Her name-detecting software showed that the number was an official government number.
Reyona tried to remember if she had given any of her clients in that sphere her direct number.
That didn't seem likely unless…
Reyona picked up the call just as the only possibility clicked in her mind.
"Hello," she said immediately after the call connected.
"Hello, Is this Ms. Dexter?" a strange voice inquired.
"Yeah, that is me. Who is this?" Reyona asked.
"I am sorry to bother you, ma'am, but Miss Macaulay said I can reach out to you if something like this happens."
"Something like what?"
"Oh, I am sorry. I didn't introduce myself. I am Anna, and I work at the Emergency Foster Home. I am in charge of Allysyn and Junior for the moment, but then, I am sorry, ma'am, for bothering you, but well, she said I could call you."
"You still didn't tell me what happened," Reyona said as she unconsciously rubbed her temples.
"Uhm, the girl has been really quiet for days now. She doesn't talk to anyone and just keeps to herself. I just found out through her brother last night that she had not been eating much. She wouldn't answer my question, but then I caught her red-handed today when she was trying to sneak her food into the trash. Her brother thinks… well, that is why I called."
"I…uhm…I don't know. Is there something you think I can do right now that might change things? I mean, isn't there a way you can…"
"Ms. I have been working here for a while now, and I have seen many of these kids show different reactions to being pulled from their comfort zones. Her brother, bless his heart, seems like the type that could adjust well in any situation, but it is difficult for the girl. I know what happened in her first foster home and I think she is just not ready yet." she chuckled nervously as she said "I am sorry, I shouldn't be saying this, but then we have to do what we have to do. This is just a temporary place. She will need to leave here soon. I think a family has already taken an interest in having her and her brother and the arrangement should be done at most in a week. These are not foster parents who have experience with these kinds of kids. She… I am sorry, ma'am. I am going on and on. I just think you can maybe... come check on them or something or speak to them. Maybe you can find a way to convince her to do the right thing?"
Convince her as what? Reyona thought helplessly.
The people the girl wanted the most were nowhere to be found, and she was supposed to convince her. How?
Hey there! Even though your deadbeat parents are nowhere to be found, I am your dad's ex-wife who couldn't keep her nose out of your business?
Yeah, right. Just what the girl needed.
"Ma'am? Are you there, ma'am?"
"Yes, yes, I am here." She thought of the woman's suggestions and picked the safest. "Yes, I will talk to them. You can put them on the phone."
As she listened to the woman calling the children in the background, Reyona racked her brain for the most comforting things she could say to two kids she had no business talking to.
Especially the girl. How can she convince her?
You need food in order to grow well?
Yeah, that would work.
"Hello! Mummy, is that you?!" Junior's loud voice almost jarred Reyona's hearing.
She winced not just because of the sudden noise, but also because the boy was expecting someone else.
"Uhm, no. This is not yours… this is…"
"Bad woman!" he shouted with more excitement than he had done the first time. Before Reyona could say anything else, she heard him calling out to his sister. "She called, Ally! I told her she would call. She promised!"
Reyona was unaware of the smile that slowly crept onto her face just as she marvelled at the tenacity and innocence of a child.
She had only made that promise because she couldn't bear to see his crestfallen face the day they were to leave the hospital.
She had gone there very early that day to avoid a certain someone.
That was when she made that promise, even as she called herself all sorts of names for lying to a child.
Well, guess things worked out after all.
Then, he was talking to her again as he continued. "So, it was you?! I didn't know it was you! Anna called you Dekta! Anna was wrong. That is not your name! I have to tell her later."
Reyona couldn't help but laugh quietly at his serious tone as if he would give poor Anna a lecture later.
All of a sudden, her nervousness was gone, and she knew just what to say. "Dexter, not Dekta, Junior. She called me Ms. Dexter because that is my name."
"Oh," he said solemnly. Then "Do I have to call you Ms Dexter too? I can't call you bad woman again?"
That cracked Reyona up again.
She looked towards the door as Samantha knocked and ducked her head in.
She motioned to her to come back later and returned her attention to her call.
"Well, you shouldn't call me a bad woman in the first place. You shouldn't call anyone that. That is not a very nice thing to call anyone."
"But da…"
Fuck you, Thomas.
She knew just what the boy was going to say, so she quickly interrupted him. "Let's chalk it up to a mistake and agree that you will never call me that again, oak? Do we have a deal?"
He was silent for a moment as if considering it, then he said "Yes, I won't call you that again. Ally, I won't call her a bad woman again! It is not very nice!" he yelled out loud again, then lowered his voice. "So, what should I call you?" he asked.
"Just call me Reyona, okay? That is fine," she said with a smile.
"Re…yo…na" he tested the words in his mouth, then declared, "I like it. I like you. When are you coming to see us? Ally said our mom and dad would never come get us, but you will come, right?"
"How is your sister?" Reyona quickly asked. "Can you get her to come to the phone?"
"Ally! She wants you to come to the phone! She is not answering me! Anna, Ally is not coming to the phone!"
As Reyona heard Anna's voice in the background talking to Allysyn, Junior lowered his voice and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "She has been crying. She wouldn't let me tell anyone. She wouldn't let me tell Anna when she screamed in her sleep too. She screamed so loudly the other night and Anna came to ask, but she wouldn't say anything. And she wouldn't let me tell either."