Throwaway People

Family

6:20 AM Greenacres Camp

"I turned off the laptop when the message popped up. Do you remember a Joseph Rouvreblanc?" Bobbi asked Keyote.

All of them were seated around the kitchen table. Taco Bell boxes and wrappers were on the table. Bobbi had stopped at Taco Bell before coming over. She had the meal all laid out for the family by the time they returned. She still had her key to the doors.

After all four of them had sorted through the collection of tacos, burritos, and assorted other items they wanted to eat they began to talk. Bobbi explained what she had found out over the computer.

"No, I don't." Keyote thought about it. "Aunt Crow I remember. Aunt Mai was her friend. Kiona was my sister. That is all I really remember. Daddy beat Mommy. I remember that."

"Your Mom lived on the reservation." Jim said. "If she was married, that would mean her last name was her husband's. Her original name may have been Rouvreblanc. Joseph may be her Father or Brother. He must be tribal police, or he wouldn't have been able to get the police station there to put that message up when someone checked on his sister."

"I don't know if I want to go live with strangers." Keyote said. "Why do I have to leave? Jim has been like a Dad to me, Patty more than a Mom."

"Honey, you know how you missed your friend Terri when she disappeared. How you felt you had to help Bunny get back to her parents. How you were afraid for Bobbi when you knew she was alone out there. You know how we all missed Bobbi when she disappeared." Patty said. "Imagine that feeling stretched over six years."

"I don't want to go, I'm used to it here. It's my life, I don't want to go live another life with people I don't know anymore." Keyote said defiantly.

"Do you think I want to let you go." Patty's temper was up now. "I can't be so selfish as to keep you to myself when you belong with someone else. You can't be selfish either. Your sister and the rest of your family love you. You belong with them."

"Key, you were stolen from your family." Jim said. "He denied you and your family six years of growing up with them. Because of what was done to you over those six years he has left scars that will never go away. You need to know that despite these scars your family wants and loves you."

"Patty and you love me despite how screwed up I am." Keyote said.

"We aren't your real family. We haven't spent six years looking for you. Your family isn't even sure if you are alive or dead." Jim told her. "We love you, I wish you could stay with us, but we have to let you go. Key, you have to accept that we have to let you go back to your real family."

Patty looked up contact information for Kiona Rouvreblanc. It was Keyote's sister that they promised to find for Keyote. What they got was her Facebook account. A quick search revealed that Kiona's Mother had been murdered in Rapid City and her sister Keyote abducted.

A recent update said that Kiona knew that someone was searching her family records. She asked that if that person was Keyote: That she still loved her and wanted her to contact her. Kiona listed a phone number.

Patty handed her phone to Keyote. "Dial the number and speak to your sister."

Biting her lip Keyote punched in the numbers. She waited until someone picked up. The voice was a man's voice. "Hello?"