Prose

they can't but they are

written by: babeestars

"What's wrong?"
"What isn't?" I replied. She pulled me to the edge of the flowing water and sat on the stone. I sat beside her. She slipped her shoes of pushing her socks inside them, and when I didn't copy she pulled them off for me. I laughed as I almost slipped of backwards and as she missed my shoe and dropped my sock in the water, and as she had to chase after it, I laughed so much my sides hurt. And when she finally sat back down beside me, soggy sock in hand, and put her arm round me, I cried. I cried as she sootherd me, as she hugged me, and as she cried to. And when I thought that my tears where over I finally told her. I told her why my world was falling apart, and why it really was goodbye forever. She sat stunned in silence. "They can't,"
"but they can, legally, they can."
"No," she whispered. I pulled away from her, walking through the water and then pulling myself onto bank. Swinging my feet and flicking the water. "I won't let them, they can't take my baby sister away."
"But Katie they can, and they are."
"No, not again. I said never again and I meant it Sarah."
"What can you do to stop it though? I may be old enough to move out, but there is no way I can. I have no way near enough savings, and my job is hardly going to pay. I'm still in education, for gods sake." Fear, panic, worry starting to build in my voice.
"I won't let it happen, I won't. I promise you I won't." Her voice calm.
"How, Katie, how the hell can you stop them."
"Why now? What made them decide?"
"Because I've found you, I've found my real family and they don't want to lose me. If they take me away then there all I have."
"I'm not letting them take you."
"But they're my legal guardians so they can, and they will. They are." She lowered her head to her hands; I could tell she was hiding tears. And I could see, the night I told her, the night she found out. And this time it was being take away again. I couldn't stand to see her like that, and hated what it must be doing to her to see me the same way. We sat in silence, flicking water with our toes, and when my feet where completely numb I walked back across the river, sat back on the rock beside Katie, dried my feet with my top and slipped them back into my shoes.
"I'm sorry Katie." She kept her face down, "will you visit? I'll come back, whenever I can."
"You won't need to visit, and neither will I. You are not going anywhere; I will make sure of that."
"Katie," I sighed, "you have 5 days, but please, I want to fill them with the best memories, I don't want them to be filled with tears, and with you trying to keep me, because you know just as well as I do, that..." she looked up, her eyes reddened.
"The memories will be the best, and you will remember them forever and forever. And these days will not be your last, because I will not let them." She stood and hugged me tightly. I breathed in her warm sent and memorized the way her arms fell around me. Her breath brushing my ear. "please, don't let them take me, don't let it happen, please, don't let me go."