Daniel pulled the quilt up and shivered between the cold sheets on his bed. It was his first night back in his old room with the Hammonds. He was very grateful for Amy's meddling and the Hammonds' persistence. He felt that he'd come home.
He thought back to the night he'd told George and Ruby that he'd like to come back. They'd been delighted, but it was what Aunt Barbara and Uncle James had revealed that had surprised him.
flashback
"Daniel, you know James and I spent the past four years working to make it possible for us to foster you, if you need it." Aunt Barbara casually remarked as she cut some chicken for Ethan. "We've been working with the National Federation of the Blind and they've suggested that we file a lawsuit against the New York Office of Children and Family Care claiming discrimination."
Daniel's fork clattered onto his plate and stuck in his mashed potatoes. "Wha..What? You did what?"
James smiled and patted his wife on the arm. "I'm a lawyer. We're going to make sure that no other foster child is denied a good home due to prejudice on the part of the State of New York."
end flashback
Daniel couldn't believe that anyone would go to so much trouble, and expense, for him. Why would they bother? I'm not family. I don't get it.
He curled into a tighter ball and pulled the quilt up over his head, trying to shut out the cold November night air. His memory drifted back to one of his last nights in Egypt with his parents.
flashback
"Daniel! You need to come back and finish this page of math. You know you can't play with the artifacts until your school work is finished." Claire stood waiting, her feet spread apart and fists on her hips.
"I'll go get him, Claire."
Daniel peered out from under his cot, watching his father throw back the tent flap to go in search of him. Using both hands to cover his mouth, he tried to smother a giggle.
Claire slowly turned and saw the tip of a tennis shoe disappear under her son's cot. Raising an eyebrow, she called out, "Honey! Never mind. If he's gone, I guess we'll just have to get used to life without him."
Melburn reentered the tent and looked at his wife in question. She pointed to Daniel's cot and placed a finger over her lips to silence him. "You know, we could give his clothes to the poor. Goodness knows, there are plenty of children who could use all his stuff."
"What about the new archeology tools he got for his birthday? I think I could probably give those to a child of one of the workers." Mel sat down in his chair and turned toward Daniel's bed, waiting.
Under his cot, Daniel's eyes flew open in horror. He couldn't believe that his parents would give away his new tools! Weighting the punishment he faced with the fear that they would give his stuff away, he scooted out from his hideaway. "No! Please don't give my stuff away! I'm here!"
Claire turned away from him so he wouldn't see the grin she couldn't hide while his father, a much better actor, turned a grim face to his son. "Come here, Daniel."
Daniel hung his head and shuffled over as slowly as he dared.
"You know the rules of this family."
"Yes, sir."
"You know that if you don't keep up with your school work, then your mother and I will have to place you in a boarding school."
"Yes, sir." Daniel's toe began to push a dust bunny around on the tent floor.
"Daniel. Look at me." Melburn placed his hands on his son's shoulders.
Daniel reluctantly raised his eyes up to meet his father's.
The older man pulled his son onto his lap and wrapped both arms around him. "What do you think your mother and I would do without you? Do you have any idea how much we love you?"
end flashback
Daniel remembered that he'd been forbidden from the dig site for two weeks after that. Memories of his parents no longer caused a stabbing pain in his chest. There was still a deep sadness that he didn't think would ever go away, but he was beginning to remember the good times without focusing entirely upon their deaths.
His body heat had finally warmed the sheets enough so that he could relax. His final thoughts as he drifted off were of warm desert nights with crystal clear skies, dancing with the sparkle of distant stars.
XXXXXXXXXX
That Sunday after church, Daniel sat in the living room musing on all the different religious traditions he'd been exposed to since becoming a foster child. The Hammonds were deeply religious Southern Baptists who tried to live their faith in their daily lives. He had a great respect for them because of that. He'd lived with people who attended church and left their moral ethics at the door when they left the building. He'd been taken to a Synagogue and celebrated Old Testament feast days, which he'd found very interesting and that had driven him to read the Old Testament to see if the modern traditions continued to follow what had been written by Moses and the prophets who followed.
But the most foreign, and therefore the most interesting to Daniel, was the family who believed that all religious traditions had value and they attended a different center of worship each week. He'd been to Buddhist, Hindu, many different Christian sects, an Islamic center for nonbelievers, and several different neopagan meetings. All these added to his own research into ancient beliefs, especially Egyptian, Middle Eastern, and Greek.
He turned these all about in his head, trying to sift through what he considered garbage, searching for truth. It felt to him that all religious traditions were of value to those who believed and ridiculed by those who did not. He hoped that there was something in existence called God. He wanted to know that his life would have meaning beyond the brief physical period his body existed. He deeply desired to know that it was possible he may be reunited with his parents in another life or realm of existence or whatever it may be called.
Right now, his head hurt from the battering around of the thoughts inside. He dropped his head onto the back of the couch and stretched out his legs. Why couldn't he just care about sports and girls? Life would be so much easier.
He sighed and hauled himself off the couch to head upstairs to memorize another list of Latin noun declensions. He was just planting a foot on the first stair tread when he heard the squealing of the gate outside. He backed up and turned to answer the door when he caught his foot on the throw rug at the bottom of the stairway and pitched forward, smacking his head on the hand rail on his way down to unconsciousness.
Ruby heard the crash at the same time as the door bell rang. She sprinted into the entryway from the kitchen and slid to a stop when she saw Daniel sprawled on the floor, blood oozing from his scalp. She dashed back to the kitchen for several towels and some ice while she yelled for George to come help. She ran back to Daniel as the back door slammed shut and George and the girls came running to see what the problem was.
"Rachel, answer the door and tell whoever it is to we're busy right now." George gathered Daniel up and headed to his bedroom where he laid the boy out on his bed. Ruby came up right behind her husband.
"Julie, go get the first aid kit from the bathroom. Be quick!" Ruby sat on the narrow bed next to her bleeding son and slipped a towel under his head to keep the blood from soaking his pillow.
George sat on the other side of the bed and checked his pupils, not really sure what he was looking for in someone whose sight wasn't normal. "His pulse is strong, but erratic. I think his pupils are reacting to light, but I'm not sure."
Ruby had found the laceration on the side of Daniel's head and began dabbing at it to see how bad it was. Julie came running back in with the red metal box that housed the families' first aid supplies. "Julie, go get me a bowl of warm water to wash his head so I can see if he needs stitches."
Julie tore down the stairs just as Rachel came dashing up to see what had happened to Daniel. "It was the paperboy asking if we wanted to subscribe to the New York Times. I told him no and to go away." She paused to look at her brother, so still and pale, stretched out on his bed. "Is he okay?"
"He's breathing and his heart's beating. Everything after that is minor." George turned to reassure his daughter.
Julie entered the room carefully, trying not to spill any of the water she carried.
"Thanks, sweetie." Ruby dampened a corner of a clean towel and dabbed gently at the wound, still seeping blood. She cleaned his hair until she could see the cut. "It's just a little cut, but head wounds bleed a lot."
The girls nodded, trying to be reassured by their mother's words. "Why isn't he awake?" Julie asked.
George looked back at the too-small frame, lying so still on his bed. "We don't known, honey. I hope he'll wake up any time now."
As if on cue, Daniel began to lift a hand up to his head. "Uh, what..where.."
Ruby brushed the hair from his forehead. "Shh. You've hit your head, but you'll be okay."
His eyes fluttered open and shut again. "Is it night? There's no light."
George and Ruby flashed a frightened look at each other. "It's still daylight, Daniel. You don't see any light at all?"
"No. Everything's black."