Every single thing in the room reminded Carrie that her sister was gone, probably forever. Carrie had put up a good face and merely said goodbye, but now she wished she'd told Michelle something more meaningful. She thought she was never going to see her again.
Her insides burned with intense anger at the people who had adopted Michelle. Not that she wasn't happy for Michelle, she was. She really was. She knew that things would start going well for her. But she wasn't so sure about herself. She knew that, at twelve, her chances of being adopted were slim. She thought she really wasn't pretty enough for anyone to notice her and adopt her, not at her age. If only she was ten years younger, things would be different.
But of course, when Carrie was two this nightmare had already been going on. Her parents were already taking very poor care of her, and in just two years they would start taking poor care of her sister, too. At age two, Carrie remembered having to help her father with the building of their house, sometimes nearly crushing her tiny fingers, and she could vaguely remember being yelled at whenever she dropped something.
At age two Carrie hadn't understood why her parents did this. She had, like her sister, come to think that all this was normal and happened in all families. But when she was nine or so, Carrie began to understand things she had never understood before. Like that this wasn't right. And she was the one that would have to free herself and Michelle from the nightmare of a life that they were trapped in.
She'd done that, just three months and two weeks earlier. Carrie could remember perfectly the terror she'd felt when she'd seen Michelle drop to the ground. And the anger that followed when she saw her mother's evil grin. And the satisfaction she got when she talked to the police and they believed her. And the relief she'd had when she'd realized that Michelle was not dead, as she'd originally thought.
All this was over. Now Carrie was alone in the orphanage. Michelle had been adopted by a kind couple and Carrie was now left by herself.
If only she could be adopted, too. Carrie was lonely and sad, and most of all she missed Michelle. The first months had been bearable because she had someone that she knew by her side, but now she was gone, too. And probably happy.
It seemed selfish to Carrie. She wanted Michelle to be happy, she really did. But she wanted to be happy, too. In fact, if it was possible, she wanted to be happy together.

Carrie awoke with a funny feeling.
At first she wondered why she felt like that, but then she remembered. Michelle was gone. She'd been gone for a day now.
Carrie wondered how Michelle felt. Was she scared of her new family? Had she said too many strange things? Was she already happy? Was she scared in her new house?
Michelle was so lucky. Carrie thought she would never have the luck of getting new parents. Most people wanted babies, anyway. They thought the older ones were already unteachable and unlovable. 'They are so wrong', Carrie thought shaking her head.
She hoped that Michelle was all right. The family that was adopting her had seemed nice, but you never knew. Her parents had also seemed nice in public, and the neighbors had all been surprised to find out that they'd been hitting their children and making them work all the time. They'd thought the scars and bruises were normal, and that they'd gotten them the way that all kids get them: playing. And they'd never given it another thought until the police turned up in front of the house.
Carrie tried to stop thinking about that as she put on her clothes, now very worn and old. She'd had that dress for four years. And it was her oldest one. And her mother had made her work to, as she put it, pay it back.
It was much too small for her by now. After all, it had been only slightly loose when she'd gotten it at age eight, and given the way she'd grown since then, it was quite amazing that she could still get into it.
She'd grown in other ways, too. She'd been forced to mature a lot faster than most other children her age, due to the problems at home. And protecting Michelle.
They'd never been close, but Carrie, as the oldest of the two, had always felt the need to protect Michelle. Carrie thought she'd been an almost total failure in that sense. Michelle had still gotten a severe concussion and many more bruises and hits than she deserved. But at least she was still alive.
Carrie combed her short hair and walked downstairs. Feeling down, she nibbled at the cheese sandwich she was handed and paid no attention to the other girls' conversation. She didn't want to talk. In fact, she didn't even want to be there. All she wanted now is to be adopted and loved, like had happened to her sister just the day before.

* Flashback *

"I love you!" Carrie cried.
"I'll never forget you!" Michelle responded.
"We'll see each other again!" Carrie promised.
"I'll ask them if I can come back and see you every time I'm feeling lonely."
"They can't separate us totally, Michelle. We'll see each other again." she repeated.
Then they hugged each other, a big bear hug, and for the longest time neither of them let go of each other.
"Let's go." the Littrells said, after letting the girls hug and talk for more than half an hour.
"You'll write, won't you?" Carrie asked.
"Of course." Michelle said.
"Well, bye. Write soon." Carrie said.
They hugged one last time, said their last goodbyes, then Michelle took Mr. Littrell's hand as they walked to the car.

* End of flashback *

Carrie didn't have Michelle's address, but she decided to see Matron Joanne about it. Maybe she'd be nice instead of bitter and cold, for once, and actually let her have her sister's new address. Who knows, maybe she'd even let her call!
Carrie knew Michelle would probably forget to write, and she was itching to write to her sister. Since Michelle had been gone for only one day, she didn't have any news to tell her, but she'd figure out something. She had to. She wasn't going to let Michelle forget her.
Carrie and happily skipped her way to Matron Joanne's office. She knew the way perfectly: she'd been there more than once. Matron Joanne liked to talk to Carrie, but why Carrie wasn't sure. Hopefully, though, she could use this familiarity to somehow contact her sister.
She was so hopeful that at least one thing would be going well in her life. Or maybe not.

"Hello, Carrie, what is it?" Matron Joanne sternly asked. She was in the middle of a meeting with a couple who were curiously watching her.
Carrie gulped.
"I was kind of wondering if you could maybe perhaps hopefully give me my sister's address to write her a letter?" Carrie asked really fast.
"You want Michelle's address, Carrie?" Matron Joanne repeated, as if trying to make sure she'd caught the right information.
"Yes, ma'am. Please, ma'am."
Yes, that was how much Matron Joanne scared her. She felt even more scared than she sometimes had with her father.
"I'll think about it, now scram!" Matron Joanne said.
"Wait a minute." said the couple.
Carrie stood with one foot at the door, wondering who she should obey.
"I think this is the sort of child we want." they enthusiastically explained. "Her spirit and loyalty is what we had in mind when searching for a child." The man said.
"And she's a girl, we always wanted a girl." Added the woman. "And such good manners, too!"
"So we want to adopt her."
Carrie stood with her mouth wide open. Only this morning, she'd been hoping for parents. An hour later, a couple was already offering to adopt her- and they only knew her name and gender! Why, she'd have to wish things for often!
It had to be a dream. How could a couple want her so fast? Did they have any idea what they were getting into?
Her thoughts were interrupted.
"No!" said Matron Joanne.
All three stared at her.
"No?" asked the woman. "She is an orphan, isn't she?"
She turned and stared at Carrie. Carrie, wearing her old dress and sneakers, certainly did not look her best. And, thankfully, she did look quite a lot like an orphan.
Carrie nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I'm an orphan." After all, if they'd commented on her politeness, she wanted to live up to their expectations. At least so far.
"She is an orphan." Matron Joanne agreed. "But she is the only child in this whole orphanage who may not be adopted."
"Why ever not?" the man angrily asked. "I can have any child I want in the whole orphanage. It said so on your webpage."
"Well, considering that the webpage is from 1998 and we are in 2006, we could say it's a bit outdated. Rules and regulations on the matter have changed."
"I'm a lawyer and I can tell you that I am allowed to adopt any child I please. So please pass me the necessary papers before I decide to get you into prison." The man growled. Matron Joanne seemed terrified, and even the wife seemed a bit taken back. Carrie, however, was amused. She'd never seen Matron Joanne like that.
Speaking of who, she was now taking the papers and the birth certificate in a very fast manner, and passed them to Carrie's parents-to-be, along with a pen.
The couple seemed pleased, and Carrie smiled as she saw them sign everything, then get up and hug her.
"Welcome to the family, Carrie."
Carrie could scarcely believe it. In fact, she pinched herself on the arm just to make sure she wasn't still sleeping, and judging from the feeling she got, she decided she was not sleeping.
She hugged them back. "I've dreamed of this day all of my life!" she exclaimed. Tears of happiness were streaming down her face. She felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
Except that her sister was gone. And now, she realized, Michelle wouldn't even be able to contact her.

Over the next two hours, Carrie learned enough things to make her head spin.
Her new parents were called Jonathan and Esther Roberts. Jonathan, as he'd mentioned, was a successful lawyer. Esther was a nurse. They'd been married for thirteen years now, and at first, they didn't want to have children, and when they decided that they did, they found out- this is when they began to be quite vague- that they were unable to. That was when they'd started to consider adoption, nearly two years earlier. But what they hadn't realized was that the process was so difficult. And now, they could scarcely believe that they had a daughter.
Carrie took in the information as she packed her few belongings.
"I have a sister." she informed them.
"Oh?" they seemed interested.
"Her name's Michelle. She's eight years old and she was adopted not long ago." Carrie explained, the sadness aparent in her face. "Now I'm afraid that I'll never see her again."
The Roberts were sympathetic, and Jonathan decided to see if he could get the details of this family's adress and such. Carrie seemed so sad about this.
She alternated between being extremely happy to being extremely sad over the next few hours as Carrie and the Roberts exchanged little bits of information.
"Do you think I could learn to play soccer?" Carrie shyly asked.
"Why, of course, honey. I'm afraid neither Jonathan nor I are very good at it, but our neighborhood is full of children, you're sure to find many new friends who could play with you."
"Do you really think so?" Carrie asked, a soft smile in her face, lighting up her eyes.
"Why, Carrie. I don't think you realize it, but you're an extremely charming young lady. I suspect that's why Matron Joanne wants to keep you around here. And, you know, one of the only things that I don't like that much about you is that you're so grown up already. In no time you'll be swept off your feet by a young man and you'll leave us already."
"Oh, I wouldn't do that." Carrie laughed. She was astounded by the Roberts' kindness towards her. Unlike Michelle, she'd known that something like this existed. But it was still a new feeling to her. And she liked it.
By late evening everything was set and all the papers were in order for Carrie to go. Matron Joanne seemed bitter and angry as she bid Carrie goodbye, but Carrie was too impressed by her new parents to care, or even notice.
"Well, dear, we'd love to go home now and settle you in, but I'm afraid we thought that we would have to stay a lot longer, so we paid for a hotel room and everything, and not staying now would seem like a waste, so..."
Esther shrugged. "Do you mind terribly?"
Carrie shook her head. "I haven't ever been in a hotel in my life, I don't mind at all!"
Jonathan smiled. "I'm glad, honey."
At it turned out, the hotel was even better than Carrie had pictured it. Luckily, they were staying in a large suite, so there was plenty of room for Carrie as well as the Roberts (it took a bit of getting used to to suddenly be called Carrie Roberts instead of Carrie Porter, so she didn't think of herself as a Roberts just yet)
There was little packages of soap in the bathroom (that she was allowed to keep!), a large bed all for her, her own lamp and set of drawers, a large closet with a mirror, and a TV. In her whole life Carrie had never seen such extravagance.
Why, there was even a refrigerator in the room, which contained drinks and chocolate!
Carrie was impressed and overwhelmed.
Her new parents were really nice to her, and she appreciated it, but she was not used to it. At all.

The following day Carrie and her new parents left towards Georgia, where they would live. Carrie shyly stopped herself from asking all the questions she wanted to, like "How's our house?", "Have we got any pets?", etc. She tried desperately to hang onto every detail of her new parents and also her surroundings. She had never been very far from home before and she found everything amazing. She was thrilled. Deep down inside, there was also the thought that she would never see Michelle again, but trying to fill her head with happy thoughts, she pushed that particular one aside. It was one of the happiest days of her life, she didn't want to ruin it! On the other hand this feeling wouldn't go away.
Her parents realized that she was missing her sister and did their best to tell her nice stories and descriptions of their town, family and friends, trying to occupy her mind. They were, after all, very caring people, and already cared very much for Carrie and wanted to make her a happy little girl.
The new family stopped on the way for food at a McDonalds, which Carrie enjoyed very much- after all, she hadn't been that well fed with her biological parents- but she nearly cried when she saw two siblings hugging. The older one looked uncannily like Michelle, and the other was a little blond boy.
Carrie held onto Esther, her mother. "Something wrong, honey?"
Carrie shook her head but hugged her tighter.
"You just need a hug?"
Carrie nodded with a tiny smile, and Esther pulled her up and hugged her close. She was finally a mother. It had taken many years but she finally had a daughter. Oh, she knew it would be hard. She wasn't immune to the horror stories about adopting any child over two years old, she had heard them, too. But this little girl was different. Esther could see it, they had both seen it the moment she walked into Matron Joanne's office. She was well-mannered, charming, beautiful, and just about anything else Esther had ever wanted in a child. Yet she could see her hesitating to talk, shy, and confused. Matron Joanne had spoken of her background. It seemed ironic that such parents, who treated her that way since she was born, had produced such a child. 'Carrie was born to the Porters when her mother was only fifteen.' Matron Joanne said, as if that explained it all. 'They married right away, but Mrs. Porter had to drop out of school. The social worker says that she blames her girls for her mistakes, and the way that her life has turned out, and that's why she treated them that way.'
Jonathan and Esther understood this. Yet the child was in no way uncontrolled nor rebellious, quite the contrary. She was a delightful child. They were ready to take on the responsibility to bring her up and make of her the successful young woman that they knew she could be.
Esther shook the thoughts out of her head. Carrie was climbing off her lap and running to a little girl.
"Michelle!"
Esther was confused. She knew that Carrie had a sister, but it couldn't possibly be this little girl, could it? It was. Carrie and Michelle were hugging and crying, as if they had been apart for years.
"What are you doing here?" Michelle asked. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"Esther and Jonathan adopted me!" Carrie happily explained. "Do you live near here?"
"Yes!" Michelle said. "Do you?"
Carrie didn't know, so she asked Esther, who said that they did.
Their parents exchanged addresses and phone numbers, and as it turned out, they lived just a couple of blocks away from each other.
Carrie and Michelle could hardly believe their luck.
In just a few days they had gone from being members of a dysfunctional family to members of nice families. They knew they had a lot to be thankful for. Their new parents, brother, houses, and friends.
And most importantly, each other.
They would finally be able to be happy together.

The End