Chapter 2: Stranger
Nessie
When I got to my car that is when I really broke down in tears. I'd never been so humiliated before. I was sure the benefits had been loaded onto the card the night before. Someone must have stolen the benefits. The food assistance that we all relied on. The amount of bad luck that had fallen on me lately just kept on mounting with no end in sight. I placed Kayden in his car seat and took a deep breath. I put the key in the ignition and nothing. I turned the key again and it clicked a few times to no avail. I grabbed my phone out of my purse to call the insurance company only to realize that my phone had died. Great. Just great.
"Fuck!" I screamed as my frustration and other pent up emotions bubbled to the surface.
Then suddenly I heard a knock on the side of my door. I jumped in my seat. My heart started pounding. I looked out the window to see that bronze haired boy standing outside of my door with several bags of groceries in his hands. I stared at him out of curiosity, wondering what he wanted from me. I hesitated before I opened the door.
"Can I help you, sir?"
"You left all of this behind at the counter. I just thought I would bring it out to you," he explained. "And you forgot your card as well," he handed me my food stamp card. I blushed bright red. "I overheard what happened at the register,"
"You bought all of this for me? A stranger?" I was confused. It had been so long since anyone had shown any kind of compassion or kindness towards me. "Oh that's not all I did. I gave that cashier a piece of my mind and I made sure to speak to his supervisor about the way that he treated you,"
"Thanks, you really didn't have to do that sir,"
"Yes I did. I couldn't stand by and do nothing. Also, my name is Edward,"
"I'm Renesmee. But they usually call me Nessie,"
He smiled. "Is something else wrong?" he asked me.
"My car will not start and my phone is dead so I can't even call my insurance to come and jump start the battery,"
"I'll tell you what. My sister is a mechanic. I'm sure that she'll be more than happy to come and fix your car for free,"
"That sounds great and all but I need to get these groceries home and put away the stuff that needs to be refrigerated before it goes bad,"
"Then I'll drive you home,"
My heart skipped a beat. The idea of having a boy I just met drive me anywhere made me a little uneasy. But he didn't seem dangerous. He seemed too much like a gentleman to take advantage of a girl like me.
Edward was kind enough to help me undo Kayden's car seat as I was having a bit of trouble with it. "This baby. Is he your son?" Edward asked me as soon as we were inside of his car. He tried to sound disinterested but I could tell he really was curious.
"No. His name is Kayden and he's not my son," Hell I never even had sex. I probably wouldn't ever have sex now.
"Oh, so he's your brother then?"
"Not exactly. Kayden is a foster baby that my parents' took in shortly after his birth three months ago. His real mom threw him in a dumpster and left him for dead," I sighed.
"I'm surprised no one has adopted him yet. Babies usually go really fast,"
"Nobody wants to adopt him," I said sadly. Poor Kayden had a serious health condition. One that was likely to kill him within the first few years of his life if left untreated. The kind of treatment he needed was expensive and no one wanted to take that on. Nobody wants a sick baby like him one prospective adopter had said as soon as Kayden's heart condition was revealed to her.
"I really appreciate everything that you are doing for me Edward, truly I do. You have no idea what this means to me,"
"I guess I was just in the right place at the right time," he said. "Actually maybe it wasn't so much of a coincidence. If Alice hadn't sent me to that grocery store in the first place I never would have run into you,"
"Who is Alice?"
"One of my sisters," he said. "She said it was urgent that I go to that very grocery store and even told me exactly what time to be there. She can be a bit cryptic sometimes but she does have a way of, well, knowing things,"
"That was one hell of a convoluted message there,"
He chuckled. "I suppose it was,"
"So are you here on vacation? I've never seen you before," I asked him. If he was a local I was sure that I would have remembered seeing his angelic face before.
"No. My family and I, well, we just moved here. We got here last night actually,"
"Well, welcome to Hawaii. I've been here pretty much all of my life. I was born in Washington state but most of my memories are here in Hawaii. We moved here not long after I was adopted,"
"You were adopted?" he asked casually.
"Yeah I was adopted. I don't remember my birth parents at all,"
"This is where you live?" Edward asked as we pulled up to my apartment. It was a pretty run down apartment but it was home.
"It's not much but it's home,". Anyway this is the unit we live in. Funny this was the first time I had anyone over at my apartment. It was a tiny apartment with only two bedrooms and one bathroom. But we made do.
"This is a lot of medication you have here," Edward noted.
"It's Kayden's. He has a heart condition that will likely kill him in the near future. The medicine is just to help prolong his life. But, what he really needs is an expensive surgery that we can't afford. That's why no one wants to adopt him. Because he is a sickly baby as they say,"
"Some of these have your name on it," he noted.
"It's pain medication the doctor prescribed to ease my suffering,"
"Ease what suffering?" he asked.
"A few weeks ago I was told that I had terminal cancer. Leukemia. I was only given a few months to live. Treatment is not an option for me. My family can't afford it and our insurance will not pay for it. So pain medication is all I get. So I am just trying to make the best out of what little time I have left,"
