Unwanted Guest

10:00 pm

I am just about to clear the dinner table and start the dishes when I look out the window and see a woman with a young child on my porch with nothing on but a t-shirt and pants. I stand confused before I open the door, the woman looks at me with her tired eyes, her daughter shivering uncontrollably.

“Hello,” I say awkwardly. “Can I help you with something?”

. “Please, can you help us? We have no home, we live on the streets, we haven’t eaten anything in days, and I think my daughter is starting to get sick from the cold” she says with the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen. I think about it for a second, and my mind first thinks that this is a bad idea that can go south, but the maternal instinct in me couldn’t just let them stay in the cold, so I invited them in.

“What do you guys like to eat? I got plenty of food,” I ask as I guide them to the kitchen.

“We will eat anything you are willing to give us,” she says with a relieved face. I just give her a smile before getting some vegetables and broth out of the fridge.

“My name is Ella, by the way.”

“What a beautiful name; I’m Alie, and this is my daughter Kate, she’s 9.” I just turn and smile at them as I prepare the soup that I am making for them. “I have been to several different houses on this block, and you were the only person who didn’t shut the door in my face as soon as you saw me, why?”

I took a deep breath and said, “Well, for starters, it's about 20 degrees outside, and both of you are wearing a t-shirt and pants. Also, you have a nine-year-old child that was shaking uncontrollably because of how cold she was, so I wasn’t about to leave you two out in the cold, that would be insensitive of me. Much like my fantastic neighbors.”

“Sounds like there’s tension between you and the neighbors,” she says as if she is looking to gossip.

“They just don’t like that a young college student can afford her own house by herself. They think I am spoiled and rely on ‘daddy’s money’, which is not true. I started from nothing, and I worked my ass off to where I am now. They’re just jealous.” I almost shout from bitterness. When the soup was done, I put it in bowls and handed it to them alongside bread and some tea.

Kate looks at me with relief in her eyes and says “thank you so much”.

“You’re welcome” I say with a smile on my face.

When they finish eating, it is about 11:00 pm.

“I have a guest room that you two can stay in for the night, and there is a bathroom that is all stocked with stuff attached to the room; feel free to take anything. I am going to get ready for bed since I have school tomorrow”

“Okay, honey, thank you so much!” Alie says as she walks towards the bathroom. I walk out of the guest room to walk to my room when I feel a small hand hit my arm. I turn around and see Kate looking up at me.

“I wanted to say thank you for letting us stay here for tonight. We have been in the cold for a long time, most nights we don’t even eat. Mom takes all the money we make and uses it for smoking or something else for her. Today was the first day in 3 days that I have eaten.” She says as tears run down her face.

“Oh my god, Kate. I’m so sorry. Are you still hungry? Do you want more food? I can go down and get you some!”

“No! Mom will get mad if I take more food, I can wait until the next meal”.

“Kate! Get back here!” Alie says with a tone in her voice. “You have to get ready for bed, get over here right now!”.

Kate hears her mother calling for her and her face goes from happy instantly to worried as she turns around and walks back to the room.

“Goodnight Kate, I’ll see you in the morning!”

“Good night” she says looking back at me with a sad smile.

I get to my room and get myself ready for bed and the entire time I can only think about what Kate has told me about her mother. Is it true? Is her mom using all of the money that they get for smoking or even worse…drugs? I let these questions roam around in my head. I get into bed and turn on the TV but I’m not watching it. I am staring at the ceiling wondering if there is anything I can do not only for Kate but for Alie as well. I let myself think about ideas until I find myself drifting off to sleep.

9:00 am

I wake up to my alarm, feeling extremely groggy. I make my bed, take a shower, and get ready for the day. My typical morning routine takes about an hour, so by 10:00 am, I am on my way to wake Alie and Kate up.

“Alie, hey, good morning; it's time to get up. I thought I’ll bring you guys to get breakfast somewhere since I don’t have class today until 1:00 pm.”

“Oh, that would be great! Sounds fun, thank you,” she says as she starts to wake up. “Kate, time to wake up, honey; we will be ready in a few minutes, Ella.”

After everyone is ready, we get into my car, and I drive us to my favorite diner. “I love this diner, I come here to study and do homework sometimes just to get a change of scenery; it's so cute and quiet.”

“This place looks so cute, thank you again,” she says with tears, “no one has ever been this nice to us before.”

“It’s no problem.” We walk inside and are immediately seated. “Please get what you want.” The waitress asks for our drink orders and then walks away to give us a few minutes to look over the menu. “I think I will get the all-you-can-eat pancakes.”

“I want that too, mommy,” Kate says with excitement. She looks at me and gives me the biggest smile I think she’s ever given and all I could do was laugh at her cuteness.

“I am going to use the bathroom really quickly” Alie says as she begins to get up.

“Okay” I say. As she walks away Kate looks at me with a sad face. The smile that was once there had disappeared. “What’s wrong Kate?”

“Mommy yelled at me last night for talking to you after you showed us our room. She was really mad at me and told me that the only one who can talk to you is her. I think she is afraid that I will tell you stuff she has done.”

“She yelled at you for talking to me? Don’t worry sweetheart, I won’t let her know that I know anything, I promise.” I say as I grab her hand from across the table and rub the back of it with my thumb. As I do this I see Alie walking out of the bathroom and I gently take my hand away from Kate’s, hoping to refrain from any arguments between the pair.

The waitress comes back with our drinks and proceeds to take our order, once she’s gone I look at Alie and say “So I did some research this morning and I found a homeless shelter that you and Kate can go to! It’s an all-women’s shelter and it is about 20 minutes from here!”

“Oh…uh…yeah sure, that would be um… great. Thanks” Alie says with Kate giving her a weird look.

“Don’t worry about it, I can bring you guys after we eat!” I say with joy knowing that they are going to have shelter, specifically Kate.

After about ten minutes of waiting, we got our food, and Kate wasted no time. She ate like she hadn't eaten for days, and judging by what she told me last night, she really hasn’t. Alie looks over at Kate and tells her to calm down with a bit of tone in her voice.

We ate and talked for about 30 minutes and by this time it was already 11:45 am. I am trying to rush us out at this point because I need to get them to the shelter and then drive to class.

“Thank you again Ella for everything,” Alie says once again.

I look at her with a smile on my face but internally I know her niceness is all an act.

“It’s no problem, I’m glad I could help,” I say getting into the car.

The entire car ride to the shelter is so quiet that you could drop a feather and still hear it. I was too afraid to break the silence by saying something so I turned on the radio and just let that fill the silence.

12:05 pm

We arrive at the shelter and when we get there I noticed that it is a little more run-down than the website shows it to be. Nevertheless, it is still a suitable temporary home for them.

“Here we are, I am going to go in and get everything situated, you guys can grab your things and meet me inside” I say as I walk out of my car and into the shelter

“Okay meet you in there”

When I get into the shelter I sign the mother-daughter duo in and ask some questions to the lady regarding the rules and such. As this happens, Alie walks in with Kate, I wave them over to the front desk so they can finish the sign-in process.

“Okay” I said “I have to get to class, here is my phone number, if you are in a serious situation feel free to call me” I say with a smile looking at Kate. I followed with a hug for both of them.

“Yeah…uh.. Thank you for bringing us here” Alie whispers. From there I head back into my car and before I get in I look back over at them and see Kate crying, I wave once again, get in the car, and leave for class.

12:45 pm

I get to campus a couple of minutes early and I am craving coffee so I head to Starbucks. I get in line and I am deciding what I want, as I do so I pull my wallet out to get my credit card, and I immediately notice that my credit card is missing. But I know I had it when we left the diner because I paid for our meal with it. I start to freak out a bit but I realize that I am going to be late for class so this a problem that I am going to have to save for later.

2:00 pm

Class is over and now I have to figure out where the hell my card is. I had locked it as soon as class started so no one could use it. I have to retrace my steps, but first I tear apart my car. Not there. The next stop is the diner, I drive 20 minutes there, briskly walk into the door and ask the waitress that served us if she has seen the card. She tells me that there are no lost credit cards there, I sigh in frustration and my next stop is the shelter, maybe I put it in my pocket and it fell out at the shelter? When I get to the shelter I check the parking lot and there is nothing. I go into the shelter to see if Alie has seen it but the lady at the desk told me that Alie and Kate went on a trip and won’t be back until later.

At this point, I have absolutely no idea where my card is so the only thing I can do now is going home and report it stolen. My whole car ride home just consisted of me thinking about every step I took. I finally get home, I walk in the door to a surprise.

“Hello, Ella!” Alie says with a huge smile on her face.

“Alie, what the hell are you doing here? How did you even get here? How did you get in?!” I say with my anger starting to build.

“Well we took the bus back and you left your back sliding door unlocked,” she said still with a smile.

“You did what?! You realize you broke into my house. Ho- How did you even pay for the bus?” I half scream realizing Kate is right there on the couch watching TV.

“Umm… I may have stolen your credit card to pay for the bus…” she says with a cheeky smile.

“You did wha-”

“I’m sorry okay”

“You took my card? I was looking everywhere for it, I even froze it how did you use it? How did you even get my card?

“You left your bag in the car when you went to sign us into the shelter, so I took it then. I wasn’t about to stay at that shelter after you allowed us in your house” Alie said with no hesitation.

“You stole it out of my bag?! You have to leave right now Alie” I say screaming not remembering Kate is still in the room.

“What? You’re kicking me out onto the streets again with Kate in this weather? That’s unfair!”

“No, what's unfair is that you took advantage of my kindness, I found you a place to stay that was safe for both you and Kate. I could have just dropped you off on the side of the road with your t-shirt and pants and left you, but instead, I put effort into helping you, just for you to steal my card and break into my house. I’m sorry, but you either have to leave willingly or I will call the police.”

“You’re going to call the police on a homeless mother?”

“If that is what it comes to, then yes,” I say calming down. At this moment all I can think about is Kate. She is only nine, she doesn’t deserve this life.

“I DARE you to call the cops! I’m not leaving! You let us stay”

“I’m sorry Alie, but I am calling the cops, you need to leave, you aren’t welcomed here” I say as I pull out my phone. She gets angry and throws a punch that hits me square in the eye. I scream at Kate to leave the room as Alie goes in for another punch that I duck. I see Kate run out of the room and upstairs before I scream “GET OUT OF MY F****** HOUSE” She keeps throwing punches, some hitting me, others not. I duck her last punch and run and lock myself in the bathroom and call the cops. As I dial 911 she is banging on the door telling me to come out and fight her. I talk to the dispatcher and she tells me that the officers are two minutes out.

Two minutes is a lot of time when someone is after you. Somehow, Alie broke through the bathroom door and started to throw punches and kicks at me. “You bitch!! You should have let us stay, none of this would have happened! This is YOUR fault!” she says in between each punch. At this point I am on the floor with blood all over my face, I am pretty sure I have a broken nose and a couple of cracked ribs, but just as I was about to blackout I heard the officers come in the door.

“HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD! ON YOUR KNEES” is what I heard as an EMT rushed over to my assistance. Alie was screaming at me the entire walk to the officer's car, all while Kate was sitting in the back of another officer's car watching her mother getting arrested. The EMT I was with suggested that I go to the hospital for further evaluation and x-rays to which I complied.

My mind could only think about Kate. What is going to happen to her? Her mother is going to jail, does she have a family? Those questions ponder in my head the entire ambulance ride to the hospital.

6:00 pm

After x-rays and a few stitches, I have a broken nose, black eye, my bottom lip was split in two and I broke a knuckle. I’m sitting in the hospital bed when an officer approaches me and asks me a few questions about the situation.

I said to him “She showed up on my porch last night begging for shelter which I gave to her for the night. Then in the morning, I brought her and her daughter to a diner to eat, and then I dropped them off at an all-women’s shelter. Then when I came home from class she broke into my house and she used my credit card which she stole to take the bus there, and when I told her she is not welcome to stay she started attacking me.”

“Thank you for your statement, I’m assuming that you are going to press charges?” the officer says kindly.

“Yes sir, but I do have one question, what is going to happen to her daughter?”

“Well as of right now we can’t locate any of her family members, in fact, I don’t think she has anyone other than her mother. That being said she will be taken by CPS and be put into foster care.” He says as his smile quickly turns into a frown.

I sit there and think for a second and right before the officer is about to leave, I ask “Is there any way that she could stay with me? She and I got along, she trusts me, I know it. Please, I am financially stable, I am in college and about to graduate this year. At least try to make this happen?”.

The officer looks at me, smiles and says “I’ll see what I can do, in the mean time do you mind signing some forms so we can conduct a background check just in case?”

“Yes, whatever you need”

“Alright, I’ll fax you over some forms for you to sign and get back to us.”

“Thank you so much” I say with joy.

A week later

I am sitting in my living room reading a book with the TV on in the background when my phone rings.

“Hello, is this Ella Walters?”

“Yes, this is she,” I say confused.

“Hello Ella, my name is Cindy, I work for Child Protective Services, and I was just calling you on behalf of Kate Miller. I have done a background check on you, with permission that you gave one of our officers, and I would like to inform you that you have been approved for fostering/adopting Kate.”

“Oh my god! Are you serious!” I say excitedly with tears in my eyes.

“Yes, are you still wanting to go through with such a procedure?”

“Yes! Of course! Yes,” I say jumping in the air.

“Okay, that sounds great, we just need you to come to the office whenever you are free to come and sign some paperwork, and then Kate will be ready to come home with you!!”

“Is it a possibility that I could come today? I just don't want her to suffer more than she has to?”

“Yes, you can.”

“Great I’ll be there soon”. I say as I grab my bag and keys and run out the door. The office is about a half-hour away, the whole way I am crying tears of joy.

When I get to the office I am greeted by the officer who got my statement and the woman I talked on the phone with. Kate was in another room playing with some toys that they had and coloring books. Cindy and I just go over the paperwork for a bit of time, and as much as I was trying to pay attention, my mind was on Kate. So when everything was said and done I got to get Kate from the room.

“Hi, Kate!!” I said happily as ever.

“Ella!! What are you doing here! I missed you!” She says with complete joy and a huge smile.

“I’m here to bring you back to my house for you to stay permanently.”

“Really!? Is mommy going to be there?” She says in a whisper

“No sweetie, just me and you”. She just runs up to me and gives me a hug and all she can say to me is ‘thank you’. We leave the office and drive home, by this time Kate is exhausted so I lead her to her room, give her a change of clothes and she goes off to sleep.

I go back downstairs and make myself some coffee, I try to go back to the book I was reading, but all I can think about is how happy I am that Kate is safe