that far. The girls can play with my dog while we talk." Julia suggested.
"Have you heard anything from the fire department? Have they found Mrs. C?"
"I walked by the store and apartments. The fire department is still there looking through everything. I don't think your neighbour made it out though I'm sorry."
"So am I." Kenna admitted as the two adults sat down on a park bench, and the girls went off a ways with the dog letting it chase after a ball. The three of the them looked normal, not like some group of homeless children that they had become overnight.
"How are you doing?"
"We smell…" Kenna laughed softly. "The water at the sink could only clean our hands and faces, and even though we have a change of clothes, it's pretty noticeable. Although smelling bad is the least of our worries at the moment I don't think I can stay in that shelter for much longer. I talked with the Manager there, and she's making an exception for me right now, but they don't like little ones in there, too many people with mental health problems." Kenna sighed. "I called the school to explain what had happened,"
"What about work? Do you have any ideas about child care?" Julia asked.
"Mrs. C watched Josie for me on the days that I worked… I don't have anyone else in the City, I don't want to call for assistance because I now the system, and I worked so hard at getting custody of the girls that I'm afraid that they will be taken from me. I don't think I could handle that right now, not with all that's happened." Kenna admitted and rubbed her eyes, she was over tired, exhausted from the past day.
"What if I told you that I think I could find you a place to live? A community that needs a school teacher…" Julia asked. Kenna turned to look at her with confusion..
"That sounds all so mysterious like, what community? Where? Out of the city?" Kenna asked.
"No, the community isn't out of the city… Would you be interested?"
"There would be no problem with me being a single caregiver? The girls are part of my package."
"Room and board would be part of the package, child care for Josie would be provided, the twins would have other children to play with. You would provide a service to the community and in return you would have a new home…"
"That sounds too good to be true…" Kenna sighed.
"No, it's real. I just need a bit of time to figure out how to get you there." Julia told her. "You said that the Shelter would house you for one more night… I don't think I'll need much more time then that."
"One more night in the shelter isn't a problem." Kenna nodded. "I don't think we will be given much more than that though."
"Okay, then I need to get going and talk to some people." Julia announced and called her dog over. The three girls responded as well. "Well girls, I'm going to take Carely here home with me. I'm going to be back tomorrow…"
"Will you bring Carely?" Lily asked.
"I'll see." Julia turned back to Kenna. "I would suggest that if you can, I'd go and get better shoes for the girls, walking is the main source of transportation."
"Okay." Kenna nodded. "It was actually on my long list of things, those shoes are nearly worn through on Rose, sometimes I wonder why people even bother to give those things away, they should just throw them out."
"Did you need some money for that? I have some…"
"No, I actually had a pay check on Monday. I'll take the girls now." Kenna decided. "We'll see you tomorrow?"
"Absolutely." Julia promised. With a wave, the woman was off across the park.
"Well you heard her girls, lets go find some shoes that don't feel like your barefoot." Kenna took them and they soon had new shoes. With a feeling of overwhelming dread, Kenna took her family back to the shelter for the night. Kenna spent the early evening with the girls in main room, trying to get them to play the few board games that the shelter had. She had crayons and a colouring book that kept Josie occupied for a bit. It wasn't until the beds were opened, that the mass exodus happened. She found two beds in a corner of the gymnasium and helped prepare the girls for bed. With the girls cuddled close together, Kenna took up a position of watcher and spent the entire night once again, watching the girls sleep and making sure that they were safe. Josie woke during the night with a fearful scream and cried out.
"Na na!" Josie cried out and Kenna gathered the little girl in her arms.
"Hush my little one… I'm here."
"You were in a fire!" Josie whimpered softly
"Yes, we all were in a fire, but we are safe tonight." Kenna reassured, She started to hum a few lines of a familiar lullaby.
"Sing it please…" Josie begged.
"Sleep my child and peace attend thee, All through the night Guardian angels God will send thee, All through the night Soft the drowsy hours are creeping, Hill and dale in slumber sleeping I my loved ones' watch am keeping, All through the night" Kenna sang and by the time she was finished the first verse, Josie's breathing had become regular and soft, holding the little one in her arms, Kenna kept her vigil.
Kenna was beginning to feel the effects of little sleep by the next morning, she was achy and grumpy. It didn't help that when they were evicted from the shelter for the day, it was raining. The Shelter's Manager took pity of the small family and said they could sit in the alcove while they waited for Julia. Kenna pulled a book out of her backpack, something she always kept with her and opened the story.
"Na na read please." Josie asked as she crawled into her lap, Kenna pulled a pair of reading glasses out of her bag and slipped them on her nose, while Rose and Lily cuddled close to each side as Kenna turned the pages of the well read book. "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." Kenna paused in her reading of the story then as she felt her throat close up with tears around the familiar story.
"I'm sorry I'm late! I was hoping to come sooner but I got held up." Julia panted as she came up to them.
"That's okay, Kenna was reading to us." Rose assured as Julia looked at Kenna and realized that the young woman was starting to show the strain of the past few days in here face.
"Well, I have great news. I'm going to get to take you to a safe place to stay." Julia offered.
"Oh!" Lily jumped up. "Where?"
"Well that is going to have to be my secret for now. Is this all you have? Nothing left behind in the shelter?" Julia asked.
"No this is everything." Kenna assured.
"Well I know it's raining, but we're going to go for a walk in the park." Julia told them. Kenna had no idea on where she was going with this woman who was really just a stranger, but she was too tired to question, so after slipping the book back into the backpack she shouldered the bag and followed Julia off into the park. With the rain, most people had chosen to stay away from the park and Julia made good time with them. They went down a slight embankment and into a water run off drain.
"Where are we going?" Lily asked.
"Someplace safe," Julia returned and then when they were well into the tunnel she turned back to them.
