The Odd Sister Out

Back Again

We made our way to Chile the day after Paani left. Peso was a nervous wreck about whether or not he'd be allowed to keep Pinto. Pinto acted like it didn't bother him, but Kwazii had taught him his "top-notch" emotional repression skills.

"Everything's fine." He'd proclaimed, "The Captain'll convince them." But he sounded as if he was trying to reassure himself just as much as he was reassuring me. I just held him as tightly as I could, praying fervently that I'll never have to let him go, but sadly, the world had different plans.
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The day after we arrived was Court Day, and we were all emotional disasters at this point. We could not do this any more times. It felt as though our hearts were exhausted from all the sleepless nights worrying about our newfound family. Pinto wasn't just Peso's baby brother now, he was all of ours, and we couldn't let him leave, not for a billion dollars. Both Pinto and Peso clung to the Captain with desperate flippers as we marched into the courthouse, a sad little parade of soldiers ready to fight for our family.

The courthouse didn't look too different from the one Koshi and I had our hearings in, white marble pillars with lightning bolts of black going up and down the sides, the hall littered with security officers, the whole shebang. It wasn't any less scarier than ours either. As we all filed into the courtroom and took a seat on the wooden seats that reflected the little display of judge, jury, and swindling buttholes known as lawyers, hard, polished, and unwilling to provide any sort of support. 

They were the same in America, too focused on their clients to consider the possibility that they were actually dealing with people and not cash machines.  My uncle once got thrown in prison cos some stupid lawyer pointed out a loophole that worked in his client's favor, but anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself.  The Captain seemed to be shaking as well as he clutched both Pinto's and Peso's flippers. The bang of the gavel against the judge's podium brought our attention to the front of the room where a stone-faced, robed penguin sat, watching us all impatiently. 

Once we'd all settled down to the best of our abilities (Tweak still had to slap her paw over Kwazii's mouth whenever he saw fit to blurt something out to the whole courtroom), the judge beckoned over a portly, kind-eyed penguin roughly the Captain's age. 

"Good morning, sir." He greeted the Captain in English lilted with a Spanish accent, "I am the court-appointed social worker, and it is our duty to decide what course of action would be in the best interests of the two fine young men on either side of you." Pinto perked up a bit at being called a "young man". He always liked it when the Captain told him what a big boy he was; "Young man" was just a step up from that.

"Sounds good." The Captain agreed, "So what do you propose?"

"With both yours and his current guardian's permission, I'd like to have an interview with the lad to see what the best course of action would be now." The man answered, turning to Pinto and giving him a reassuring smile. Peso and the Captain shared a look, but eventually, both of them nodded.

"Excellent!" The man clapped his flippers together and gestured to Pinto to follow him, and Pinto did so, shaking from head to foot. As he got up, Peso stood up as well and gave his little brother a reassuring squeeze. We waited in silence for the results of the "examination" outside. It must've been hours before Pinto reemerged from the guy's office. 

"Captain," The social worker shook his hand, "You've got a fine boy."

"Thank you." The Captain beamed politely and hugged Pinto tight in his arms. 

"We'll look everything over and let you know tomorrow." The man informed us genially. Everyone in our group winced and griped and groaned. Looks like it was time for more torturing worry and another sleepless night.