Guardian

three, I guess

Erwin makes sure to keep a firm grip on her hand. It's so small... She's so small. He doesn't understand her sudden shift in mood. 'Maybe I was too intense? Maybe something happened to her while I wasn't watching?' This thought makes him tense up. He can't bear to imagine anything bad happening to this funny, sweet, slightly scary, little girl. She's just a kid. A kid who has nothing. Erwin watches as the clerk scans his items slowly, noticing all these things are for him. They're all things he can afford. 'All I got for her was one can of shaving cream. She doesn't even need that. There are so many other things that she needs.' Erwin's mind races thinking of all the things she is not being provided and he wonders how she is even surviving. He looks down at her, her small body turned away from him. Mia looks more like a four-year-old rather than a five-year-old. She's obviously malnourished and neglected. She needs someone who can care for her.

Erwin can see her staring at the doors, wanting to leave. He feels her squeeze his hand and he looks to see what she sees. The woman from earlier is walking by undressing Erwin with her eyes. He then looks down to Mia to see her giving, what seems to be her classic hard stare. The woman sneers and walks away.

Mia tries to weasel her hand out of his grip once she realizes what she's doing. 'There's no point in getting attached', she thinks to herself. She listens as he pays and grabs his bag of things before, he begins walking towards the doors, looking over his shoulder at Mia. She makes sure to avoid eye contact with him.

"Come on, let's go home."

These words make Mia tense up.

Home.

Home.

But Mia doesn't have a home. Nowhere had ever felt like home.

She follows after him, keeping a good distance. He ushers Mia into the backseat of his car again and they drive back to his house. Not a word is spoken, but Mia can see him glance at her through the mirror a couple times. Once they are back to his house she walks up to his porch and then freeze. Erwin freezes too and stares at her as she stares at the ground. What's the point of going inside? She turns around and begin walking away.

Mia doesn't even have her clothes anymore. She still wearing his shirt and jacket. They make her look like a walking box. At least she's not as cold as before. Mia can hear that he isn't following her. This hurts but also is for the better. 'He doesn't want me. I only stayed with him because of the rain and it's not raining anymore.'

Mia walks until she finds her park and her bench. She sits on the damp wood and sighs. 'Now what?'

As Erwin watches her walk down the street, still wearing his jacket that falls just above her ankles. He feels torn, he can't just let her go, but can he keep her? Erwin promised to help her figure out what to do. He unlocks his door and steps inside. She is so young; she can't be on her own.

She sits still, staring at her surroundings until the streetlights come on. She eventually lays down on the bench and thinks about the time she spent with Erwin. She wishes she had someone like him to be her dad. 'There's no way he would want me. No one wants me.' Suddenly Mia sees some man approaching...

"Hey little girl." Says the ugly man, slinking over and sitting next to her.

Back at the house Erwin sits, thinking. She alluded to being in the system at some point, so he decides to try and find her records. Her profile is still up on the adoption website. A small picture of her when she looked to be about three, with a toothy grin sat at the top of the page. He stares at the picture for a moment before digging deeper into her records.

Eight families. This girl has been through eight families while in foster care and no one has kept her. Some of them were even decently long term, she was put into the system at 2 years old, and in the three years she has been in the system, has been through this many families? Why did no one keep her? Every time she was eventually returned.