Aug 16th, 2019

Heidi stepped out of the passenger van. Mr. Caldwell called out a goodbye, but Heidi only raised her hand without looking back. She hefted her two, loaded duffles onto her shoulder and stepped forward.

The turn of the century farmhouse was two stories and five bedrooms of wood panelling that had needed a paint-job two decades ago. The white picket fence was more grayish brown, and the gate hung at an angle, squeeling when Heidi pushed it open.

She sighed, trying not to be so harsh. The Snyders were actually good people, constantly broke and struggling to keep the place clean and functional, but unable to add anything to the aesthetics.

Their fostering was pretty much the same. They provided a clean, safe home, with beds, clothing, and plenty of food in a neighborhood with an average school. They let the kids go to the park when their chores were done, and one hall closet was filled with dolls, building blocks, and board games.

If you were a normal kid with normal needs and normal behavior, it was a great place. But Heidi wasn't very normal, and her brother was a completely different story.

Heidi strode up the sidewalk, avoiding the more severe hazards of the fissured and uneven cement. She climbed the warped steps to the porch and opened the door. She immediately flinched back when Erik's face appeared right in front of her.

"You are late," he said. There was no censure in his voice, just a statement of fact. "You said you would be back by 5:30, but it is 6:03. That is 33 minutes late."

Heidi smiled. "I know, Erik. The traffic from the airport was much slower than I thought it would be."

Erik nodded. "Traffic is a variable that you can't reliably predict." He turned away from the door, still talking. "Supper will be ready at 6:30. It is my day to set the table. Forks go on the left. Knives and spoons go on the right. Spoons go outside the knives..."

Heidi smiled at his back as he continued his recitation. Despite his issues, he was reliable. None of the other kids managed to fully set the table with such accuracy and precision every time.

She lugged her bag up to the second floor girl's bedroom. She dropped her bags on top of her desk and unzipped it. She made short work of sorting the dirty clothes into the three-sectioned hamper, and she arranged her toiletries into her basket.

Each room had one of the wheeled hampers, and each kid had a toiletry basket. It kept the small bathrooms tidy and made each of the five foster kids responsible for their own stuff. With so many in the house, Heidi could appreciate not letting something as simple as toothpaste become a problem.

Heidi shared a room with Kat, an eight year old who had spent most of her life going from one family member to another after her mother had left her with her grandmother to run off with her boyfriend.

The grandmother had died a few years later, and an aunt and an uncle had taken their turns but were overwhelmed with their own young kids. The Snyders were Kat's first experience with non-family foster care, and she took it all in stride.

As she left the room, she glanced into the boys' room. Terell and Greg were twelve and ten, and their room was that not-quite picked up that kids that age tended towards. Both boys were downstairs, no doubt waiting to fill the black hole in their guts that came from a combination of an impending growth spurt and a lifetime of food insecurity.

The next door was the steps to the attic bedroom. It was way too scary for most of the kids, but Erik thrived there. Having the space to himself, removed from the clutter, noise and interferrence of the other kids, he was doing about as well as could be expected.

Though the Snyders didn't really understand Erik or his condition, they latched on to what was obviously working. Unfortunately, they weren't as generous when it was Erik's turn to run the vacuum or mow the lawn.

Heidi wondered if that was what had gotten Erik's batteries taken away the other day. She rounded the banister, ignoring the last room. The Snyders' youngest son, Zach, hadn't fully moved out, coming back from college each summer. They kept his room ready for him all year, calling it the "guest bedroom" even though they never had guests stay over.

She ran lightly down the stairs, trying to keep from thumping loudly. She was always unconsciously trying to minimize the noises she made to help keep Erik calm. He did so much better when he was allowed to spend time with his projects.

She reached the bottom of the steps when Terell and Greg tumbled through the front door. They had the smell of sunshine and dust on them, and they called out a welcome-back at her before they headed for the downstairs bathroom to wash up.

Heidi smiled as she headed for the kitchen. Mrs Snyder was ladling hamburger stew into bowls from a massive round 14 quart slow cooker and placing them on the table at each setting. There was a huge mound of golden brown drop biscuits in the center of the table, and two cut-glass bowls filled with fruit salad.

Mrs Snyder glanced at Heidi as she moved to help deposit bowls on the table. "Welcome back. How was the trip?"

Heidi flashed her a smile. "It was really great. I have some pics I can show the other kids if that's okay."

Mrs Snyder nodded. She seemed to appreciate Heidi sharing her experiences, even if the Snyders were unenthusiastic about travel. They seemed to have never wanted to travel much themselves, and a trip to Europe was the last thing they expected someone to seek out, never mind enjoy.

Erik showed up just then, grabbing silverware from the drawer and setting it up at each chair. Heidi began filling glasses with water from the in-faucet water purifier. The process was slow and she found her mind wandering as the liquid trickled into each plastic cup.

Her reverie was cut short by the arrival of each of the other kids, then Mr. Snyder, home from work as a construction foreman. The increase in noise was significant, and Heidi found herself watching Erik to gauge his reactions.

The habit was old and long-ingrained, and Heidi hated that she had to be the one to monitor someone else's emotional state. It wasn't about love. It was just draining. But no one else ever seemed willing to step up to take it on, even for one evening.

Fortunately, the Snyders were big on maintaining a semblence of order in the chaos, and everyone settled in to eat quickly.

"We will be getting a new kid tomorrow," Mrs. Snyder said into the relative silence of supper. "I got a call from foster care today."

Mr. Snyder broke open and buttered a biscuit thoughtfully. "Oh?"

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Kat asked.

Heidi knew she wasn't the type that Kat hoped for in a sister, and she could appreciate that the social girl would be interested in having a more girly-girl to share their room with.

"Boy," Mrs. Snyder said, unknowingly dashing Kat's hopes. "He's older. Fifteen, I think. Name's Travis. We will drop him off at the school after he has a chance to drop off his things here."

The woman carefully didn't look at Heidi, but she flushed as if Mrs. Snyder had stared at her. The Snyders were carefully conservative about certain things, and they were very sure that a foster kid of her age was a teen pregnancy waiting to happen.

That meant that any boy close to her own age was immediately suspect, as she was for being even polite to such a boy. It was frustrating and embarrassing for Heidi, given that she had no real interest in going down that particular road. She had other things to focus her time and energy on at this stage of her life.

Besides, her visions often showed her the weird and gross things that boys did when they weren't trying to impress her. She wasn't interested in a relationship with someone who set off stink bombs in class or bullied a kid from the Chess Club.

Of course, none of that was easy or even really possible to explain to the Snyders. So Heidi was forced to tolerate their constant suspicion of any activity that might involve a boy. Since half of her peers were, in fact, boys, that made for a lot of suspicion.

After another moment, the other kids had exhausted the topic of the new kid and turned to Heidi. "Erik showed us your pics," Greg said. "Do you have any more?"

"Was Italy fun?" Kat asked.

Terrell spoke over the girl. "What was it like going on an airplane?"

Heidi glanced at Erik. He was staring up at the ceiling while chewing his fruit salad, but she knew that didn't mean he wasn't paying attention.
She sighed and began answering questions as quickly as her foster siblings fired them at her. She would have time later to focus on Erik and what he really wanted to know.