When the glue is missing.

She was hungry again. This time there was something else added. She did not know where she was going to sleep. It was scary to be out at night. A small, short-haired girl with a large knapsack on her back was a moving target. What was she to do?

Let’s go back a little. Six years ago, she was just nine years old. Her family was made up of her beautiful mom, her tall dad and little brother. The home was blessed with her grandma too, her papa’s mother. She remembered the joy she felt when her mom told her she was expecting another baby. She started drawing pictures of a family of 6 which included the baby. She had warm memories of her mom sitting by the piano with her singing song after song. Sometimes, her parents would dance while she played the piano and the way they looked at each other made her feel warm and safe as though what they had would last for eternity.

Her brother was very quiet at 4 years old. Everyone expected him to be rambunctious and noisy, but he was a little studious kid. He loved to see how things worked so this meant everyday something would be broken apart then he would struggle to put it back together. Shockingly, he would succeed most times.

One day, her brother took a broom apart and the girl who visited the home to help her mom and grandma with the tidying of the home became upset because she had cleaning to do and there was no broom.

Her dad got involved and he tried to take the pieces of the broom away to help put them together again. She held that memory very special. Her quiet little brother shouted,

‘NO! I will do it myself; she can wash dishes instead.’

What! It was so startling to hear him speak so much and so loud! Her dad went back to his writing table, her mom ushered the visiting girl to the kitchen to wash dishes just as my brother said.

He did fix the broom and presented it like a bouquet of expensive flowers to the girl when he was finished. Just thinking about these memories made her smile and feel warm. But all of that was now gone.

How could things change so drastically from those happy days she thought would never end.

Well, it started from the time her mom mentioned she was pregnant. She noticed after a few months her mom was walking just like the ducks in the petting zoo. Her feet were nearly as big as the elephant’s leg. Her dad was now the one cleaning and cooking with grandma. Grandma would be the one to drive her and her brother to outings and mom either stayed home in bed or she sat in the passenger seat. She could not fit behind the steering wheel of the car.

Then her parents went to see the doctor since mom complained that the house was spinning all the time. Her mom did not come home from the doctor that night. Her dad told her and her brother that mom was having three babies not one and they were very busy inside her, and it was making her tired. She was staying in hospital so the doctor could keep an eye on her and the babies.

Her mom never came home. The next morning, she saw and heard something she would never forget, her dad was crying loudly and laying on the couch.

Her dad had the house phone in his hand. He had just come back from the hospital to help get the kids ready for school. Just as he came through the door, the hospital called to tell him her mom had a massive stroke that took her life and the babies too.

This memory was hurting her chest and stopping her breath. Why did it happen? How could it happen? They were so happy. Her dad did not look good after that. He started to drink alcohol as if her mom was at the bottom of every bottle. He was sad all the time. Grandma tried to be her mom and her dad, but she was old and ill. There were things she could not do. Her dad lost his job due to the drinking, and even though they had some money, it did not last long because her dad started making crazy decisions with the money and he lost most of it.

She started to hear arguments between her grandma and her dad every day. This was new. She remembered looking at the refrigerator with all those drawings of her family. Her family did not look like that anymore. It was like her mom was the glue and now that she was gone every piece fell apart.

Except her little brother, he remained the quiet little boy breaking and building things. Many times, she saw her brother looking at their dad as if he wanted to fix him.

The day after her eleventh birthday, her dad left the house and did not come back. They found him two weeks later. He was alive but he did not know anyone. They learnt he had fallen while drunk, and it took his memory. She was now caring for herself, her brother, dad, and grandma. She did not play the piano anymore, but she heard all the songs in her head that she sang with her mom, and she saw them dancing in her mind.

The piano was sold when she turned twelve and her little brother was seven. He was a very mature seven-year-old. He told his sister that she and he would have to quit school and work to keep the roof over their heads since their dad was sick and grandma was unable to work.

The children decided not to tell the older family members their plan. Each day they got ready for school, kissed their dad and grandma goodbye, and went to work instead of school. The girl was cleaning windows and washing dishes just like the girl who came to her home three years earlier. She also read stories to children at lunch time in the library. The people at the library did not know she was not in school.

Her brother was begging in the train stations. At the age of seven he was making quite a bit of money. Everyone who saw him pitied him. He brought home more money than his sister who was working very hard.

How her father and grandmother did not realize it was the children who were keeping the roof over their heads? It was crazy that they did not question the source of the funds. It just shows how far things had deteriorated that the kids had no one checking on them. The teachers at the school sent messages but the children took those, and the adults at home never got them

Finally, a former friend of their mother had a conversation with a teacher at the school and the same day she planned to approach the children’s grandma, she spied the boy begging. Indeed, he begged her. She could not believe her eyes.

Unfortunately, the authorities were notified, and the father and grandmother were placed in nursing homes. The children were sent to different foster homes.

It was now three years after all that had occurred. The girl was running away again from her foster home. She had not seen or heard from her grandmother, father, or brother in all these years.

Her foster family did not treat her well. Consequently, she run away often but, since the foster family received good money for keeping her, they made every effort to retrieve her each time she ran off. The bad treatment did not improve. She was trying to find her brother and other family members. She had a plan.

This night made it a week since she ran away, and her fears were new. She had seen men looking at her strangely and that made her skin crawl and the fear of hunger diminish. She was in much more peril if she could not hide well tonight.

She passed a house with an outside staircase, and it had a door. It looked like a storage room. She walked past twice and decided that she would go there for the night. She climbed a big maple tree nearby and hid herself among the leaves. if only she could find something to eat.

When it got dark, she climbed down, looked around and sprinted towards the house. She was surprised to find the door open. It was indeed a storage room filled with buckets and glass jars. She saw a tool in pieces on a table in the corner and this made her think of her brother. She saw a small brown paper bag on the table with the tool. Curiosity caused her to open it. There was a sandwich and small bottle of fruit juice still cool. Who had left this for her? Was this safe? How did they know? Was someone coming back for this? She ate it all.

The small meal in the brown paper bag provided her with hope that she would continue going until she found her family. I believe her brother might just be in that house in a better circumstance. Let’s find out.

Unknown to her, her brother was in that house! He had a happy circumstance. His foster family loved him. His quietness was appreciated. He scared them at first with his building and breaking but they fully understood him now. He was enrolled in a school for special children, and he was doing well.

The best news was that he too was looking for his sister and each night he would pray and hope she reach the house. That brown paper bag meal was for her. The tool in pieces was a message for her to indicate that he was there.

His foster family had made arrangements for the proper care of the father and grandmother in a good nursing home after the boy told them the situation fully. The family had plans that when the girl was found they would ask her and her brother's permission to adopt them. There was a piano and an art studio waiting for her.

When she finally slept that night in the little storeroom, she had no idea that her life would change to happy again and that someone else was the glue in the family now.