Out of Cradle, Endless Rocking

I poured some milk over my Lucky Charms and sat down on the kitchen table next to Lynn. Lynn is my mom's best friend- was my moms best friend, and she was the one appointed by the government to take care of my parents' will. She has been staying with me since the day of the accident.

"You're finally eating? That's nice."

Lynn wasn't like the other grown ups about my parents' deaths and my current situation. She didn't bother with silly insinuations like everyone else, she said what she meant. I could be open about how I felt about this mess of a situation. I decided to ask her the question that was troubling me.

"Not really, no. Even lucky charms don't trigger my hunger... But umm... Lynn, can I ask you something?
"Go ahead."
"What's gonna happen to me now? Whose gonna take care of me? Where am I going to even stay?"

Lynn focused her stare somewhere behind my head, her expression pensive.

"I don't know how to explain to you what's next."

I knew there were two possibilities ahead. Either I was gonna stay with Lynn and her family or worse, go to a orphanage. I had no living relative, my grandparents were all dead and my parents both had no siblings, just like I me. They always told me that I was the only missing component of the families they never had, and they had to wait thirteen years to have me. My mom was barren and I was the miracle they had been waiting for for thirteen years. Guess it took that long for the doctors to cure my moms incapability. Now I was the only living proof that a family called Fitzgerald once existed, and I had no where to go.

"Obviously we would love to take care of you, but our hands are pretty much full."
Lynn and her husband had 3 children under the age of six and the little money I was left by my parents weren't enough for an addition to their household. I was facing the only other option; an orphanage.

"And well... I don't think I should be the one to tell you. They'll be here real soon and it's better if you hear it from them."

I didn't ask Lynn who they were. There were obviously people coming to pick me up to take me to the orphanage.

"I'm so sorry Ella-"
"It's okay, it's not your fault Lynn."

I dropped the untouched bowl of cereal in the sink and ran upstairs to my room.