The Orphans in the Woods

Gertrude went to the pantry cabinet and found her box of Lucky Charms. She poured some into a bowl and then went to the sink to get water from the faucet to wet her cereal with. She sat with her bowl at the bistro table across from her brother who was almost finished eating his cereal. He looked up at her for a moment and noticed that she had Lucky Charms in her bowl.

"Hey!" he complained, "I didn't know we had Lucky Charms. I woulda rather had that than Frosted Flakes."

Gertrude smiled as she took a big spoonful of watered Lucky Charms and shoved it into her mouth. Then as she was chewing her cereal, she smugly replied, "Well, this is my personal stash. I mighta shared if you'da shared the milk."

Rohan wanted to laugh at his sister. He wondered if she knew how smart and funny she seemed to him sometimes. He finished his cereal and brought the bowl to the sink. Then he went back to the table and started digging into his mother's purse. He found the keys and held them up for Gertrude to see.

"Look!" he said proudly, "I found them! I knew they'd be in her purse."

"Check the wallet," Gertrude instructed, "She might have some more money we can add to the Bank Bag."

"Bank Bag?" Rohan asked as he pulled out his mother's wallet from the purse.

"Yeah," Gertrude explained and she put another spoonful of Lucky Charms into her mouth, "I put the Bank Bag under the window in the living room. We got lots of money and stuff now."

Rohan found three twenty dollar bills in his mother's wallet and pulled them out for a moment to show his sister.

"What the heck is a Bank Bag?" he asked her.

She rolled her eyes at him and snatched the cash he was holding out of his hands as she stood up from her chair and walked out of the kitchen into the living room. Rohan followed her as she went to the window and picked up the stuffed pillow case that she had set there.

"This," she told her brother holding the pillow case, "This is a Bank Bag."

Rohan started laughing as he walked over to his sister.

"You stuffed the pillow case with money?" he asked.

"Some and some other stuff that might be worth something," she told him, then added, "I went into Mom and Dad's room while you were still sleeping. I wanted to say goodbye and also help you with the stash."

He smiled at his sister. He was proud of her again. He knew he was lucky to have a good sister like her. So many of his school friends would complain about their younger siblings, but Rohan was glad that Gertrude was his sister. She was helpful and smart, a combination that he admired when he saw it in anyone.

"Awesome Sis,' he told her. "Well, we've got a good stash of money, we've got our bags packed, and now I've got the car keys. We're pretty much ready to go. I suppose we could leave tonight." He was thinking about it, but he didn't seem certain.

"Why shouldn't we?" Gertrude asked wondering.

Rohan sighed feeling a little confused.

"The longer we stay here, the more we have," he said hoping she would understand.

"You mean the money?" she asked feeling confused also.

"Sorta," he said, "Like the fridge has food we can't take with us. I've got lots of supplies, but the bathroom there is a lot different. You are not going to have all your toys and your bedroom anymore."

"I already know that," she said, "I'm not in a big hurry or anything Ro, but I'm starting to feel really bad just letting Mom and Dad's bodies lay there like that and us not doing anything about it."

"Yeah, I know," Ro agreed, "I can't figure that one out. The only thing I could think of is that once we get to the town where we are going, we could make an anonymous call from a payphone so that somebody can take care of this. Maybe we could call Aunt Velma like you said."

Gertrude didn't say anything, but calling Aunt Velma did seem like the right thing to do.

"I just think that we should stay here for the rest of the month if we can," Ro said, "So that we don't spend the money right away and we don't have to rough it right away. September is really pretty and it will give us a chance to get ready for October and November."

Gertrude shrugged uncertain, then said almost mockingly, "You're the man."

"And you're the girl with the Bank Bag," he laughed as he snatched the pillow case and went to the couch to sit down and look at what was inside.