Chapter Five | | September 22nd

Two months since the search party for Renee started. Any results ? Not a sign of her whereabouts. It went from daily searches to twice a week searches, weekly searches, every other week searches to monthly look outs.We just had to accept that the worst might've happened to her. What did we expect, really ? An 11 year old living by herself in the streets with no food or water ?

Just when I started to contemplate about her fate, I heard a knocking at the door. "On it." says Tanisha as she opens the door. From where I was I could only hear what was going on.

"Um, hi." says the woman at the door.

"What can I help you with ?" asks Tanisha.

"I'm holding a search party to find missing children."

"What their names ?" replies Tanisha with an exaggerated sigh.

"Belladonna, 10. Keshawn, 10. Renee, 11." she says, lifting a picture of their faces. Tanisha's eyes look at her up and down, ignoring the paper in front.

"Nisha, who's at the door ?" asks Mr. Smith, walking towards the entrance.

She sighs hearing her stepfather's voice. "It's no one." she answers.

"Don't lie to me, young woman. What do you want ?"

The woman re-explains the reason for her visit. "If you see them, please let us know." she adds handing in a card.

"We will. Goodbye, now."

"Good afternoon, sir." responds the woman as she leaves the premises. At the same time,Denzel walks into the living room and turns on the Tv. Now onto Naire news...

"Did you only wake up now ? Don't you have class ?" asked Tyler in a grating voice.

"Took a sabbatical year..." mumbled Denzel while browsing in the fridge.

"Three orphans from the Cherished Infants Orphanage have gone missing....Renee, an 11 year old. Keshawn, a 10 year old and Belladonna, also 10. If you have any information on their whereabouts or if you see them walking in your neighborhood, please contact the orphanage at...."

"We should contact them." suggests Tyler, glancing at the card that was given to him. Denzel chokes on his drink. "Kids ! Get out of your rooms." he continues. Keshawn, Tyrell and I walk out to the living room and sit on the couch.

"They left for a reason, we can't make them go back there." protests Denzel.

"They're kids, they don't know better." Denzel shakes his head. "Sha, call mum."

Tanisha sprints towards her mother's room. "Mum !"

"It's useless, your mother and I are on the same page for this." comments Mr.Smith as he sees Tanisha run.

On the other hand, Ms. Davis doesn't seem to agree with his statement. She marches out the room narrowing her eyes as she stares at her husband. "We're not letting those monsters take away our kids, Tyler !"

"They're gonna find them one day or another !" argues Tyler. Denzel and Tanisha exchange a look before signaling us to head inside a room. All five of us disappear in Denzel's room leaving the two adults in the living room.

"If they find them they'll just realize that they found a family !"

"They're not our kids." insists Tyler.

"You're right. They're my kids not ours."

"Their names are everywhere, you can't hide them."

"Who said I'd hide them ? You just gave me an idea, Tyler." she responds in a sharpened tone. "I'll change their names and sign them up for school. They're gonna be my kids and I'm gonna raise them like non selfish human beings."

"You're not gonna do that, Janet." he says, rubbing his brow. In that same instant, Ms.Davis busts herself into Denzel's room.

"All five of you. In the car. Now." she orders. We pass by Mr.Smith avoiding eye contact.

"My son stays here." commands Tyler firmly. Janet puts Tyrell down on the couch and we walk out the house to the car. "My car stays here too. Take yours." adds Tyler.

"Where are we going ?" asks Denzel, seated in the front passenger seat next to his mother.

"Belladonna and Keshawn are no more." replies Janet. Each one of our eyes widened. Where was she taking us ? What did she mean by Keshawn and I are no more ? Those are the questions I kept thinking about as I now sat anxiously in the car.

"We're going to change your names, sign you up for school and eventually this search party will come to an end... Y'all can't stay locked up in our house forever..."

A sigh of relief came out of my mouth as I heard her words.

"Y'all alright with that ?" she asked us.

"Yeah !" answered Keshawn and I simutationly.

And so,we left the house as Belladonna and Keshawn and came back with different names.

***

"What did you do ?" questioned Mr. Smith as we entered the house. Three women were sitting on the couch unfazed by our presence.

"Who are they ?" commented Janet, ignoring her husband's question. Her eyes were narrowing the longer she looked at the women. They were dressed in the same black suit aside from one who was dressed like a nun. The brunette with glasses, the brunette without glasses and the nun.

The strangers finally got up from their seats and neared themselves towards us."Beautiful little place you two have." said the nun.

"Who are they ?" repeated Janet crossing her arms.

"We're from the Cherished Infants Orphanage. Your husband called us over, reporting that he found two of the missing children."answered the brunette with glasses. All three of the women's eyes shifted to us. All my life spent at the orphanage I had never seen one of these women yet in their eyes I could feel that it wasn't the case for them. The grin on the brunette without glasses was as if she had found what she was looking for. Like she had found her prize.

"We haven't seen anyone." says Janet.

"Are all five of them your kids ?" asks the brunette with glasses.

"Yes, all five of them are my kids. Denzel, Tanisha, Quannell, Tamika and Tyrell. Are you looking down on me for having many kids ?"

"Not really, no. It's always the ones with smaller houses that have bigger families." comments the brunette.

"What'd you say to me ?"

"We weren't called for nothing, right ?" The nun faked a smile continuing to survey Quannell and I. "Those two look awfully familiar. What'd you say were their names?"

"Does every black child look the same to you ?" questioned Denzel. I look over to him before noticing the brunette shortly glancing at him, throwing Denzel a dirty look.

"Belladonna." says a voice.

I looked over to where the sound came just to realize that it was the nun who had uttered my old name.

They caught me

I rapidly look away hoping that she hasn't noticed me look her way.

"We can come by another time-" suggests the brunette with glasses.

"No need." interrupts Ms. Davis. "We don't need another visit." She looks over to her husband. The nun turns her head to him as well.

"I-I was mistaken. I apologize for wasting your time." said Tyler.

The two brunettes kept their eyes on us as they were walking out. I stayed close to Tanisha, keeping a poker face like her.

"Well if you ever see one of those three kids. Call us." instructed the nun with a tight voice.

"No. Goodbye." replied Tanisha as she waved her hand. The unpleasant atmosphere dissipated and we could breathe again.

"You made me lie to the law, Janet." comments Tyler, after closing the door behind the unwelcome guests.

"The law ? How are these women the law, Ty?" questioned Janet with a strict tone. "Did you see their faces ? Do they look like they want what's best for those missing kids ? Be honest with me."

He shook his head. "What-What even were these names you invented ?"

"Those names are their new names. Tamika King and Quannell Johnsonn. Under your law, those kids aren't missing which means you didn't lie. Which means, you ain't gotta call them anymore. Are you satisfied now ? Kids get ready for school."

And so, this marked the end of the 3 missing orphans search party. Unfortunately for us, Renee was still nowhere to be found.