Lily’s Story My name is Lily. I am 10 years old. It’s Monday and I am happy to be going back to school. Ever since my step dad lost his job, my mom has been working extra hours. She leaves him at home with me and my little brother and little sister. Last night he came into my room again, I pretended to be asleep. He kept rubbing my back but I didn’t move. Then he finally left me alone. At least it worked for this time! I tried to tell my mom once about what he does. But she gets mad at me and calls me a liar. When I get to school, I can’t help thinking that he will be there when I get home so I start to cry. The counselor, Ms. Cano takes me to her office, and she promises everything will be better if I just talk about it. I knew I shouldn’t but I started telling her about my step dad and all the things he makes me do when my mom is at work. Ms Cano calls Mr. Reyes, the school principal and tells him what I said. They call the police. I knew I shouldn’t have told. When the police get there I am really scared. A lady named Sandra is with them. She says she is with CPS and that I can trust her. She tells me that I can’t go back home because it’s not safe to go home. Everyone is staring at me. They call my brother and sister out of their class and we all leave in Ms. Sandra’s car. I wish I would’ve eaten earlier. My stomach is growling and I feel so embarrassed. I look down at my old dirty shoes and hide my feet. I should have worn my new shoes but I wanted to save them for a special day. We finally arrive at a big brown building. It looks like a bunch of offices. The walls are gray. Ms Sandra takes me to her office and we all sit on the floor because there are not enough chairs. Ms Sandra says that she needs to fill out some paper work and gives me a paper and pencil to draw on. My sister, Mary starts to cry, and Jacob who is 5, looks really mad. He starts kicking the door and screaming for mom. He finally calms down and he goes to sleep. Its 2:00 and I am now really hungry. Three hours later the workers start going home. Ms Sandra looks tired. Somebody finally brings us some food, but they bring chicken nuggets. I hate chicken nuggets. But I eat 2 because I am so hungry. The office is now closed. Somebody gets there to take care of us because Ms Sandra is going home to get some clothes. She tells us that we are probably going to spend the night there because they can’t find a foster home for us. When Ms Sandra gets back, she tells us that they found a foster home. But the foster parents only want Mary and Jacob. Mary starts to cry too. But it doesn’t matter, they take my little sister and little brother away. After a while, I fall asleep. I wake up later because I hear people coming in for work. I wonder how long I will have to wait here. After a while, Ms Sandra tells me to get my stuff, I am going with her assistant to Corpus Christi because they can’t find a foster home for me here. I am going to an Emergency Shelter in Corpus Christi because there is not one here in the Rio Grande Valley.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 13:23:24 +0000