darker_london | Bedtime (Faye, Roe & Cai)

Faye and Roe shared a room. They didn’t need to; there were enough bedrooms in the house for the girls to have one each, and when they both first came to the Finch’s, they did have their own rooms.

Faye had spent a few days a week for much of the past two years at Casa Rosa. She came from a single parent family and her mother had two jobs and no support systems, and till Faye was fourteen, which was still years away, she needed stable adults in her life. She liked staying with Nonnie and Dom, and would pretend they were her real grandparents, and Cai was her real brother.
Faye had seen other foster children come and go, and she had had other foster families. Before she came to stay with the Finches, she’d lived exclusively with another family who had been bigger, and louder, and sometimes nasty.

She’d shared rooms with kids who wet the bed and screamed at night and she’d witnessed adults snapping under the pressure and she knew that when adults snapped they could be like grenades and take a whole bunch of kids down with them.

Roe had only been coming to them for a few weeks; slightly more than a month. Faye wasn’t allowed to know the details, as if they’d shock her. She’d overhead some things though, Dom talking to Cai about their new sister. Roe had been rescued from a home where her parents had tried to kill each other one day. The police had been called and they found Roe up in the roof.

You couldn’t ask Roe about it either because she didn’t talk. Nonnie had told Faye that it might be because she needed time and peace and love, but that it might also be something called subthreshold autism. Her doctor didn’t know yet, and Roe’s parents had never taken her to a doctor when she was a child.

Since she first moved in, Roe had spent part of her time with the Finch’s and part of her time at a special clinic who were helping her learn how to be a person again. Sometimes Faye got to go with her and help with her lessons.

Even though Faye was only nine, two-and-three-quarter years younger than Roe, she wanted to look after her, just like Cai had looked after her when she first came to his house.

She had invited Roe to move into her bedroom last weekend, and she had watched Roe think about it for a long time before she went and retrieved her pillow from her own room and put it on the floor. That looked like a yes to Faye, and she’d got Cai to help move Roe’s bed into her room that night.

Roe didn’t talk, but that way okay because Faye talked enough for the whole house. Roe drew Faye pictures, instead. It had only been a week and their bedroom was already turning into an art gallery. Cai called it Le Louvre, which was a place in France where Nonnie and Dom said they would take them one day.

One of Faye’s favourite things about living with the Finch’s was bedtime rituals. There was family time in the living room downstairs and hot chocolate and cut up bits of apples or pears. Sometimes after baths, they’d watch TV or sometimes they’d play games in their pyjamas, till it was bedtime. Then it was time to brush their teeth and climb into bed, and Cai would come in and they would say prayers together, then read a story. And not just any stories but proper adventure stories that carried on for books and books. Right now they were reading Sammy Keyes, lots of books about a girl called Sammy who solved crimes.

Tonight Cai sat on his swivel storytelling chair between their beds. He wasn’t reading as well as he usually did and he looked very tired, his whole body drooping like he was a fluffy dog left out in the rain. He only made it through one chapter before he said, “I humbly apologise,” because he spoke like that sometimes when he was being a big brother. “My sweet ladies, I must retire to bed, for I am conked.”

Faye made a bit of a show of grumbling, but she was pretty tired herself and didn’t mind too much. Roe wasn’t upset either, and Roe really let people know when she was upset.

Cai left the book, its place held for tomorrow night, on the chair, and got up to tuck the girls in. He straightened Roe’s covers, but he wasn’t going to hug or kiss her unless she actually reached for him, which she didn’t. Faye did though, and he bent over to give her a squeeze, because such a simple, brief contact had never been a problem before.

But this time he closed his eyes as he hugged her and smelt the strong, distinctive smell of the ocean. He saw Faye, standing with Roe on the bow of a ship, looking out to sea as the wind whipped through their hair. They looked happy, holding hands.

“What’s wrong?” Faye asked, as Cai rocked back from her. He stumbled a little but caught himself by sitting on the side of her bed.

“Nothing,” Cai said, though his head was swaying back and forth like he was seasick. But he smiled contently, optimistic for the first time today. “I just… I have a feeling nice things are going to happen.”

Faye lay down, wrapping her arms around her toy Loch Ness Monster. “Nice things are already happening,” she said. Cai felt his smile reaching deep inside him, like all his muscles were connected to it, every part of him touched with hope and warmth.