Chapter 10: A Change of Scenery
Kira eyed the clock as she was wheeled back into her room after her latest round of tests. She hated to admit it but she'd been watching it all afternoon. In the past few weeks she had been accustomed to having her daily visitor come to see her. Today he was late. Not by much but it was noticeable to her at least. Trying to distract herself from the fact that Ben had yet to show, Kira picked up her book from her side table and began to read through it despite the fact that she'd finished it earlier in the day. She was tired from all of the tests but she really didn't want to take a nap just yet. Instead, she forced herself to stay awake and kept eying the clock.
When her dinner tray was delivered with still no sign of Ben, Kira gave up on seeing him for the day. Perhaps on any other day as well. He'd finally grown tired of her; not that she could blame him. She was nothing to him just as she was to everyone else. There was no reason to expect that he'd continue to go out of his way to see her each day. Kira knew that she should have expected this; still it took her by complete surprise now that it had finally happened. Ben was gone and wouldn't be coming back. Giving in to her exhaustion, Kira left the meal untouched and finally allowed sleep to claim her. She wasn't really hungry anyway.
Later when she woke up, Kira found that she'd slept straight through the night without waking up even once. Now that she was awake, however, she began to regret not eating her supper. Breakfast wouldn't be delivered for nearly an hour yet and she was starved. She'd gotten spoiled while staying at the hospital. The regular meals, a luxury while on the streets, had gotten her used to eating at set times. Before she had come in, one missed meal alone would have gone unnoticed.
Getting up to visit the restroom attached to her room, Kira began to wonder what had caused Ben to decide that she wasn't worth coming to see anymore. She knew that she could come off as short-tempered to most and she wasn't exactly a social butterfly, but she had thought that Ben had liked that about her. Kira was still pondering her absent visitor after her breakfast and then later after her lunch had been delivered. When she had thought that one of the staff was coming into her room to get the empty tray, Kira looked up to see her social worker. Someone whom she hadn't expected, especially so close to the end of business hours. Miss O'Connell had only come to the hospital to see her since her admission twice. After the initial shock of seeing the woman wore off Kira noticed that she was carrying what looked like a set of clothes that were roughly her size.
"Good, you're here. I need you to try these clothes on. They should fit."
Kira looked down at the clothes as they were put down on the bed in front of her on the bed. "Am I going somewhere?" Obviously she was if she was given street clothes to wear rather than a fresh hospital gown like she had been wearing since before Thanksgiving.
"Yes. You'll be going to stay at a new foster home starting today. There is no reason for you stay here at the hospital when you only need to be here during your tests and treatments. Now get on up and get dressed. The doctor is filling out the discharge papers right now."
Kira slowly reached forward toward the jeans and sweater that had been given to her as she tried to keep her hands from shaking. Staying here at the hospital had one positive result for her in the last several weeks, she hadn't been forced to endure yet another home where she would just be considered to be a paycheck at best; she didn't want to think about the worst. Now here she was being shipped off once more to an uncertain fate and this time she wasn't even in any shape to make a run for it if she had to.
Kira stood and took her clothes into the bathroom and blocked the door as best as she could just as she always did when she went in there. She then changed out of the gown and prepared for her life outside of the hospital. Once she was dressed, Kira was given a pair of shoes to wear and was escorted out to an old beat-up jalopy that reminded her of the first car that had taken her to Mama Selma's. Just the sight of the car was enough to cause a panic to begin to creep up her spine.
Before forcing herself to climb into the car, Kira glanced at the hospital; her last fortress of safety. It had been nice while it had lasted. She briefly wondered if Ben's absence from the day before had a good reason behind it and if he would show today only to learn that she was gone. He had been one of the few individuals in her life who had genuinely seemed to want to help her. Now she would never see him again.
Kira rode in the back of Miss O'Connell's car in silence as she stared out of the window as it moved through the streets of Atlanta. Kira knew many of the streets at first from her time living on them. Once they began to move further away from the downtown portion of the city, however, she quickly lost track of where they were. She had assumed that they'd be heading toward one of the more rundown sections of town so when the houses that they passed became bigger and bigger, growing more imposing as the moments went by, Kira became curious. When equally imposing gates and fences joined the houses that they passed by, her curiosity intensified.
Finally, the social worker turned her car up one of the long drives shaded by massive oak trees on either side. Kira's eyes went wide when the car came to a stop and Miss O'Connell got out of the car and walked over to open her door up as well. Kira timidly got out of the car while wondering just why the woman had driven to this house of all places. Before her stood a large brick home that had about three floors from what Kira could see with a picturesque balcony on the second floor. Walking alongside the woman, Kira knew that they had to be in the wrong place. No house of any of her previous foster parents could have come close to this one and the house was even bigger than the orphanages that she'd lived in before. Kira was wondering just what Miss O'Connell was thinking with bringing her here.
After knocking on the door, the two waited until a well-dressed man in a suit answered the door. "Yes?"
"I believe that we're expected. I'm Sandra O'Connell; I'm here with Kira."
"He is waiting for you in the study," the man said as he indicated for the two females to follow him. "Please follow me."
Kira and the social worker were then led through several rooms and down a hallway before finally arriving in a well-organized, richly appointed room with bookshelves lining one wall with a large mahogany desk sitting right in front of a set of bay windows. At the desk sat a man whom Kira had thought that she wouldn't see again. Upon seeing Ben Kyle, Kira's eyes bugged out in surprise.
Looking up to see his guests, Ben smiled as he set the papers that he'd been reading aside. "Come on in. I'm glad to see that you've finally made it. Please come and sit down."
Sandra shook Ben's hand before sitting down across from him while following his gaze toward Kira. The fact that she hadn't yet recovered from her shock of learning that Ben Kyle was her new foster parent seemed to amuse the old man.
"We got here as fast as we could. Traffic wasn't the best downtown."
"Believe me; I know very well just how traffic in downtown Atlanta can be on a Friday afternoon." Ben smiled as the brief thoughts of all of the countless hours of being stuck in the cluttered Atlanta traffic crossed his mind. "Well, Kira. You're being awfully quiet. I'm sure that this must be a bit of a surprise for you. I had planned to tell you yesterday but by the time the arrangements were made, it was late and you were asleep when I finally got to the hospital."
Knowledge that Ben had indeed gone to the hospital the day before, along with the realization that he was now bringing her into his home, finally seemed to sink in. Kira's eyes recovered their look of apathy before she shrugged and mumbled something that sounded like whatever.
"Mister Kyle, I was hoping that I could speak with you in private before I leave."
"That's not necessary," Ben glanced back toward the woman and could see that she planned to make one last appeal for him to come to his senses before he was left alone with the girl whom she considered to be nothing but a bother. "I believe that the only thing left to do in all of this is to go ahead and show Kira where she'll be staying now. What do you say, Kira? A tour around the place before dinner?"
Kira glanced back and forth between the two and fought a smile at the knowledge that Miss O'Connell was practically biting her tongue with effort not to speak out of turn. Whatever it was that she had wanted to say had clearly been about her and Ben was cutting the woman's opportunity to say it off. Shrugging once more, Kira agreed to the tour. She's lived in worse places than this manor so she wasn't really going to complain about the fact that she was here instead of yet another orphanage. Not to mention if she was going to be here for any length of time she was going to need a little help in finding her way around.
"Good, I'll go ahead and take you around while James can walk Miss O'Connell back out." Ben stood and walked around the desk and shook Sandra's hand while effectively dismissing her as he said, "I hope that traffic is a bit better for you heading back to town."
Reluctantly, Sandra accepted the handshake before turning to follow the butler back out the way that she'd come. She still thought that it was a mistake for someone of Benjamin Kyle's advanced age to take in a girl like Kira but she supposed that he would just have to find that out the hard way. Of course this time when the girl takes off and runs, there were plenty of things around for her to swipe and sell to fund her life on the streets.
Ben took Kira around the primary areas of the house, starting with the library since he had the distinct feeling that the room would be of a particular interest to his new charge. He then took Kira to the Solarium before taking her upstairs to the second level where the family private rooms were at. He took her to the bedroom that he had decided would be hers and stood back as Kira took in the view. The first thing that he noticed was that something appeared to be quite distasteful to her.
"Is something wrong?"
"No- well…" Kira glanced around at the room's décor and did her best to not show just how much she hated the way the room looked. On the bed was a pale pink duvet with matching curtains covering the windows. Ever since Kira had left the Morgans' she had refused to wear the color pink since it had seemed that most of all of the girls' clothing was some shade of it. The color pink now always reminded her of her time spent at the Morgans'.
"If there is something that you'd like to have changed about the room feel free to say so."
"It's just… I'm not big on pink, is all."
"Is that all? That can be fixed easily." Ben smiled as he led the girl back out of the room then began to lead her down to the kitchen to introduce her to the staff there before ending the small tour in the small breakfast nook. He rarely ate in the dining room and figured that eating at the smaller table would make Kira feel more comfortable.
Over dinner, Kira finally asked one question that had been rolling around in her head since she had first been escorted into the study. "Why? Why did you have me brought here?"
Ben leaned back in his chair as he answered. "I thought that you could use a little change of scenery. Hospitals aren't exactly known for their stimulating décor." Kira eyed Ben with disbelief so he added, "Plus I'll admit that I miss having someone else besides the staff around here. My kids are grown and I haven't had any other foster children here in quite some time."
Kira looked at Ben doubtfully as she picked at her food. Not that she didn't like it, she just was rarely able to eat more than a bite or two at a time. Off to the side, she could see where there were those whom she could only assume to be other members of the staff that she had yet to be introduced to were peeking around the corner to get a look at the young teen that their boss had taken in just this afternoon. One whom he had taken to seeing on a daily basis right after Christmas and who had lost all of her hair to cancer already. It had been no secret that Mister Kyle's charitable work had been a source for many arguments between him and his children in recent weeks and each of the staff were curious as to just what their reaction would be to learning that their father had taken in one of the children from the hospital.
Kira was uncomfortable knowing that they were all watching her but did her best to ignore them. Her problem was that she could either give her attention to them or to Ben. She knew that she should feel comfortable with him given the amount of time that she'd spent with him in the hospital but being here was different. This home was his territory and she was a guest. Eventually, Kira chose Ben in favor of the men and women who were slowly being shooed away by the butler, (Was his name James?) just as Ben asked her a question.
"What was that?"
"I asked if you thought that you could handle going back to school yet or if you'd prefer to catch up on the year with a tutor instead," Ben poured himself a fresh cup of coffee as dessert was brought over to them at the table. He supposed that his decision to wait to introduce most of the employees to Kira after dinner had been a poor one since that had only bred more curiosity. He kept a rather small staff compared to others in the neighborhood but he didn't require much for himself. Mainly, they were those whom he considered to be his friends and extended family after all of the years that they'd lived and worked in a house that Ben had never believed that he'd be able to own back when he'd been Kira's age.
Kira considered the question briefly but carefully. Going to school had always been the only positive thing about being cooped up in any of her previous foster homes. However, she could reluctantly admit that there was no way that she would be able to function from sun up until the afternoon without being so exhausted that she'd need a nap. Not something that would go over well at school.
"I suppose a tutor."
"Good, I'll see what I can arrange in the morning." Ben saw that Kira had eaten very little of her dinner and hadn't even given her dessert a second look but knew from watching her eat at the hospital that she'd eaten about as much as she usually would so he didn't prod her to try to finish her meal. Instead, he put his napkin down and figured that he might as well as introduce Kira to the half a dozen men and women who were tugging at the bit to learn who the young stranger in their home was. "But for now, why don't I let you get to know the rest of the folks who live and work here."
Kira was then introduced to Gloria (the upstairs housekeeper), Chuck (the gardener), Myra (the downstairs housekeeper), Johnny (the driver who would help Chuck out on the grounds), Helen (the cook) and of course she'd already met James when she first arrived at the house. Each individual seemed pleasant enough but Kira watched them all with suspicion. By the time that the staff all announced how happy that they were that she was there at the house, along with some well-wishes in her fight against her cancer, it was getting late and Kira was exhausted. On the way to take Kira back up the stairs to the second level where the family's bedrooms were at Ben stopped off to show her a picture that he had hung on the wall across from his own room.
"This is something that I wanted to show you before you head off for the night." Ben turned to face the aged and faded portrait as he spoke. "Sometimes in life, we don't always get a fair shake when we start out. But that doesn't necessarily have to dictate where you'll end up later in life. You see these people in this picture?"
Kira nodded her head but remained silent and waited for Ben to continue.
"The folks in this picture were dirt poor; worse than that, really. No wooden floors for the house, the roof leaked every time that it rained; no indoor plumbing and at times it seemed as if a stiff breeze would knock the whole house in on itself. When the Depression first hit, we were so poor that we barely even noticed it at all." Ben saw Kira's eyes raise in question after the last comment.
"Yes. We. You see that little one right there hangin' on the woman's dress? That woman was my mother and that youngen was me. There were nine of us all livin' in that house at one time and I'll tell you there were times that there was so much racket that you couldn't hear yourself think. We all banded together and most of us survived. Both of my parents and my brothers and sisters all worked in the mills there in Augusta just as soon as they could. It was that or stay in school; which I'd decided to do. I'm the only one in my family that went to high school, much less college.
So why am I telling you this? Simply to tell you where I came from. Don't let the fact that you haven't had an easy start in life make you think that you can't be anything more than what you've seen others become out there on them streets. If you're willing to work hard, there isn't anything that you won't be able to accomplish. Now, I think that I ought to let you get some sleep. You've had a big day. We'll see about getting you some more clothes tomorrow and then a tutor. Good night, Kira."
"Night." Kira turned toward the door that was a few rooms away still thinking about what Ben had just told her. Here she had thought that Ben had been a product of money, that he'd always had it. Now she had learned that he'd come from a home that had most likely had more bills than they had cash when he was younger yet now he was a successful lawyer who was living very well off. It was something to think about, for sure.
Kira opened the door to the room that she'd been given and was more than just a little surprised to find all of the pink furnishings that had been in the room earlier in the night removed and replaced. Instead her room had white coverings rather than the horrid pink that had decorated the bedroom when she'd first arrived. Walking further into the room, Kira began to truly explore the room in a way that she hadn't when she'd been in it with Ben and was surprised that it had its own bathroom as well as a fairly large walk-in closet which she fully expected to remain empty. She had never had a room half as nice as this one before. The closet alone was bigger than most of the bedrooms that she'd shared with others while living in foster care.
Going over to the bed, Kira felt the cover and the sheets and instantly enjoyed the feel of the satin against her skin. Kicking off her shoes, Kira hopped up on the bed and pulled the covers back to crawl into the large king-sized bed. She was beyond tired and couldn't wait to see just how comfortable the bed slept. Kira tugged at a pillow to hug it to herself and thought that she would be asleep in moments. Unfortunately, that sleep didn't come. She kept finding herself staring at the door, waiting for it to open. After all, there had to be some ulterior motive for Ben to bring her here, right? People didn't just decide to take in a complete stranger without there being something in it for them.
Getting up, Kira noticed that the door had a lock on it so she turned it and climbed back into bed. Knowing that the door was locked gave her some measure of comfort and she had nearly allowed herself to drift off to sleep before the thought crossed her mind that a locked door wouldn't protect her if she needed it. This house was Ben's. Surely he'd have the key to all of the rooms. Kira then got back up and began to look around for anything that she could use to block the door with. There was a dresser, but of course in her weakened state she might as well try to push an entire mountain and get the same results. Instead, Kira's eyes landed on the soft and comfortable chair that had been placed near the window. She moved it very slowly since it was heavier than it looked then once more returned to the bed to try to drift off to sleep.
Nearly an hour later, Kira had yet to fall asleep in the luxurious bed. She couldn't explain it but Kira just couldn't let herself drift off. Every time she came close her mind would conjure up another reason that she needed to remain alert, regardless of just how tired she was.