It's about who you care about."
- Unknown
Chapter 11
No More Families
Nick was laying on his back in the grass outside the home, his head inside the box, the rest of him outside. Max had pulled the flaps over Nick's shoulders so that they were only open wide enough for his neck to stick out through. Sunshine streamed down and snuck in through the crack. Nick felt like his body were baking, but this was the only way Max would hang out today. He didn't feel like going on an adventure, and had made Nick leave the explorer helmets in the car.
"So I've been talking all morning," Nick said, rolling his eys back to look at Max, who was pressed against the far wall of the box, his red Converse sneakers on either side of Nick's head. "Why don't you give it a go? What're you thinking about?"
Max shook his head. Today was not a day to talk.
Nick sighed, "I thought we were past this no talking thing, Max?" he asked.
Max just shook his head again. Nick just didn't understand.
Suddenly there was the sound of a car door slamming and Nick sat up, his head pulling open the box flaps as he went. He blinked in the obscenely bright sunlight, and Max squealed and grabbed the flaps to the box.
Nick turned and saw a pick-up truck had pulled up behind his car and a couple was walking up the path to the door of the house. The woman was average in looks, with blonde hair and kind eyes and was clutching a teddy bear with a blue ribbon around his neck in her hands, a designer purse hoisted over her shoulder. The man was taller than her, skinny, with tightly curly hair and a pronounced chin that looked like it had been carved out of a single block of material. He caught up to her, though he'd been behind, locking the doors, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder and smiled at her, but she had eyes only for the building ahead of them, staring up, hopeful, with a watery expression.
Nick glanced at the box, then at the door to the home. The couple didn't seem to notice him, or Max's box - they were far enough across the lawn that they were out of the couple's immediately intake of the building.
The front door opened and Mimi stepped out on to the stoop. She was wiping her hands on a dish cloth, having obviously been alerted by one of the kids that the couple was there, and smiled at them warmly, inviting them in. Her eyes darted to Nick as they stepped inside and she turned to join them. She winked and gave him the crossed-fingers hand sign before disappearing back into the house.
Nick turned back to the box and knocked.
Knock, knock.
Max hesitated.
"They're inside now, Max, it's okay, it's just me," Nick promised.
Max released the flaps and they opened a little bit. Nick crawled inside this time, tucking his knees under his chin, and pulled the box flaps closed the way Max liked them. In the darkness inside the box, it was cooler than in the sun outside. Nick looked Max over for a long moment, then asked, "Do you know who those people are here about?"
In Nick's experience, people made appointments to look into adopting children from the group home, and when Mimi made appointments for them to visit the actual home, she had already interviewed them several times and told them about one child in particular. Usually, the group home visit was more like going to a zoo, but with Mimi it was more like a formal introduction.
"Sam," Max whispered.
Nick took a deep breath. He'd been worried it'd been about Max. Though why the thought had worried him, he wasn't sure. Other than the fact that it would take someone really special to figure out about the box and how it worked and what was going on in that little mind of Max's and Nick was certain those people, though kindly looking enough, would not understand the box.
"Is Sam excited?" Nick asked.
Max shrugged. "Sam hates me," he answered, his voice raspy from disuse.
"I'm sure Sam doesn't hate you," Nick said, but he couldn't really be sure because he'd never really met Sam for more than a few minutes and that was in the aftermath of the pirating adventure in which Sam came into the room to discover his stuff had been thrown about as bombs to conquer the enemy ship.
Max looked away from Nick, at th grain of the box and rested his head against it.
"At least you'll get the top bunk now," Nick said with a laugh. "That's always the best part of the older kids getting a new home," he added knowledgably. "You get the better beds."
"I don't want the top bunk," Max answered. "My box fits in the bottom."
Nick had never thought about what Max did with the box when he slept, but this seemed fair. He doubted Mimi would make Max move to the top bunk anyways. Unless just for the sake of principle and showing Max he could sleep without the box, though Nick decided he would strongly discourage Mimi from forcin Max out of the comfort zone.
Nick studied Max for a long moment, trying to put himself back into that place where Max was today. When Nick had been small, he'd been one of the only ones not to get a family from Mimi's house. He remembered children coming and going and being selected for families and disappearing out the door, onto new and exciting lives that didn't include the group home.
"Mim," Nick had asked when he was nine and his best friend, a little boy who had come to live with them the year before named Silas, had been adopted, "Why don't I ever get families to come and meet me?"
"Because," Mimi had answered, "I haven't met anyone special enough yet to take you away from me."
Mimi had become Nick's family after a long while, and when Nick had finally gotten a family visit, when he was thirteen, he found the experience most uncomfortable and had acted out as a result, certain that the only reason Mimi had brought the family to meet him was because she was finally sick of him, finally ready to rid him from her life. He'd smashed one of her favorite plates against the counter, and yelled and screamed until she'd finally suggested that maybe - just maybe - he was acting this way because he didn't want a family - and Nick had burst into tears.
"No more families," he'd cried into her shoulders.
"No more families," Mimi had agreed, rubbing his back.
Nick looked at Max. "Have you ever had a family come, Max?" he asked.
Max shook his head.
He'd only been at the home with Mimi for a few months, though, so this made sense. Plus, being in the box, Max probably wouldn't have been the best idea for Mimi to suggest to a family anyways. Especially since he didn't seem to speak to anyone but Nick, either.
"I only had one family come the entire time I lived here," Nick said. He untied his sneakers and started retying them to keep himself properly distracted.
Max looked up at Nick.
Nick glanced at Max. "They were nice," he said.
"Did they want you?" Max asked.
"I didn't want them," Nick answered. "I didn't really give them a chance to want me."
Max thought about this and stared at his toes.
"Sometimes, families don't look like people think they should," Nick said quietly. He was staring out the crack in the box's door flaps, at the house. He smiled, "Sometimes, they look like not having a family at all..." Nick looked at Max and patted his red Converse sneaker. Max pulled his foot away. Nick leaned forward so he could look up into Max's down-turned eyes. "Sometimes families are just friends who care a whole lot about you, Max."
Max's eyes rolled up to look at Nick.
"Everybody's got a family, really," he said quietly, "But sometimes we just look in all the wrong places to find them. You know what I'm saying, Max?"
Max nodded.
