The Journey of A Thousand Miles and the Single Step p.2:

A/N: Sorry if there was such a long hold up on this. It first started off well, then came exams, then came lethargy. Soon will come vacations and a road trip to California, an opposite coastline, so I thought I better get this out. Thanks for waiting.

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You know those really nasty morning when you just wake up early, feeling like crap, and you just HAVE to get up for whatever it is that needs your, and only your, attention? And the only reasoning you have is, "just because I'm special"?

So you pry yourself up, pajamas and bed head and all, croak "good- morning" to any God-loving thing that moves for you assume whatever thing moving in your early blurry morning vision is your parents, and stumble into the bathroom nearly missing the door, only to see a wookie with your very same case of bed head that you always wake up with? Well, good morning, sunshine. That loveable little wookie, is in fact, you.

Now, imagine that case scenario, except you're in a hospital bed, you feel ten times crappier, you have an actual reason for having your hair look so bad (because, oh, let's just say you've been in an accident), and the last damn thing on your mind is that you're special, because you sure as hell don't feel special.

And what may be more interesting is that it's five in the afternoon, and you're STILL tired.

At least, that's what I imagined when the little girl woke up.

"Uh, I, he, uh, your dad's, uh. . ." Tongue-tied. Simply tongue-tied. So, what do I say? "Hey, your dad's dead! Who wants a cookie?!", "Um. . .Pass?", "You see, he's in a better place. . . .Yes, that's right, he's in the morgue right now.". Why have I never been good with words?!

"Visiting hours are over," said the nurse flatly, already trying to shove me out of the room with the bruised little girl, who had just coincidentally woke up, and asked me of all people, what happened to her father.

"Don't be so rough. . . ," said Dr. Stevenson, trying to cut the nurse off from practically tossing me out of the room. If by now I didn't think this doctor was nice enough, you know he'd my knight in shining armor now.

Save that, I felt like puking, and if I didn't leave that room right now, I'd pass out.

"N-no, it's okay," I said in a jittery voice. "But, uh, you should know something. . ."

"That someone as cute as yourself is a man?" asked the doctor sarcastically.

"No. . . ," I replied, ignoring the joke, and turning green. "She's awake. . ."

He had this sort of dumbfounded look. Spinning around with his clipboard in hand, he gazed fixedly on the little girl, who had just made an effort to move, staring out of squinted little eyes that were barely held open.

"What happened. . . ?" she rasped. "Who are you people. . .?"

"Sarah, it's okay now. . . ," the doctor said. "You're going to make a full recovery. . ."

She shook her head as best as she could, and even seemed to look a little angry, but confused. "What happened to daddy?"

Well, if THAT isn't the most clichéd line in a sad little fluff story. Just that, this wasn't a movie or a sad little fluff story. . . That line is awfully hard to not get worked up over in real life.

"I'm sorry. . . ," Dr. Stevenson said. "He just passed on an hour or so ago. . ."

Interestingly enough, at first, she looked like she wasn't even moved at all. Then, finally, small tears formed in squinted, round eyes, and fell slowly over rounded cheeks. And if that news wasn't too much of a shock for her, she seemed to have fallen asleep again.

"Did she just. . .black out?" I asked.

"I think she was trying her hardest just to stay awake," the doctor replied. "It must have been a bit of a shock for you, to just have her wake up like that. . . But for now, I'd have to ask you to-

"Your scooter?" asked the nurse, still waiting in the room. "It's still in park. In you-know-where," she said, as-a-matter-of-factly. So much for happy healthcare. . .

Denise, the same, crabby receptionist at the desk outside the small hospital, eyed me the same, annoyed way as I meekly smiled and pulled the scooter out to the parking lot. Well, mission accomplished, Noelle. Where to now? Fresno sounds nice. . .It also sounds like a Starbucks coffee, but hey, I like Starbucks.

"Excuse me!" It was the doctor again. I turned around, a little perplexed.

"Did I leave something in there?" I asked. I must've sounded stupid or something. At least, I thought I sounded a little brain-dead.

"Well, you might say that. . . ," he said, in-between the two automatic sliding doors. "Do you have any clue to who may now be the caretaker of this girl? She denies being under the care of anyone but her father, but she also refuses to be taken into a foster care home."

"Um. . .Well, I maybe-

"GREAT!" he said, taking my arm and pulling me back in, which led to me pulling my scooter back in.

"AHHH! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" I asked.

"You said you could maybe do something, right?" he asked. "Talk the little girl into cooperating, all right? If anyone can persuade her, it's the girl who saved her."

"Oh, wonderful. . . ," I sighed, getting the sick feeling back. "Just when I thought you were going to ask me out to coffee. . ."

"Miss, your scoo-

"I KNOW. . . ," I said to Denise, releasing the bike in the middle of the waiting room again. "I'M SORRY. . ." She glared at me again, but soon enough, the stare that could belittle Superman was gone in the swing of the two double doors.

"No!" I heard a little, defiant cry from the previous room I was in. Oy, the sick feeling. . .I thought hospitals were supposed to make you feel better. . . "I'm not going!" Oh yes, Sarah, the little girl. . . Seems she had more energy in her than I thought.

"Doctor, she's been like this ever since I mentioned the foster care and the state. . . ," the nurse in a green scrub sighed.

"It's just like I said. . . ," the doctor said, now taking his turn to sigh. "Please, you've got to talk her into it. . ."

"M-ME?!" I asked, the feeling of my kidneys kicking the crap out of my poor stomach through my esophagus was getting worse.

"It's like I said, maybe she'll have a feeling of gratitude towards you, and you can help us have her cooperate. . . ," he said.

And so, the next lesson in life. Men always have an angle.

"Soooooo. . . ," I said nervously, the doors shut, and Sarah, now fully awake, had an eyebrow cocked angrily at me, as I tried to explain myself. No doctor. No nurse. No backup. Oh, lovely.

"I don't care what you say," she said quickly, before I could get anything else in but that one prolonged word. "I'm not going to foster care!"

"But you don't have any family. . . ," I said. "You don't have a choice. And adoption then is-

"No!" she shouted again, almost fit to throw a tantrum, if it weren't for those bruises and that Band-Aid on her face that made her look like Nelly.

"There aren't any other choices. . . ," I said, trying to persuade her. "If it's neither of those, well, there are no other options, like I said. You'd virtually be homeless." Yeah, great job, Noelle. Have you forgotten you're homeless, too?

"Then I'll be homeless!" she shouted again, crossing her arms. "I want daddy!"

"He's gone. . . ," I said, maybe a little tensely. Ick. The feeling of knowing the recently dead. "Do you have any bright ideas?"

"I'll run away!" she said, determined. "I'm not gonna let nobody take care of me! I'm grown-up! I can do this myself!"

Why, oh why does it seem the further I get into this conversation, the more it sounds like myself? Just it feels so diminutive now, because it's like me, in a child's body!

"It's not the best thing. . . ," I said. "You leave friends, and familiar places, and people you'd always see all the time, and you'd have to ride in the back of people's cars, and-." I cut myself off there. Not only was I getting homesick, but also I was practically belting out what I'm trying to deny to everyone else. If someone knows I'm just traveling around, I could be very much in the same boat as Sarah.

"Doesn't sound bad," said she, still very determined.

"Oh come on. . . ," I said, getting tired of this. "Do this for the one who saved ya', huh?"

"Saved me?" she asked. "What are you talking about, lady?! Daddy saved me!"

"I tried. . . ," I sighed. "Your father did save you, but I tried my best to save him, and if I didn't try, you'd be dead right now, too!"

Her eyes widened a little, but not enough to make it telltale that she had a sudden revelation of the sort. Scowling, she brought forth her jaw to make it look like she wasn't very impressed. "So what about it, then? What's your story? I guess you think you have a home, so you just want to say how great it is, and how much I'd want one. I just wanna live daddy."

"If. . . ." Yeah, I was giving in. " If I told you something. . .would you not tell a soul?"

"Depends, lady," she said. "Do I like ya'?"

"I saved you," I said, point-blank.

". . . Yeah, okay, lady," she said.

So, I went on. "My dad is dead, too. And now, I don't have a home to go to, either. Living on the road is hard, so you have to-

"You don't have a home, either?!" she asked, cutting me off. "So what do you have to say?!"

"I'm saying it's difficult, but-

"But that's what you do, right?!" she asked. She seemed to be getting excited, now. . .And for some reason, I don't like that. Sliding out of the bed and stumbling a bit, she pointed and had me retrieve her shoes and her jacket from an adjacent table. She put them on, and finally spoke her plan. "I'm going with you!"

"Hey, say what now?!" I asked. "NO!" I refused. "YOU CAN'T COME!"

"Says who?" she asked.

"ME!" I replied.

"YOU DON'T COUNT!" she shouted, putting on her last shoe. "And come on, the food here sucks."

"Did you do it?" asked the doctor, now poking his head through the doorway. "Huh? Why is she all dressed up?"

"Pssst!" she said to me. "Handle the doc, and we'll be clear."

"Are you insane?!" I asked. "Doctor, I'm sorry, I-

"I lost my memory for a moment, I guess. . . ," said the girl. "But I do have some family! She's it!" She pointed to me. Ugh.

"WHAT?!" I shrieked. "YOU HAVE GOT TO-

"Big sister, you don't realize it's me? Sarah?" Oh God. I didn't know she could cry on cue. Why am I such a sucker for tears, even if they're fake?! "Come on, big sis! You said you were going to take me home and sort this all out."

"I swear, doctor, she's. . .SHE'S. . ." Great! Oh great! She's really starting to cry, now! "She's. . . ." I grumbled. What's another person, right? "She's my sister. . . ," I sighed. "I was going to get this sorted out before she came home, but she's so persistent to come with me. . ."

To add insult to injury, she slipped me the thumbs-up for playing along. What have I gotten myself into?

"That's an interesting twist. . . .," said the doctor, now letting us by and following us out. "Okay, the come to the desk. . ." No! No! Not the desk! The doors! I need to get out of here! Wrong direction! AHHHH!

Sometimes, you just can't ever go the way you want to go. . . .

"O-okay. . . . ," I said, agreeing.

"Yep!" he said. "Then, you can answer some questions to your liability as a guardian. . ."

". . .L-Liability?!" I asked, swallowing a lump in my throat.

"Don't worry about it," he said, winking to me, for reasons unbeknownst to my knowledge. "Oh. . .And I know you'll need these. . ." He handed me the keys to the scooter I had left in my seat back in the waiting room.

"Back so soon?" asked Denise, looking up boredly from a magazine. "What is it now? Are we giving her a personal parking space, in the waiting room?!"

"Calm down, Denise. . .," he said. "She's just here to be questioned on her liability as a guardian for Sarah, here. . ."

"Hm," said Denise with a sneer. "Fine then. I have the papers. Do you have a job?"

"Um, no?" I replied.

"That takes care of the income questions. . . ," said she. "Next, do you have a jail record?"

"No?"

"A house?"

"Uh. . .yes?"

"Give me the address, for the record."

"Um, er. . .uh. . .123 Nowhere road?"

"Hmph," she concluded, not even bothering with the rest of the questions. "Doctor, I think it's rather plain to see here, that she is incapable of taking care of this child, and that she too should be taken under foster care."

The doctor bent down a little, and whispered something quickly in my ear. "Sorry I had to do this, but it's hospital regulation, and I'd be a dead man if I had just released you. Go on, run!"

"What?!" I asked. When is this day going to be over?!

"Don't think I'm stupid. . .If she were your sister, that would make him your father. What's painfully obvious as a doctor, is that after seeing so many people cry over a dead relative, you're so used to it, but you didn't cry, ruling out your relation to him. That's just a little observation."

". . .Impressive," I said, blinkingly.

"Glad you think so. So, take those keys, take that girl, and go!"

". . .You lost me again."

"She won't cooperate with us. And she'll never submit to foster care. She seems to like you. . ."

I looked down, and she was grabbing my hand, giving me an angel face. Crap.

"ALL RIGHT, KID, WE'RE GOING FOR A RIDE!" I swept her up, and went running for my scooter, with Denise practically jumping over the desk to stop me.

"SECURITY!" she shouted, immediately alerting the two men in blue to go right after me. I saw Dr. Stevenson just smile and wave as I ran farther away.

"GET READY!" I jumped and mounted the scooter, had her situate herself behind me and let her hang on, and I turned the ignition key, speeding off moments before one of the guards had grabbed me.

"HOPE YOU HAD A NICE STAY!" the doctor shouted to me, before the automatic doors opened and let us out into the light again.

"TERRIFIC!" I replied to him, getting out the doors.

Looking around, it seemed I was home free.

But wouldn't you know it, they had security on me, with five of them waiting.

"CRAAAAAAP!" I sped up again, and they were still chasing, and the security had blocked the exit with those same tollbooths. Here we go again. . . "BRACE YOURSELF!" We hit the speed bump, and I wheelied at just the right time to launch us over the gate, and so, we were outside. HAH!

"LADY, YOU'RE INSANE!" I heard Sarah yell to me, moments after hitting the ground and leaving security back there.

"IT HELPS!" I shouted back. Note to self. . .

Never go back to God's hospital. It's hell.

"So lady, where to now?"

Oh God.