Chapter 3: I Dream of Erised

Mrs. Figg came back a few times, mostly to fill out paperwork that Tamisin didn't understand. But Mrs. Figg always set aside a few minutes to check up on Tamisin, which made the little girl happier than she had been in a while.

As always, Olivia and her gang were quick to squash her joy.

"You can't expect that old prune to adopt you," she would say. "She's not fit to take care of anyone! The board will never allow it."

"She's not that old," Tamisin insisted.

"She hobbles along with a cane," Olivia said bluntly. "And she always smells like cabbage. Face it, Tamisin; it won't happen."

"Look on the bright side," said the other girl in the gang. "You get to spend more quality time with us."

Tamisin spent the rest of the afternoon hiding from the six older children, who had suddenly decided they wanted to play a game of Dunk the Head in the Loo.

It was hard for Tamisin not to think about what Olivia had said. What if she was right? Mrs. Figg was getting older…it was possible that she could pull out at the last minute. Or, even worse, the board would decide she really was too old to watch after her.

"Don't listen to her," Martha Manning said. "They're just jealous. Mrs. Figg is keen on adopting you, Tammy."

"How do you know?"

"When she comes to visit, you smile a lot more," piped up Clarice. "And she does, too."

Tamisin had a nightmare that night. Mrs. Figg came to the orphanage and was disappointed to see her. "I thought you were someone else," she had said before turning and floating away.

Olivia and her posse, who were now pigs, circled her, oinking and laughing. And then she heard a high, cold laugh as a tall man screamed at a woman. "Go! Grab Tamisin and run!"

She woke up and hugged Ellie the Elephant, her tattered gray plushie she'd arrived at the orphanage with. She didn't want to go back to sleep now; she could deal with Mrs. Figg and the Pig Posse, but that laugh…it set her teeth on edge.

She soon felt her eyelids droop, and she tried to wake up when she felt another dream coming, but she was unable to. But this one was a little better; there was no laugh, no fear of not being adopted.

She was sitting in front of a mirror, but she saw more than just her reflection. There was the man and the woman from her nightmare. The man was tall, with messy black hair and laughing eyes. The woman was stern-looking, and Tamisin saw her own golden-brown hair sitting in a pixie cut.

"Mum? Dad?"

They nodded and smiled; her father's was big and a little impish, her mother's was strained and fleeting.

Beside her parents were another man and woman. This man looked a lot like her father: same hair, same eyes, same smile. The woman had a more gentle look about her, with red hair and a kind expression on her face.

In front of them was a boy, who couldn't be much older than her. He had the tell-tale messy black hair, and was a spitting image of the two men behind him. His eyes belonged to the redheaded woman: bright green. On his forehead was a lightning bolt, small but pronounced.

She frowned at the three strangers. Who were they? Why were they here, in her dream?

But she didn't really mind. She liked their company. They were just as comforting as the two people whom she now knew were her parents.

And she held onto that image, long after the dream had ended.

On the afternoon of October 31st, Tamisin was called to Miss Sayers's office. The kind owner's smile wasn't enough to shake Tamisin's nerves.

She knew what would happen. She would be told that Mrs. Figg was too old, or that she didn't want to adopt her after all. And Tamisin would go on living here, constantly bullied by Olivia and Co. until they were old enough to terrorize the real world.

"I have some exciting news for you," Miss Sayers said.

Tamisin tried to focus on the pumpkins that adorned Miss Sayers's desk and shelves. Some had faces on them, some were white, and some had long stems.

"Mrs. Figg has asked to adopt you."

Tamisin heard the words, and couldn't move. She couldn't believe they were true.

"What?"

"Mrs. Figg wants to adopt you, Tamisin," Miss Sayers said, a big grin on her face.

Tamisin didn't know when she stopped feeling nervous and started jumping up and down, tears spilling from her eyes. She soon found herself hugging Miss Sayers, getting the older woman's cardigan wet.

"Congratulations, Tamisin," Miss Sayers said when they let go. "She'll be by next week to pick you up, alright?"

Tamisin nodded, but couldn't keep the question from coming out. "But…what about her limp and her cane and her cats and—"

"We went to her house, Tamisin," Miss Sayers assured. "She's very capable of taking care of herself and her cats. She's very healthy, but she's very lonely. She said that her children moved out a long time ago, and she hasn't spoken with them since."

"That's dreadful," Tamisin said, feeling bad for bringing it up.

"She said you remind her so much of when she was little, and she's always much happier after visiting you." She smiled. "She's very, very excited to adopt you, Tamisin."

Tamisin left the office a few minutes later, cherry lollipop in hand and a new confidence in her heart.

"Tamisin's leaving!" sang Clarice. "She's getting adopted!"

Adoption news spread quickly through the orphanage, and the same held true with Tamisin's case. Instead of feeling sad about leaving, Clarice paraded around for the next week, as if she were the one going to a new home.

"Mark my words, Hammy Tammy," Olivia said one day during Recreation Time. "Mrs. Figg will get hurt, or she'll die, and you'll come right back here."

Tamisin just smiled and went on reading, ignoring the bullies. The news of adoption had helped her develop an immunity to them; she knew she was leaving and wouldn't have to put up with them anymore.

The night before Mrs. Figg came to get her, Tamisin could hardly sleep. What little sleep she did get, she found herself once again in front of the mirror, with the same four grownups and the boy with the lightning on his head.

Her mother reached out and squeezed her shoulder, and Tamisin smiled.