Hidden Burdens (working title)

Chapter Forty-Six

Once they got back to the house, Samson needed to go on his walk. So Kayla suggested a walk for all of them to walk off the food they consumed that day. Kayla walked with Claudia behind Ben and Kimmy, to ask about her Thanksgiving. With Samson wanting to sniff and leave his "presence" everywhere, Kayla and Claudia got ahead of them. Ben controlled what Samson could mark his scent on, making sure it wasn't something that could be damaged.

Kimmy lagged somewhere in the middle, following behind the girls, not stopping when something else caught Samson's attention. Though Samson wanted to catch up to the kid and walk alongside her.

After they got back from the walk, Ben and Kayla sat at the kitchen table to go through the Black Friday catalogs and organized the kid's suggestions into lists.

Ben noticed Kimmy had circled the video games and nothing else. He remembered the Lego set from that first week she had wanted. "I'm gonna try to keep my eye out for it."

"What was the Lego set?" she asked.

He had to think for a moment. "I think it was a medieval set. Like a castle or something." They looked through the catalogs that sold toys to see if something jogged his memory. There were Lego sets but none of them were castles. Not the regular Legos anyway. They figured a nine-year-old wouldn't want a Mega Blocks set meant for toddlers, even if she sometimes played with Miguel and his toys.

Ben recalled Miguel being so disappointed Kimmy was another girl. To see how much the two had grown into some kind of friendship made him happy for both of them. They even had many pictures of the two of them.

Eventually, it was decided they would keep a lookout for the things they noticed Kimmy had an interest in. Their first Christmas last year was only with two kids, James and another boy, Kaden. Because of the circumstances the kids had gone through, Ben and Kayla had agreed five gifts, plus a stocking of little things, including candy if they liked it, was enough and to put on a credit card to pay off over time.

Since the kids received a clothing allowance throughout the year, the kids didn't have to receive any clothes as a gift unless they specifically asked for them. There weren't that many kids who enjoyed opening gifts on Christmas and finding clothes, and James was one of them.

At one point while discussing what to get for Mary and Claudia, Kimmy snuck in to get a glass of water. The sneaking ended when she struggled to reach up and open the cupboard while trying to stand as high as her toes could go. Eventually, Ben asked if she wanted help and got up to get her a cup. He also asked which one she wanted, reminding Kimmy she could stand on a chair for next time.

They waited for the kid to fill her cup with water and crushed ice to continue the discussion after she was gone.

-- & --

Grandma Joy came over Friday morning to stay with Kimmy while Ben and Kayla went out shopping.

Since Black Friday technically started the night of Thanksgiving and they went mid-morning, the crowds had died down. It meant a lot of stuff was already gone. But neither Ben nor Kayla stressed about any of that stuff.

Kayla handled the older girls while Ben focused on Kimmy and Miguel. Though, she found a box set with the first three books of Diary of a Wimpy Kid for Kimmy since she had seemed to enjoy the first book.

While at Target, Ben checked the Lego aisle, scanning the shelves for the castle set. There were a couple of castle sets and Ben spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to remember which one Kimmy had wanted. Since one set was on sale, he got that one and hoped it was the Lego set she wanted.