Chapter 7

Evan woke up in a room he had never seen before. He kneeled up in the sleeping bag he was wearing and got to his feet, holding himself up with the help of the bars of the crib he was in. He bounced in place and looked around.

The mural on the walls was really pretty, and he liked all the soothing colors. He didn’t like that he was alone in this room though, and started to make distressed noises, his tiny hands clinging tighter to the bars of his crib.

He also realized that his nappy was wet and dirty, making him uncomfortable. Evan started to cry, but before he could get himself fully worked up, the door to the room opened and a smiling lady he vaguely remembered from the night before entered.

“Good morning, Evan,” she greeted him softly while carefully picking him up and carrying him over to the changing table. “I don’t know if you remember me from last night because you were very tired, but my name is Yuna Hollander, and me and my husband David will be taking care of you for some time.”

Evan listened carefully, even though he didn’t understand everything she was saying.

“Morning,” he mumbled, sucking on his thumb.

Yuna ran her hand through his hair, ruffling it gently and causing Evan to relax due to the gentleness of the touch.

“You’ve got a smelly diaper, buddy. How about I change that for you and we get ready for the day?” Yuna asked while narrating everything she was about to do to the little boy in her care.

She had learned with her own son that he handled things better if he knew what was coming, and it led to fewer tears in her near future.

As she talked, she stripped off the sleeping bag and put it over the side of the crib after checking if it was soiled or not. After that, she stripped off the pajamas David had put on him the night before. They were clean, too.

“I’ll be taking off your nappy,” she warned Evan, who was looking up at her with an expression she didn’t know what to do with.

Still, she efficiently grabbed him by the ankles, lifted his bum up so she could put the used nappy aside and clean him up efficiently, before putting a fresh nappy on him.

Evan remained still and in place, allowing Yuna to put a pair of tiny sweatpants, socks, and a t-shirt on him. Once she was done, she lifted him off the changing table and settled him on the floor before cleaning up the debris of the nappy change.

“Do you want to walk or is it okay for me to carry you?” Yuna asked, allowing Evan to make a choice before explaining that they would be heading to the bathroom to wash his face and clean his teeth.

Evan looked at her and decided that he wanted to be carried, because the lady was nice and didn’t shout at him. Instead, she seemed to explain everything to him, which helped with the anxiety he was feeling.

So he carefully pushed himself to his feet and held up his arms in the universal sign for children around the world to ask to be picked up.

Yuna Hollander smiled and did as the little one in front of her asked. She settled him on her hip and carried him out of the room and into the bathroom, which was situated between the nursery Evan had slept in and Shane’s bedroom.

She allowed him to choose the color of his toothbrush—red, blue, yellow, and green were his options. Evan chose a bright red one that reminded him of the fire engine he had seen the night before.

Yuna put some toothpaste on the brush, allowed Evan to try to do the job himself, praised him for his efforts before carefully wrapping her hand around his and helping him to do it properly.

“Good job, Evan,” she praised him when they were done. She helped him rinse his mouth before handing him a washcloth and turned on the sink.

Evan happily wet the cloth and rubbed his face in it, giggling happily. When he felt he was done, he held it out to Yuna and allowed her to dry him off with a soft giggle.

“Ready for breakfast?” she asked him.

Evan immediately made some soft chewing sounds and nodded.

“P’ease,” he said softly and clung to her side, burying his face against her shoulder. He put his fist against his mouth and sucked on it as she carried him out of the bathroom and into the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty when they entered the room. Evan looked around curiously before Yuna settled him in a high chair by the kitchen table.

“You’ve got a choice to make, Evan,” she said, and he looked up at her again, silently waiting for her to tell him what choice he needed to make. “Water or apple juice?”

Evan thought about it for a long moment before he made his choice.

“Jus,” he said, pouting a bit because the word didn’t sound like the one she had said.

“Juice it is,” she said, repeating the word when she realized Evan wanted to know how to pronounce it properly. She put some of it into a sippy cup and put it down in front of him. “Here you go. One cup of apple juice.”

Evan’s tiny hands wrapped around the handles of the sippy cup, tilted it toward him, and took a sip. He smacked his lips and then looked at Yuna.

“Juis tasty,” he told her, his eyes shining with happiness.

“I’m glad you like it,” Yuna told him, running her hand through his hair and dropping a kiss onto the crown of his head before she walked to the fridge and contemplated what to make for breakfast.

She already knew her son would want oatmeal, so she pulled out the milk she would need to make it. Yuna decided that she would prepare oatmeal for all of them, because she figured it would be something Evan was familiar with too. Or at least she hoped it was.

As she pulled a pot from the cupboard, she asked Evan to tell her about himself, what he liked and disliked. She knew it would cause the boy to babble, but she didn’t mind because her son did it too sometimes.

She listened as Evan told her about Woofy, his plush wolf, he loved very much and who protected him from all the bad things. At least, that was what she figured he was doing.

His voice was soothing in an unexpected way, and it made her smile while cooking the porridge.

Chapter 8

David and Shane entered the kitchen and found Yuna preparing breakfast while little Evan was sitting in the second highchair that David had gotten out of the attic the night before.

“Good morning, Evan,” David greeted the little boy and settled Shane in the high chair next to Evan’s. “This is Shane. Shane, this is Evan.”

He introduced the little boys who looked at each other in surprise, even though they both knew the other one was in the house.

They tilted their heads to the side, peering at each other. Then tilted their heads to the other side, all without saying anything for a few minutes.

David watched at them with an amused smile on his face. Seeing the two boys size each other up was a kind of ridiculous that was unexpected, but he didn’t want to interrupt their little ritual.

It was so cute that he wanted to remember it forever.

Yuna watched it from the kitchen counter and recorded it with their camcorder because a first meeting between brothers was important to document.

Yuna had a feeling that Evan would continue to stay with them, though Mrs. Bouchard hadn’t given them a timeframe for Evan’s stay. Something told her he was meant to be part of their family, and she hadn’t stopped listening to her gut feelings.

A soft smile appeared on her face as she greeted her older son.

“Shane, Sweetheart, how would you like your porridge today?” she asked.

Shane didn’t look away from the new boy sitting next to him, but he gave his mother’s question serious thought.

“Sugar, pwease,” he replied. He loved having porridge with brown sugar.

“Any fruit?” Yuna questioned next.

“‘nana,” he answered before focusing on Evan and babbling at him. “You like ‘nana?”

Evan bit his lip, his upper front teeth digging into it and showing off for a moment as he tried to figure out what he meant.

“Mama … show Evan ‘nana?” Shane asked, causing his mother to lift up the fruit in his hand to show Evan what a banana was.

Evan stared at it and his eyes went wide with delight.

“Yeah,” the little boy replied. “Me like ‘nana.”

“Would you like your porridge like Shane’s?” David questioned gently. “With a bit of brown sugar and banana?”

Evan looked at Shane, who nodded encouragingly.

“P’ease,” Evan said, figuring that being polite as his sister taught him was just good manners even when not at home.

“You got it, little man,” David said as he joined Yuna at the counter and took over cutting up the bananas, while she focused on splitting the porridge into four bowls.

Two tiny ones and two bigger ones. She sprinkled every bowl with brown sugar and gave them a swirl with the spoon she was using.

David put about half a banana on each of the boys’ bowls and a full banana on his and Yuna’s bowls before taking one big and one small bowl to carry over to the table.

They joined the boys, and Shane immediately grabbed his spoon and started to eat. He smiled happily and made soft sounds of enjoyment.

Evan peered at the bowl David put down in front of him and hesitated. His sister always fed him because he always made a mess of himself, and neither his parents nor his sister liked having to clean him up.

“Me messy eata,” he declared.

David reached over, ruffling his sweet blond curls.

“That’s fine, Evan. We all learn. You can try on your own or I can help you, whichever you prefer,” he said gently, letting Evan know that the decision was his.

Evan bit his lip again. He wanted to be a big boy like Shane, so he decided to try.

“Try,” he said, reaching for the spoon sticking in the bowl. He looked at Shane and decided to mirror his movements. What Shane did looked easier than what Yuna and David did.

“That’s great,” Yuna said, smiling. “We only learn through trying.”

Evan used his free hand to eat the banana slices from the top of his porridge the same way Shane did before putting the spoon carefully into the porridge and lifting it out. He licked the spoon and smiled. This tasted better than the bland stuff he had gotten to eat back at home.

It made him question if home had ever been a home, though, with how easily his father had given him up when the hurt he had endured hadn’t helped Daniel.

He hadn’t understood what had happened to Daniel. Evan just knew he got hurt by the doctors, and after that day he had never seen his brother again.

As he ate, his thoughts meandered away from the yummy food in front of him, and he started to cry as it hit him that his family had left him behind and didn’t want him to be around because he hadn’t helped his brother.

Thick tears rolled down his cheeks as he started to sob and dropped his spoon into his bowl, splattering porridge all over himself and the small table of his high chair.

“Ah, lad,” David said gently and abandoned his food before lifting Evan out of his seat, settling him in his lap, and hugging the young boy, pressing a kiss against his temple. He rubbed his big hand up and down Evan’s back soothingly. He didn’t even attempt to talk to Evan about why he was crying.

It was obvious that the abandonment by his parents was hitting the little boy. So, David hummed a soft melody under his breath while holding the little boy, letting him know that he wasn’t alone.

Telling him it was going to be okay felt like a lie, so neither David nor Yuna said it, though Yuna rose from her seat and kneeled beside David’s. She cupped the back of Evan’s head and leaned her own against the side of Evan’s.

“You are safe with us, Evan,” Yuna said gently. “We’ll take care of you, now and in the future.”

Evan sniffled and looked at them before burying his face against David’s chest and continuing to cry.

“Mama hug ‘van. Hugs best,” Shane declared, attempting to climb out of his own chair.

Yuna heard her son’s movements and turned, helping him out of the chair. She gave him a scolding look, but put him into his father’s lap next to Evan, knowing it was what Shane wanted.

Her son wrapped his arms around Evan and hugged the boy he had decided was part of the family now.