Hidden Burdens (working title)

Chapter Thirty

As soon as they got home, Kayla sorted through the contents of what Stella had packed inside the duffle bag. The clothes she sorted into separate piles: one pile she tossed into the washer while the other pile was to be thrown away. Most of the throw-away clothes were old, worn out pairs of underwear and socks. Kimmy allowed those to be thrown away since she had plenty already, but refused to budge on the T-shirts that had holes. They were both merchandise from Stephen's store he no longer stocked in his online store anymore.

Kayla urged Kimmy to consider throwing them away, but remained gentle the entire time, which helped Kimmy stick with shaking her head no. After a while, she gave in and told Kimmy the shirts can be worn to sleep in or wear around the house.

Besides clothes, Stella had also packed Kimmy's stuffed Ender Dragon from Minecraft and a plush of the singing dog from Animal Crossing. Both went into the washer as well. Everything had to be checked over for critters and mold before it could be brought into the house. Kayla and Kimmy sat in the open garage for about an hour, going through Kimmy's tubs of Legos and bag of action figures.

"Make sure you keep your Legos in your room so they don't get mixed up with the Legos in the playroom," Kayla said, as they scooped up the pieces to drop them back into the bin. They then sorted through another tub that had Lego pieces, specifically themed Minecraft sets.

Besides going through everything, Kayla also used cleaning wipes to disinfect the toys as well. The Lego pieces she just soaked inside a cleaning solution mix. But the process still took so long they had to take a break for dinner. When they returned afterwards, Miguel followed them outside, curious what they were doing.

"That's your toys, Kimmy?" he asked as the kids watched Kayla resume cleaning each individual action figure.

Kayla answered for Kimmy. "Kimmy got to visit with her mom and brother this afternoon," she said, while smiling at Kimmy.

"How come you can't stay with your brother at least?" Miguel asked, innocently.

Kimmy could only shrug one shoulder while watching her toys.

Kayla gently explained both siblings had different needs on top of being different genders.

"Oh," Miguel replied, as if that cleared things up for him. He picked up the action figure of Alphonse Elric and asked Kimmy if he was a robot.

Kimmy shook her head, eying the boy. She had never had anyone to play with her toys, and Kimmy wasn't sure how she felt. Technically, the packaging the toys had come in had said they weren't intended for kids. Despite that, Kimmy had played with them anyway and made sure to be careful. So, watching Miguel handle Al made her nervous. It didn't help her conscience that he had let her play with his toys, so it was only fair on her part as well. Right?

With the garage open again so some fresh air could come through, Kimmy occasionally heard a car drive past. It was still strange not hearing a bunch of kids running around and yelling just outside the windows, constantly. Now and then, some kids would be riding their bikes or skateboards.

Across the street, an elderly couple lived in the one-story house, keeping to themselves while the houses on either side of the Ross household were a couple who didn't have kids of their own and a group of friends who shared expenses. Aside from the driveway chats with music playing from a speaker, the group of friends rarely made a noise.

Kayla grabbed Kimmy's attention, now holding her sketchbooks in her hands. Her markers and oil pastels stacked on top. She took out the markers and oil pastels from their box first, making sure nothing that wasn't supposed to be in there wasn't. Once Kayla got to the sketchbooks, she asked to at least flip through them to briefly check.