Orphaned girls.
Sophie and Katie turned away from the two small girls playing in the small playroom of the foster home. The room was full of old toys, books, board games and puzzles for the children to play with. Sophie and Katie were meeting with the social workers and the police after learning there had been a fatal accident involving the children's parents, and they had been the only ones to get out of it alive.
Sophie and Katie had already resigned themselves to the tragic inevitable. They were the ones now responsible for the lives of these small children.
Sophie and Katie had been speaking to the social workers for the last few minutes, while Natalie took care of them closely. The two girls had only just been brought in after their parents had died in a car accident.
"How old are the girls?" Sophie asked, seeing one of the girls was much older than the younger girl, who was a baby, but she was large and old enough to roll around and crawl.
"That one," the social worker pointed out the crawling toddler, "is a year old, and the older girl is three years old."
"Good to know," Sophie said, turning to look at the social workers who'd brought the kids here, and the one grim-faced police officer. "What happened anyway?"
The police officer sighed and her face became pinched with pain as she looked at the two girls. "The parents were driving them outside the city when the crash happened," she said. "We're not sure why it happened, but cameras showed a lorry travelling and turning without looking, and it smashed into their car."
Katie shuddered while Sophie closed her eyes. "How did they survive with only a few bruises?" Sophie asked, referring to the bruises on the side of the older girl's face.
The police officer's face became even more pained. "The mother had somehow managed to get in the back of the car and used her body to cover the girls. She took the impact, and she died as a result."
"Jesus," Sophie winced and pictured the older girl having nightmares for the rest of her life.
"Have you contacted their family?"
One of the social workers looked down. "They don't have any family, except each other," she said.
"We're still looking, but it looks like they just don't have any other relatives," the man with her said. "We didn't have any other choice but to put them into care."
"No, you were right to do it," Sophie said, already calculating the things both girls would need. "We've got the room," she went on. "Two kids have recently been fostered, so they can share, and it looks like the older girl won't let her sister out of her sight."
"Oh, she won't," the male social worker sent a smile towards the girls even if they didn't see it. "She dotes on her little sister. To be honest, I think she knows her parents are gone, and she is the only one left who can take care of her sister."
"What makes you say that?" Sophie asked curiously.
Katie was looking at the girls, and she saw the older girl was holding her sister carefully but firmly. "Look at them, Soph. She won't let her little sister do anything without her."
Sophie saw what she meant. "What can you tell us about them?"
"The older girl is Rebecca Wanslow. Her sister is Grace," the woman social worker said, holding out a file. "This contains their details, date of birth, stuff like that, but we're still not clear about their likes or dislikes because we know so little about them."
"So it's just a guessing game now, huh?" Sophie said, looking back at the girls sympathetically. As if sensing eyes upon her, the elder girl, Rebecca lifted her gaze slowly, and she locked onto Sophie's eyes, and she smiled shyly. Charmed to bits by the young girl, Sophie smiled back.