Page 4 of Cade

CHAPTER TWO

“Do you think they’ll be nice to us?” asked Cassidy to her twin sister, Carrie.

“I know they will be,” she smiled. “He gave really good hugs, and he let us eat all the food we wanted and let us take a long bubble bath.”

Cassidy stared at her sister for a moment. She was the dreamer of the two of them, always off in some fantasy world. They might be twins, but they looked nothing alike other than hair and eye color.

“Are you alright, Cassidy?” asked Sophia.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, nodding. She bit her lip, swinging her legs back and forth, and the beautiful lady knelt in front of her.

“It’s alright if you’re scared. Ivan and I are strangers to you, but we hope to change that. We’ve wanted children for a long time, and we think we are the luckiest people on the planet to have found you and your brothers and sisters.”

“Really?” she asked, scrunching up her nose.

“Really,” smiled Sophia. “Now, is there something you need? Something I can help with?”

“It’s just that I’m still hungry,” she said, frowning at the floor. “I’m hungry a lot.”

“I see,” said Sophia, nodding. “Can I tell you a secret? I’m hungry all the time, too. When I was little, I didn’t get enough to eat. My father wasn’t a very good man.”

“Mine too,” frowned Cassidy.

“I know, baby,” said Sophia, hugging the little girl. “But now you get Ivan as your father, and he’s the most amazing man ever. He’s big and strong. He’s really smart. He helped put lots of bad men in jail because they hurt other people. He’s amazing.”

“Whoa, that’s cool,” said Cassidy.

“It is,” laughed Sophia. “Do you know what you want to be when you grow up?”

“I want to be a dancer!” yelled Carrie.

“I want to be an artist,” said Cassidy. “I want to paint pretty pictures of flowers and ladies and buildings.”

“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea!” said Sophia. “I’ll bet we could find someone to give Carrie dance lessons and you art lessons. What do you think about that?”

“Really?” they said in unison.

“Really, really,” smiled Sophia. The girls launched themselves at their new mother, hugging her so hard, she fell backwards, laughing. Ivan watched it all, his heart swelling with love and pride. He knew this was the right decision. He was just speaking with the boys as the ‘men’ of the house, and they were far too grown up for their ages.

Within two years, they had moved to Louisiana, and Carrie was taking dance lessons at the studio, and Cassidy was taking art lessons in town. It wasn’t long before they realized that she had tremendous talent.

Her junior year of high school, her final project painting sold at the school’s fundraiser for more than five hundred dollars. A local law firm bought it for their offices. Cassidy couldn’t believe it. Someone actually liked her work.

It didn’t stop there. Everything she painted seemed to turn to gold. When she left to attend art school in Philadelphia, she thought for sure she’d find artists far more talented than she. It surprised her to learn that she was the talented one in the room.

“Cassidy, your use of color is astounding,” said her professor. “I’ve never in my life seen anyone with so much raw talent. You really should be doing gallery showings right now.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not ready for that.”

“Cassidy, you are more than ready for that. You’ll be graduating this semester, and I have a friend in New Orleans who owns a gallery. That’s where you’re from, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Alright, then here’s the number. I’ve told him everything about you, and he’s willing to put your work on display, give you a visiting artist status, and hire you to appraise and assess art.”

“You’re not serious,” she gasped. The old woman laughed, her big round belly shaking like Santa Claus.

“I’m very serious. I hope one day to see one of your paintings in a gallery. You’re amazingly talented.”

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