December 2nd, 2002

Kinsky, California, USA

Lullaby

An old jacked-up gray coupe rode into a suburban driveway. At the driver’s wheel was a college-aged girl with a penchant for the gothic. Her raven black hair was puffed up and curled into a style more reminiscent of the 80s than the 2000s, and her t-shirt of The Cure seemed to only add to that fact. Her makeup was heavy, her nails long, and her jewelry – all silver and dark, to fit the theme – was just loose enough that they would often slip and clank into each other, creating a noticeable chime whenever they did. As she put the car in park, she spat out a piece of pink bubblegum she was chewing and stuck it to the bottom of the driver seat handle. She’d clean it out later.

The young woman walked up the steps of the house and rang the doorbell. A few moments later another woman just around ten years older, with wavy hair and large round glasses, answered. She was small in stature and wore a nice gray suit jacket, as well as a matching dress. From a pure aesthetic view it seemed as though she and the college girl could not be more different. 

“Ah, Marion! You’re just in time!” the woman said in a high-pitched but soft voice. “Malcolm is out getting the car ready. Cole is over in his room.”

“Sounds good,” Marion replied in a low, monotone voice. The smaller woman gave her some room to enter, and the two continued talking at the kitchen island nearby while the mother continued to get ready.

“Once again I’m real sorry about taking you away on a Friday night. I’m sure there’s all sorts of stuff you’d rather be doing.”

“It’s alright, Mrs. Mulaney. It’s your anniversary and all. You should be celebrating.”

Mrs. Mulaney turned around and smiled at her. “Well, technically it was last week, but y’know, parent-teacher conferences and all that…oh, Malcolm!”

From a side door came a tall, brightly-dressed man with a mustache. He smiled when he saw the babysitter.

“Hiya there, Marion. Yup, the car’s all ready.”

“Alright then, let me just tell Cole goodbye. Marion, you go ahead and follow me.”

Marion did as she was asked and followed Mrs. Mulaney down the hallway over to a room near its end. Inside was a little boy who sat in the corner, playing with what looked to be a toy airfield.

“Alright Cole, your dad and I are heading off for our dinner. Marion is here to watch you while we’re out.” The woman kneeled down and kissed the boy on the cheek. “Bye. I love you.”

The boy shuffled away in embarrassment, but there was a smile on his face. He didn’t say anything in response.

Mrs. Mulaney got up, and passed by Marion near the doorframe. “We’ll be back by around 10. If he’s tired you can get him ready for bed, but if wants to stay up that’s okay for tonight, too.”     

Marion nodded, and the mother continued down the hallway. Once she left the house, Marion went up to the boy.

“You playing Air Control again?”

The boy looked up at her. There was an excited look on his face. As if he was expecting something.

“Pfft, already? Okay, okay…”

She crouched down next to him and reached into the pocket of her torn jeans. Out from the pocket came two lollipops. She gave one to the boy, who took it eagerly. As she got up, she unwrapped the other one and put it in her mouth.

“I’ll be on the TV. You let me know if you need anything.”

Marion took one last look at the little boy as she walked out the door. He was perfectly content, happy in his own world. It warmed her heart, if just a bit.

…

A few hours later, the night was getting late. Marion wasn’t too worried as Cole’s parents had a history of coming back much later on a night out, and it had only been around thirty minutes past the expected time. She was still on the couch, but now a young Cole was there with her, dozing off to sleep on the opposite pillow. They had taken out a board game and a couple of toys over time, but had most recently settled back on watching TV. She figured that she better clean up before the parents got back.

Just as she began to put away the board game pieces, the landline in the kitchen rang. This was odd – Cole’s parents had her cell phone number, so she knew it wasn’t them. But in that moment she decided it was better to pick up, just in case it was something important.

Chewing on a new strip of bubblegum, she picked up the phone. “Hello, Mulaney Residence?”

There was a buzz of static on the other line. Marion could only make out part of the caller’s words.

“Hello … Officer …  who I’m speaking to?”

The word ‘officer’ caught Marion’s attention. “This is, uh… Marion Salbeck. I babysit their kid.”

There was nothing but static for a few seconds. Marion got worried. Eventually, the voice came back.

“Can you hear me better now?”

“Uh… yeah, I… I can.”

“Okay, sorry about that. Like I said, this is Officer Walton Gunney, California Highway Patrol. You said you were the… babysitter, right?”

“Yes… yeah.”

“I’m out here on the 128, and…” There was a pause. “…there’s been a pretty bad crash out here. And I grabbed this number off the wallet of one of the victims, and-”

“Victims?” Marion repeated, her monotone voice betraying a sense of anxiety and concern. She could hear the officer sigh.

“I… I suppose there’s no better way of putting this. The Mulaneys… both are gone. My condolences.”

Marion felt her feet freeze in place. She rotated her head over to the couch, where the boy was still asleep.

“What about… what about the kid? What happens to him?”

“Well… do you know where the Kinsky police station is? Just tell the boy briefly what he needs to know, and drive him to the station. We have people over there who already know what’s going on – they’ll handle everything else.”

“Yes, but…” Marion’s voice began to go strained, but as the boy rustled in his sleep she lowered her voice again. “What will happen to him?”

There was another brief period of static on the phone. “First, uh… child services will call for any living relatives. If one wants to take him, the paperwork for it will be filled. If not… we’ll send him over to the foster care in Santa Rosa.”

“Santa Rosa? That’s… that’s miles from here.”

“Listen, it’s a bad situation. I know. But we’ll do everything we can, alright? Just let him know what’s happening and we’ll do the rest.”

Marion left the call feeling dazed. The pain of the event began to hit her – the fact that she had only seen the two, perfectly alive, a few hours ago. That she now needed to tell this boy that his parents were dead, something she never even considered having to do before.

She walked over to him. For a while, she just stood over his sleeping body, trying to think of the right things to say. She couldn’t think of anything, so eventually she just snapped out of it, leaned down, and shook the child gently.

“Cole?”

The boy’s eyes slowly opened. “Yeah?” he let out meekly, quietly.

“I… I need to tell you something.”

“What’s that?”

“Can you… can you sit up, please?”

The boy, a bit begrudgingly, sat up on the couch. Marion sat down at the other side of him.

“Your mother, and father, they… they went away.”

Cole turned his head, confused. “Where did they go?”

“They went… away away, buddy.” Marion could feel herself holding back tears now. “They’re up in heaven, with your grandparents, and my uncle, and… they’ve passed on.”

Cole said nothing, but did look down into his lap. Marion was still unsure if he knew what had happened, but she wasn’t sure she had anything left to say.

“Listen, we need to, um…” the babysitter got up from the couch, looking for her keys. “We need to drive downtown, and talk to some people. Can you get ready to go for me?”

As Marion left into the kitchen, she saw that the little boy stayed in place, looking down in a way that was partially contemplative, partially confused, but that she just felt as sad. It was when Marion finally found her keys that she heard the boy speak up.

“Marion?” he asked weakly.

Marion turned around. The boy was standing up now, looking at her with worried eyes.

“…Who’s gonna take care of me?”

Inside Marion, something snapped. All pretenses of her emotionless, cold exterior were dropped. She walked right up to the boy and kneeled down, her hands on his shoulders. She had made a decision.

“I’m going to take care of you, Cole,” she said with full confidence. “I promise you. With everything in my power… I’m going to make sure that you’re just fine, okay? Now, just come with me. There’s a few stops we need to make.”

…

Marion and Cole found themselves at the police station scarcely twenty minutes later. The place was empty, save for a single front desk worker protected by bulletproof glass. The lights were old and dim and gave a consistent buzzing sound which increased the sense of unease in the room.

Marion walked up to the desk. It was manned by an older black woman with a single long and thick braid of black hair running down her right shoulder. She looked up as Marion approached.

“I, uh…” Marion began, unsure how to start. “I’m here for… for the Mulaneys, the crash, the-”

“You’re the boy’s babysitter?” the woman instantly replied. 

“I… yeah. Cole.”

The front desk worker turned back towards a computer next to her. She inputted some information.

“We can take the boy now. A member of Child Services will come out and pick him up shortly.”

“Well, you see, that’s the thing. I, uh… I can take care of him. I’m his babysitter, you know, and-”

“Are you the next living relative?”

“…No, I’m not related, but-”

“Then you aren’t taking care of the boy. The rule is that he goes to either the orphanage or to a registered foster care parent.”

“I- The kid, he’s-”

“I don’t make the law, sweetheart. That’s the way it goes.”

Marion felt herself getting frustrated. She turned back towards the suite of metal chairs – in the center was the boy, all alone, fiddling with a metal airplane model in his hands. 

Marion turned back towards the worker. She decided to take another route.

“Alright, listen here. I’ve been taking care of that boy-”, she pointed behind her, “-since he was just a few days old. I’m one of the first people to ever see him outside of his parents. If there is anyone, anyone, left around who can raise him… it isn’t some godforsaken orphanage in the middle of bumfuck Santa Rosa. It’s me! And I’m going to take care of him, whether you like it or not!”

Cole looked up to see what the commotion was about. Marion, realizing she was a little too loud, took a step back and turned back around towards Cole, smiling and giving him a thumbs up in response. Cole went back to looking down at the airplane. 

“Look,” Marion said, returning to the worker. “I owe it to his parents. His mom, especially. When I was first in college I was dying for money, and… she looked at my flyer, at this stupid teenage rebel chick, and she decided to trust her newborn baby with her. And for that I’ll be forever grateful. But now that she’s gone… now I gotta return the favor. I hope you understand.”

The woman just looked at Marion. Marion saw the wedding ring on her finger. In the distance, she even saw a photo of her own kid. The younger girl hoped it was enough for the woman to understand.

And she was right.

“I’ll see what I can do,” the woman finally responded, looking back down at the computer. “We can put in an emergency guardianship record. If what you’re saying is true – and all the paperwork gets filed – then he can stay with you. As long as he wants to.”

Marion was filled with relief. Her whole body was lighter now.

“Thank you. Really.”

The woman didn’t smile, but she nodded. “You can wait right there. I’ll let Child Services know.”

As the front desk worker got on the phone, Marion sat back next to Cole. She put her arm around him, and the little boy leaned up against her shoulder in return.