Chapter 10
“I’m scared,” Sherry said softly. She sat on a wooden bench with her hands in her lap, a packed bag sitting on the floor beside her. Her school uniform was gone now, discarded at her request after her decontamination. Now, she wore jeans and a blue Disney t-shirt, and red sneakers were on her feet. Her hair was combed back and put into a short ponytail.
“It’s going to be okay,” Claire said with a reassuring smile, rubbing Sherry’s shoulder.
“I’d rather just stay here with you and Leon.”
“We’re leaving too,” Claire said. “I don’t think they’d want you to come with us.”
“I barely know them,” Sherry said, fidgeting with her hands. “I’ve talked on the phone with them a few times. I think I’ve only ever met them twice that I remember.”
Sherry’s maternal grandparents were scheduled to arrive at the recovery center to pick her up and take her home, so Claire helped her pack what few things she was allowed to take. There was nothing left to pack except the clothes Umbrella provided for her. Her grandparents were supposed to arrive very soon, so Claire brought Sherry down to the main lobby to wait for them.
“You have to stay with your family,” Claire said. “I know you don’t know them very well, but they are the closest family you have now. I’m sure they’ll be very happy to see you. It’s going to be okay, I promise.”
“It’s just that ...” Sherry started uncertainly. “I mean, they’re like strangers to me. I don’t really want to go live with them.”
“I know, Sherry. But they won’t be strangers for long. I was a stranger just a couple days ago, remember? And don’t forget that they don’t know you very well either, but they are coming to pick you up anyway.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Sherry said.
Sherry knew that most people were close to their grandparents. All her friends at school were close to theirs, and Sherry even met some of them at her friends’ birthday parties. But Sherry never knew her own grandparents very well, although it was through no action of her own. At first, she thought it was because they all lived far away. But recently she realized that her own parents, William and Annette, were not very close to their parents, so Sherry was then denied regular access to her extended family. She didn’t think she had any uncles or aunts or cousins, but she honestly didn’t even know.