Daniel was mad. Of course, he was mad. He was infuriated. And he knew the anger wasn’t validated. He knew he was just mad at himself and that it technically wasn’t Noah’s fault, but god dammit! It felt as if fire was running through his veins. He breathed deeply three times. Fuck. His mind raced, thoughts and memories rushing through his head. One memory came back, again and again, as it always did when Daniel got upset.

                                                      ***

He remembered being scared. He had been standing at the same spot for what seemed like forever. He couldn’t remember for how long, or why they were there. All he remembered was the last thing his mom had said to him; “Wait here, don’t move. I’ll be right back”. And Daniel had waited. He had stood right where she had told him to stay, and he had waited and waited. He had stared at the automatic doors. They had opened and closed, with strangers walking in and out from the big building. But there were no signs of her. He had started to panic. He could feel his heart beating faster, his tummy filling with butterflies. He wanted to leave. He didn’t want to stay here any longer. He wanted to go home! He wanted his mom to come back and take him home! He was cold, and hungry and scared. This wasn’t funny anymore. He looked around him. There weren’t that many people on the big parking lot. It wasn’t as if his mother couldn’t find him. She should’ve been back by now!

Daniel could feel tears pushing in his eyes, but he didn’t want to cry. He was six years old, he was a big boy. And big boys didn’t cry. That’s what his mom had told him. Big boys don’t cry, and they don’t whine, she had said. Big boys look after themselves and stay quiet, she had told him. But right now, he didn’t want to be a big boy. He didn’t want to look at after himself, he didn’t want to be quiet, and he didn’t want to be here! He wanted his mom, he wanted to cry, and he wanted to go home!

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around. How did his mom sneak up on him from behind? He should have seen her walking out of the store. And why had she taken so long, Daniel thought. But when he turned around, he stared at two complete strangers. They weren’t his mom. And now he didn’t face the door to the store and now he couldn’t see when she got back. He turned around, not bothering about the fact that they were talking to him. His mom always said that you shouldn’t talk to strangers, anyway. The strangers didn’t seem to care about the fact that he didn’t want to talk to them. They moved so that they now stood in front of him. They bend down and were eye to eye with Daniel. He didn’t look at them, though, just kept his eyes on the doors. He could see the strangers looking at each other. Then the women started talking to him.

“Hi, honey.” She had a very soothing voice. He stared at the doors. “Are you lost?” the woman asked. He wasn’t lost, Daniel thought. He knew where he was. He was exactly where mom had told him to be.

“Where are your parents, kid?” Now it was the man who spoke, and Daniel looked at him. He also had a very soft voice. His mom did not have a voice like theirs. Hers was harsh, and loud, and sometimes it felt like knives. The stranger’s voices reminded him more of soft pillows, than knives. Where was his mom? Daniel didn’t know! He wouldn’t be here if he knew! He felt his eyes starting to prick again, and the two strangers looked at each other again.

“Oh, sweetie! It’s going to be alright”, the woman said as she rubbed his shoulders. Daniel didn’t want to cry, but he couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. He missed his mom, and he wanted to go home!

“Why don’t we sit down on that bench over there, huh buddy?” the man said as he pointed to a bench next to the entrance of the building. Daniel shook his head. He didn’t want to go. He needed to stay here for when his mom came back. The couple looked at each other a third time, before they moved so that they stood on each side of him.

“We’ll wait here with you, if that’s all right?” the man said. Daniel didn’t answer, but he wondered if they maybe took his silence as an answer, because they didn’t move. They stood there for a very long time, until the man went into the store. The woman told him he was going to buy them something to eat, and he came back very fast with three sandwiches. Daniel didn’t know if he was allowed to eat what strangers gave him, but at this point he was starving, and dug into the sandwich at once.

“What’s your name?” the man asked once Daniel had finished the sandwich. He didn’t answer, and the lady sighed.

“I’m Alice, and this is Nathaniel.”

“But you can call me Nathan”, he said.

“Now, do you want to tell me your name?” The woman asked. Daniel shook his head.

“How about where you live? Where your parents are? How old are you? What are you doing here?” the man said. When Daniel still didn’t say anything, they stopped asking.

It didn’t take long before a police officer approached them, and the man shook his hand and spoke to him in a low voice. Daniel couldn’t hear what they said, but there were many looks in his direction, some pointing and a lot of hand gestures.

“Hello, kid. Can you tell me your name or where your parents are?” the police officer asked him. Daniel didn’t answer him. His mom had told him not to talk to strangers, and she had specifically told him never to have anything to do with a pig.

“Okay, kid. I need you to come with me”, the officer said.

Daniel looked between the man and the woman. They couldn’t just let the pig take him, right?

“We are going to take you to the station and then we are gong to find your mom, okay?” he said.

Daniel didn’t want to go with him. Pigs only lied, his mom always said. They would do anything to take Daniel away from her and they would lie, and cheat, and they would do terrible things to him. When the officer grabbed his arm, Daniel felt panic rise inside him. He didn’t want to go with the pig! He didn’t want to leave! He squirmed out of his grip and when the officer tried to take hold of his arm again, Daniel moved to hide behind the woman. He grabbed her leg and tried to use it as a shield, to defend himself from the pig.

“Why don’t we take him with us home?” the man spoke up. “He can stay with us over the weekend and then child services can pick him up Monday, if you still haven’t found his parents.” The police officer agreed to this, and Daniel went with Alice and Nathan to their house.

It was a big house. Daniel didn’t understand why they had such a big house if there was only the two of them that lived there. As they entered the house, Nathan went into the kitchen.

“Nathan is a super good cook”, Alice said with a smile.

Daniel stood in the hallway, unsure of what to do. He didn’t want to be here, but he would rather be here than go with the cop. Alice came and showed a bunch of paper and some crayons.

“You want to draw a little while we wait for dinner?” Daniel felt a smile tug at his lips. He didn’t want to show Alice, because his mom always said that it’s annoying when someone is happy, so he shrugged his shoulders, and followed her to the kitchen table where they sat down and started to draw.

“Where are you going?” she asked as Daniel left the table. The table was too tall for Daniel and it made it difficult to draw. He took his papers and the crayons and lied down on the floor in what seemed to be the living room. He laid between a couch and a television, under a coffee table. She didn’t say anything else, but went to sit down on the couch and they continued drawing.

The rest of the weekend was kind of a blur to Daniel. He remembered bathing and Alice giving him some clothes that wasn’t his, but seemed new. He remembered being too scared to sleep in the guest room that they made ready for him, and him sneaking into their bed in the night. They never complained, only made him lie in the middle, making him feel like a sandwich.

He remembered Alice and Nathan showing him the rest of the house, how big it was, and the outsides that were even bigger. And they had so many animals! They had chicken, and goats, and horses! And they even let him ride the little one!

He remembered them laughing as they played board games in the evening, and how they had water wars where they sprayed each other with the water hose.

He remembered laughing and being happy.

He remembered the look on their faces when he spoke for the first time Saturday evening, and how they would hug him and kiss him goodnight.

But most of all, he remembered Monday, how an unknown woman had showed up on the door, and how she and two other men had taken him away from Alice and Nathan. He had screamed, and cried, and kicked, and bit, but it was no use. Alice and Nathan hadn’t even tried to stop them. They had just stood by and watched.