Chapter 6

It was Christmas time at the house. You could see it, smell it and hear it everywhere you turned. Atlanta was helping Anna, and a bunch of other kids closer to her age decorate the tree in the living room. Mayella was sitting on the nearest couch cutting up strips of red and green colored paper to make paper chains that would replace lights.

"This is how y'all spend Christmas every year?" Atlanta asked. She sounded disappointed and concerned, almost, for the well being of the people that spent Christmas in this manner. People that spent Christmas with no lights on their tree, and no cookies to bake all the time, and no stockings to hang on the mantle, no nothing.

"Mmmhmm" Mayella sounded.

"There ain't a chimney. How dose Santa get in?"

Mayella looked up from what she was doing, "Atlanta," she started to say but other kids butted in.

"Who's Santa?" one boy asked.

"Santa Claus. You know he comes and…"

"Santa doesn't stop here." A little girl stated. She put her hands on her hips and looked only a few years older the Atlanta. She looked at her as if to say Really? Santa?

Anna laughed, "Yeah, we've all been put on the naughty list."

Mayella looked at Anna disappointedly. Atlanta turned to her with a look of complete horror and heartbrokenness. She looked back at Mayella for an explanation as to what they all did that was so naughty for Santa not to even stop at the House.

Mayella motioned for her to sit on her lap and she did. "Look hunny, I hate ta be the one to say this to you but Santa…"

Atlanta could feel it coming. Here it was; all the lies being confirmed as the sad truth. Deep Breath. This isn't the worst thing to ever happen…. Atlanta stopped her. Mayella really looked upset by this so Atlanta took the hint. "That's ok, May. I get it. I'm seven now, I can handle there being no Santa."

Mayella gave a weak smile of thanks. She really didn't want to have to say it. "Don't think you're not gonna get anythin' though. Everyone gets three presents for Christmas."

"Just three presents?"

"Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ. He only got three presents on his birthday and if the Lord himself can deal with only three presents then so can we." Mayella said sternly.

"That makes sense," Atlanta nodded after a moment. Mayella's eyebrows went up at this. She honestly had braced herself for the worst seeing as somehow she always had to be the one to explain this stuff to kids. "But," a small, sly smile creeped on Atlanta's face, "what are they?"

"Well, the government pays for the works to a big Christmas dinner just like Thanksgivin', which is a gift in itself. Everyone gets to eat dinner. Miss Reed works all day long to make sure we are all full. When I say full I mean full, it's the best thing ever."

Atlanta nodded. She was slowly discovering what it was like not to be full all the time. Dinners at the house were first come, first served (with the exception of the children on the first floor) and if you were late you might not get anything at all. It was a good thing they had lunches served free to them at school, for those that went that is. It honestly made me feel bad. I never taken my mother seriously when she said that there were kids that didn't get three square meals a day when she was trying to get me to eat my veggies. I figured she was talking about kids in third world countries or something, not my own sister.

Even for her birthday, Atlanta got a piece of cake, yes, as did all of the other December babies (they celebrate all of them at the first of the month when there is money for things like cake) but then she had to deal with that upset feeling that you get when you eat something rich and sweet and aren't too full of anything else on top of the hungry eyes of everyone else looking at her with longing.

"Then sweet little Miss Reed goes 'n' saves all year long so that everyone gets a pretty new five dollar bill as your second gift." Mayella contiued.

"Well, that's awful nice of her."

"It is. Finally, everyone on the second floor and up takes part in Secret Santa."

"Oh Ok... What's Secret Santa?"

Mayella laughed and went on to explain the rules of Secret Santa, "...and in the end everyone has a gift and knows who gave it to them."

"And this is how y'all spend every Christmas?" This time she sounded happpy, Atlanta couldn't wait for Christmas now. It was simple and beautiful and had a meaning to it all.

"Yes ma'am it is and honestly, I love it."

"Me too."

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The scene shiftted to Frankie tucking Atlanta into bed. "Night, Beautiful. Happy Birthday... It is the 18th right?"

"Yes, thank you." Atlanta said with a smile. It faded quickly and Frankie noticed.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I still can't believe I had ta go ta school on mah birthday," I could tell right then that she was getting upset; her accent got really thick.

"It happens sometimes, hun." Frankie said.

"Well, I wish it wouldn't. Everyone was expectin' cupcakes 'cause mah mama used ta make the best 'nes 'n' I didn't have 'em 'n' then Danny went 'n' said somthin'," Tears began to well up in her eyes, " 'n' I got all upset like this here 'n' he 'n' his friends laughed at me 'n'"

She couldn't finish because she finally gave into her tears. Frankie just held her and let her cry. He tried to make her felt better by saying, "That's just mean of 'em. That ain't right to make fun of someone that way. Didn't they get in trouble?" and things along those lines but it didn't work very well.

Atlanta finally quieted down after a while, "I miss my momma."

"I know you do, hunny, but you just gotta remember she's in a better place and, hey, one more day and its Christmas break. You won't have to put up with this Danny character no more."

"Yeah," she sniffed.

Frankie brightened up considerably, "But hey, guess what?" He said in a hushed but very excited tone. The smile on his face was contagious. You got that feeling like you just know something good was going to happen. "Guess what I got Mayella?"

"You pulled her name for Secret Santa?"

Frankie shook his head and pulled a little box from his back pocket. "No," he said. "Just a little something special is all."

He handed it to Atlanta and she opened it to find a shinny new engagement ring. "OH MY HOLY BUHJEBUSS, FRANKIE!" she shouted.

Frankie instinctively threw his hand over her mouth clamping it shut. "Shhhhh! What do you think your doin' yellin' like that?" he whispered. A few kids around them stirred but no one woke up, which was a surprise to me. "Damn it girl. You'd think I had just proposed ta you or somethin'." He rubbed his ears as a joke and laughed.

Atlanta was far too busy admiring the ring. There were three diamonds and the one in the middle was bigger than the others on what looked to be a silver band. I'm no expert in rings, as I'm sure you can tell, but Silena seemed to be. She jumped into a rambling. "A one carat square cut diamond boarded by two half carats set on a classic silver band from Jarred's latest wedding collection of the time probably worth, oh I don't know, a thousand or so today. Absolutly beautiful choise and considering the girl..."

"Yes thank you Silena." Mr. D interrupted. Silena pouted to herself but shut up.

"So you're gonna propose to her for Christmas!?"

"That's the plan," Frankie said with a smile. "And if she says yes the first thing I'm gonna do is get us outta this dump of a home. Move us out to New Oleans, she loves it there, or Boloxi even. Anywhere is better than here."

"That's amazing Frankie! Of course she's gonna say yes" Atlanta hugged him in her congradulations and went to sleep dreaming of white dresses and pretty smelling flowers.

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Atlanta's first Christmas at the house was more than likely just as good as any but we will never know for sure. Malcolm, one of Annabeth's half brothers, came into tell us it was time for dinner. Chiron was supposed to have blown the conch horn but didn't so they sent him to find us all.

His eyes lingered on Atlanta and the others but I brushed it off. Later that night at the camp fire I sat in the Posiedon section alone and tried to wrap my head around the idea of Atlanta sitting next to me when she wakes up. I wondered if we would be friends or we would get along as well Annabeth and her siblings do.

Annabeth. I wondered if I should talk to her about it. Surely, she would have an opinion. Hades, she probably had it all figured out already. I decided against it. She looked tired and honestly I was still trying to process everything.

I went to my cabin and fell a sleep the second my head hit the pillow. Of course, I couldn't just have a peaceful night sleep. It started out well enough but got wierder. It was Atlanta's life story again but I felt everything she did and heard all of her thoughts. It was awful.

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"People! Visitors!"

"Not just visitors, a couple!"

"What? Really?"

"Get up! What are you lying around for? Visitors!"

Kids kept shouting and everyone was running around like the world was on fire. The girl that asked the question was addressing Atlanta, who was still in bed. When Atlanta didn't respond to the older girl pushed out of her bunk onto the floor. She woke up about half way to the floor, just in time to let out a "WHOA!"

She hit the floor with a light thump and once she untangled herself from her bed sheets I got a good look at her.

Atlanta was standing there, seething mad with her fists balled up at her sides and a dangerous scowl plastered on her face. She was dressed in tinker bell pajama bottoms and a tank top as her night clothes. Her hair looked like someone attacked it with a power mixer.

"What in God's sweet name," she growled at the other girl who was laughing at her, "are you yelling for? It's Saturday. Would you like to have been up all night and be woken by some lunatic screaming her head off for nothing?"

"Up all night wif your bad dweams 'n' missin' your mommy?" the older girl cooed at her with a fake baby voice that made Atlanta turn 50 shades of red and her knuckles turn white.

She lunged at the older girl and they both fell with a significant thud. They struggled for a minute. At first the older girl had the upper hand and yanked on Atlanta's long hair. I could feel the painful ripping like it was my own hair. Atlanta quickly used the girls own weight against her a pinned her to the floor but not without a bite here and a scratch there first.

Frankie came in and found this, picked Atlanta up off of the girl, whispered something in here ear and almost literally threw her into a hot shower. "Here's your chance."

Down stairs the couple was walking in. They were linked arm in arm and looked like they stepped out of some movie; the perfect family. The man was tall and very handsome with dusty blonde hair and brown eyes. The woman was shorter than the man even in heeled boots and had light brown hair with hazel eyes. They both looked young enough, maybe late 30s, and had big smiles like they were generally excited to be there.

Miss Reed greeted them and they chatted, something about an appointment and paper work and background checks being in order. I was busy trying to think of possible ways this was going to play out.

I gave up and concentrated on the couple talking to Miss Reed. "New year, new chances. We were never able to have a child so we figured that if we could support a child and give it a happy life with us then we would be happy to." the woman was saying.

"Mrs. Thompson, there are other ways of doing this. You could foster if you don't wish to adopt..."

"No, no, please," Mrs. Thompson interuputed. "We both want to be parents and this is our last chance." She gripped he husbands arm and looked despirate. Mr. Thompson sat forward in his chair and had a similar look on his face. They wanted this chance; you could see it in their faces and hear it in their voices.

"I understand but you must understand. This isn't like adopting a dog or buying a fish. This is another humaning being, a child, that you must care for." Miss Reed's business face was on. She'd seen this all before; happy endings and bad ones. This was a point people needed to understand.

"They need all the love and respect and care as a child of your own. Adopted or foster children are not always the easiest to care for either. They may act out to get attention, they may have certain medical needs or need conciling, but it is your responsibility as parents to handle this as you would a child of your own flesh and blood. This isn't something you can change your mind on, the child you bless today is the child you will send to college one day. You must understand this."

The Thompson's nodded and agreed as if they were begging and pleading. "When would you like to start meeting children?" Miss Reed asked.

"As soon as possible," Mrs. Thompson replied excitedly with a smile.

Miss Reed smiled back, but it was weak. She was afraid she would say that, that always ment today. The day she had absolutely nothing done. Mr. Thompson noticed this. "Carrie," he said, addressing his wife. "Don't you think we should give Miss Reed a day or two? Before we meet anyone? Nothing is happening anytime soon. We could wait."

"No you don't have to. You've waited long enough, I'm sure, for all of this to process." Miss Reed said leading them out into the living room.

Atlanta was bounding down the stairs dressed with her hair some what dired and she was looking to have it braided. She came out of the hall and ran toward Anna who was sitting on the couch.

"Anna, would you please braid my hair?" she asked with a smile.

"You'll have to get in line sweet heart." Anna gestured to the little girls hair she was currently fixing into a pony tail and around her to the various other girls holding there hair brushes looking impatient.

Mrs. Thompson took this opportunity to stepped forward, "Umm, hi," she started "I'll braid your hair for you if you like." She said it with a big smile and all the hopes of being accepted to join them.

"Gee, Thanks Miss." Atlanta handed over her hair brush.

"My name's Carrie. What's yours?" Mrs. Thompson was very shy it seemed. Just nervous I guess, but she spoke with the love and caring of any mom.

"Atlanta Nicole Jones. It's nice to meet you Mrs. Carrie."

"Oh, hunny, just call me Carrie. How would you like your hair done?"

"Oh, any way. It doesn't matter." Atlanta sat on the floor in front of the couch and motioned for Carrie to sit on in behind her.

"How about a nice long french briad? I'm good at that."

"Mmm... what's a French briad look like?"

Anna spoke up. "You remember Mayella's hair not yesturday but the day before that?"

Atlanta thought for a moment "Oh, yes. That would look nice I think."

"I think so too."

That was the start of a very long conversation about Atlanta: all of her interests (gym, horses, the color blue), friends (Lisa and Sammy), school (1st gade), what she wanted to be when she grew up etc. etc. They had obviously taken to each other imeadiantly. Mr. Thompson even joined the conversation when the topic came to football and work and things about their family. I learned that Carrie doesn't work but her husband works as a bridge inspector in New Orleans and that they live not far from the fair grounds in the middle of town. They always wanted a child but could never have one. They seemed like generally nice people. To bad you can't smell things in dreams or I would have picked up on the alcohol on Mr. Thompson's breath before the next scene began to play.