Sheena Stone didn’t think much about her “father”. The quotes were only for those who questioned why they didn’t look alike at all. Was her mother’s story even that uncommon? Sheena’s biological father was unknown, and Jim Blackgoat stepped in when she was a baby.
For maybe six years, Jim had two more children with her mother and taught Sheena how to catch a ball. How to ride a bike. How life was growing up. He was surrounded by people more like him than like Sheena, but that wasn’t going to be the breaking point for his relationship to Ms. Stone. It was something else, a volatile fight about caring for ill family members or who was leaving dishes in the sink.
When a home visit by the powers that be resulted in Ms. Stone losing custody of her children, Sheena was confused. One, life was fine aside from the empty cupboards. Usually, her mom brought home leftovers from work and no one complained. Two, her younger siblings went to the Blackgoats but she didn’t. Meanwhile, contacting anyone in the Stone family was fruitless. She was destined to land with a stranger.
But she marveled at the view of the towering mesas as her social worker drove far away from the center of Lucky Palms. They grabbed breakfast there earlier. Maybe they were looking out for her.
She liked Sandria when she first saw her but still cringed at the house and having other foster siblings.
“My dad was from To’hajiilee, what ‘bout you?” she asked Sandria.
“Well…that’s very far away from me,” she said. “Did he adopt you?”
“Kinda I guess but now you adopted me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I have no idea how long this will go for, but make sure to make friends at school and tell me what I need to do.”
“I think you need to buy new wallpaper,” Sheena said. “And a smoke detector. At my other school they brought in this trailer and we had to pretend it was on fire!”
“Did you have to learn about people who died in fires?” Sandria asked.
“Yeah!”
“Oh…I wish they changed that part.”
Shockingly, Sheena was a sweet and shy child at first, who relished time outdoors with her new family. I was bracing myself for what changed her. Her closeness to the children flew away though. None of the children knew much about what made them similar at that point. Even their “origin stories” were sometimes separated by a deep chasm.
That was the first rift Sheena had with the other kids. Her family was still alive and her story wasn’t tragic. And they seemed fine, if incompetent at times. They were the best living parents any of them had. It also meant that her stay would be temporary, so no one bothered to get attached to her.
Sheena got attached to the flora and fauna of the town. Flowers bloomed in parched soil and Lucky Palms was large but flat enough for bike riding to be easy. Of course, Sandria couldn’t afford a bicycle, but salvaged and stolen bikes were free.
So she got comfortable, and the alternate future where she went back to her parents ceased to exist in her mind. In fact, she feared her departure until one fateful evening.
It meant little to Sheena besides getting to spend time with her foster mom. No one else had much of an interest in Sandria’s life, even including Sandria. She was detached from feelings of love and friendship, like a robot, and was as dry and lifeless as one. The one subject she had any enthusiasm for was the history of the area. Most of her books were about deserts and hunters and her clan in To’ne’heliih (Tonalea) but reading them put all the kids to sleep.
Except for Sheena. She was also the only kid in the group to like the electronics kit that someone donated. The instruction manual came with all the words smudged off. Sandria understood none of it and neither did Sheena, but they tried to put their minds together. They even completed a circuit together.
“So why did you leave?” Sheena asked her as they tinkered. “We’re not near Tonalea and you won’t even have us visit.”
“I won’t, because it’s weird and I don’t have a car,” said Sandria. “And I love my family, and I love who I am, but the other parts of who I am…well, that’s a long story no one’s itching to hear. I also couldn’t adopt you if I lived there.”
“Like any of us?”
“Yeah, any of you.”
The other kids finished their homework and retired to the shared bedroom to sleep or pillow fight or shout at each other. No one was hurt–usually–so Sandria expanded on the statement to Sheena.
“Wait, so I’m adopted now,” Sheena muttered. “Are you kidding?”
“I can’t tell jokes, you four really might be mine. It’s a surprise to me too but don’t be shocked if someone says you’re just a foster. I’ll accept what I need to.”
“Wow, a surprise adoption.” Being the bearer of good news to her siblings, maybe even legal siblings, would change everything. Because being adopted changed everything. There would be someone looking out for them after their 18th birthday. They’d have a mom for cheer practice and graduation and weddings and grandchildren, even if Sheena couldn’t picture herself there either.
She and BettyJo didn’t share a bunk bed. Shane usually slept above Sheena and BettyJo above Chrystal. Sheena found her sister perched on Shane’s top bunk with a book. He was invited to a boy’s sleepover that night or a Little League camp. Anyways, it wasn’t that BettyJo wasn’t studious–far from it most of the time–but her books ended up jumbled with notes and scribbles.
“Hey! No peeking.” BettyJo jerked her book away from Sheena.
“I didn’t see it…but I have something even better.”
“No way.”
“Yes way, we might be Sandria’s adopted kids! We have a mom forever if we are.”
“Yeah, well, that sounds wrong and bad,” said BettyJo.
“You don’t want a mom?”
“I have a mom, I’m just waiting for her to come back. Why aren’t you too? I’m only fishing and playing with you to be nice.”
“I like my ‘rents but I want you to be my sister even more.”
“You can say that for now.” BettyJo rolled her eyes. The other two children ignored her and Sheena while they quarreled. It was not the night that Sheena had planned, and even though Chrystal and Shane overheard the conversation, they had no thoughts on it. They didn’t have a family to wait for either, at least to the best of their knowledge.
“And stay out of my book!” BettyJo kicked Sheena hard over the bunk bed’s railing. She crash landed onto Chrystal.
“SANDI!”
“Yes, I have to get first-aid certified every year,” said Sandria. “How do you know what that is?”
No one was hurt in the injury. Sandria had no reason to believe anyone got a concussion either and neither girl doubted her. And she bit her lip when they asked if BettyJo was going to get grounded.
“I’ve never grounded anyone,” said Sandria. “And I don’t feel comfortable about it.”
“But you’re our adopted mom now,” said Sheena.
“What?” Chrystal asked. She grimaced for the rest of the night. “I don’t have other parents but that still sounds crazy.”
“Chrystal’s right, and I was being too optimistic about it when I told you,” she said. “But I have to spend time with DCS for a reason. Some of it’s just to find what you are to me and I tried to make that clear. And…well, I didn’t expect any of you guys to begin with but you’re part of my family.”
As it turned out, her house was supposed to be a day camp until she realized no one would leave. None of the kids were told that part.
“Even if you don’t want to be?” Sheena asked.
“Is this about BettyJo again? I know she wants her parents to step back in and I’m bracing myself for that day. All you girls have living parents and Shane’s the only one who can’t count on that.”
“But is that easy?”
“Sheena, I think we should get you to bed.”
Technically in bed was close enough. Sheena sat cross-legged on the covers, listening through the walls. Sandria was going to be up all night with them…and she felt a little bad about that for a moment.
But she was kind to Chrystal. “I’m trying to prepare myself for everything with you guys” and “Uh okay can I go to bed now?”
She stayed up just to watch Sandria confront BettyJo. She was kind and no grounding took place because Sandria had to consult the rules she was bound to. If she was bound to them? If there were rules? Even young children could see the bureaucratic holes that threatened to swallow everyone alive.
The only reason Sheena remembered that night was because of the fire that woke her up that morning. Sandria tip-toed around to find the fire extinguisher and hoped the hiss wouldn’t wake anyone up.
“Oh my god I’m starving and it smells like burning toast!”
“Isn’t that what Mrs. Dion said a stroke’s like?” Chrystal asked. They were in the middle of a unit on the brain in their weekly health class. The stroke PSAs targeted younger and younger children.
But enough about that, Sheena was the first to panic. It didn’t help put the fire out, but she got the best view of it and no one was hurt. Best of all, no one had a stroke. The only victim that morning was Sandria’s frybread craving.
The mess cleaned up and every child accounted for, it was time for regular pancakes at the diner again. It was becoming a weekend ritual Sandria could scarcely afford, especially for four growing children. And they got Shane to meet them there.
None of it came out of Sheena’s allowance, so who was she to complain?
The best part about Sheena’s childhood was how kids were naive and had short memories. BettyJo barely remembered kicking her off the bed and I had to prod Sheena so she could remember her fall. They were far from the closest of siblings but the house was mostly peaceful. It was even kind of boring. They learned how to play with each other while Sandria tried to appease her editor’s outlines. Yes, she was a published author. Her home situation was kept out of the author bios.
She even made a friend in Simone, a local girl who had a newspaper delivery route. So it meant that Sandria knew her well and introduced the two.
Then Sheena entered high school and her siblings followed. Sheena somehow failed to get a teenage crush…except for maybe Simone. Sheena was killing it in her classes after being an average child. And she swore that Sandria fixed the stove or at least learned kitchen safety.
No one knew what caused the fire. All Sandria made was spaghetti since it was on sale. Some children emerged charred like a steak on the grill, and that included Sheena. She wanted to collapse onto the floor. And she wondered if her visitors at the hospital would be good, or if they’d be angry DCS goons.
Oh do I have “screenshotting favorites” and how Sheena was not one of them. Very few of these screenshots came from my gameplay (compared to Shane who had 75% of his stuff done as I was playing). I think it comes from who develops a real arc during the game and who doesn’t. Somehow all of Sheena’s involved fire!