A Home for the Doctor
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Kellie A. King
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PROLOGUE
THEY COULDN’T EVEN wait until morning to leave. That thought filtered through Mia Ballad as she watched her parents move their luggage from the upstairs of the house to the front door. Brian and Rosie Ballad talked to each other and laughed, and all the while she stood there rubbing the soles of her Converse against the hardwood floor. They didn’t even notice her until they were pulling on their coats. Enid stood waiting to hand Mia’s mother her purse. It was then her mother looked over to see her standing close to the banister and approached with a smile.
“Mia, shouldn’t you be in bed?” she asked gently.
“I’m fourteen. My bedtime is eleven now. You’d know that if you stayed home more,” Mia answered sullenly. “You’re leaving without even telling Margo or Micki goodbye.”
Her father came over. “You’ll do that for us, won’t you, because you’re our big girl.”
“Maybe I don’t wanna be your big girl,” Mia muttered, and her lips trembled. She pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes, which prickled hot with tears. “Why can’t you just stay home this time, please.”
Her parents glanced at each other. “Sweetheart, we travel so our girls will know there is a whole wide world out there for them to explore. We’ll be back in eight weeks, with gifts for Micki’s birthday and great notebooks for you...even new pens.”
“I don’t want any of it.” Mia swiped at more hot tears. “And when I grow up, I’m never leaving where I live and the people I love, not like the two of you.”
She rushed past them up the stairs and into her room. From the door she could hear her parents talking.
“She’s old enough, maybe we should tell her.” Her mother’s voice was low but filled with worry.
“A child shouldn’t be burdened with that,” Enid said pointedly. “She’ll be fine, and the girls will be okay. You go do what needs to be done.”
“Mia...”
A tiny hand tugged on the leg of her blue pajama pants, and she looked down to see her little sister Michelle, or Micki as they called her. Their bedrooms were all on the third floor, with a door between each room so the sisters could either leave them open or close them for privacy. Micki’s was in the middle, cocooned by her older sisters on each side.
“Hey, Cricket, you should be asleep.” Mia lifted her five-year-old sister in her arms.
Margo arrived, rubbing her eyes. “They left again, didn’t they?”
Mia nodded while Micki laid her head on her shoulder. “They just left.”
“What about my birthday?” Micki asked.
“It will be the best birthday ever, I promise. Mom and Dad said they’d be back in time,” Mia reported. “I hear you may have gotten the exact thing you wanted as a present.”
“Really?” Micki smiled up at her.
“You betcha.” Mia would tell Enid the next day that Micki wanted a skateboard, and they would make sure she was careful using it.
“Can we stay with you tonight?” Margo asked.
“Yeah, come on.”
Mia sighed, knowing the routine when their parents left on each trip. Luckily her bed could hold all three of them easily, and she put Micki in the middle as usual while nine-year-old Margo climbed under the covers on the other side. Mia turned on the twinkle lights strung along the ceiling of her bedroom, and both girls giggled.
“Now, go to sleep, you two,” Mia ordered with a smile.
The three sisters snuggled close, and Mia vowed again to never leave the people she loved. Fourteen or not, she knew how it felt when people walked out the door and how much it hurt. She wouldn’t do that to anyone. She was quite happy living in her slice of the world.
