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107 TECHNICAL SERGEANT JONATHON LEMASTER NEW PARENTS DAY I’m not sure why today is any different from those other days I got new parents. Every other time I got moved to a new house, the ladies in black told me those people were going to be my new parents too. But this morning the ladies in black seem different. They get out of their car, their black dresses blowing in circles like leaves on a windy day. They laugh, run up to the porch where I sit, and ask if I am ready. They laugh again and tell me they are really excited about today, and that today is the day they have been praying for, whatever that means. Usually, the ladies would pick me up and drive me to my new home. I’d get to ride in their big shiny car with two rows of seats in the back. They would let me sit in the front seat. I had parents once that made me sit in the backseat while the other kids sat in the front. Those kids would make fun of me and throw empty candy wrappers at me. But today, the ladies in black take me to the city. We stop at a building with big windows and pretty colored pictures in them. Little monsters sit on the corners at the top of the building, watching me. The ladies call this place a church. We walk into the church where monsters live. The ladies take me into a big room with pictures on the wall. They sit me in a big chair, which makes my feet hang in the air. “We’ll be back in a few minutes, little man.” They close the door and leave. I look at the pictures of people with wings. Some have little yellow circles around their heads. One picture is of a man hanging on a tree. His hands and feet are bleeding, which makes me sad. The room has big windows and it looks like dust is flying around in the room. The ladies in black open the door. They set milk and cookies down on the table in front of my big chair. The biggest lady, who laughs a lot, tells me I am a good boy. She pats me on the head and says my new parents will be here soon. She says my new parents will take me to my home. They leave me alone in the big room with the milk and cookies. I’m not sure I want new parents again. The last ones didn’t like 108 NEW PARENTS DAY me much. They made me sit in the corner and watch them eat. They had two other kids who were real mean. They would beat me up. Sometimes I would hit one of them real hard. He’d cry and tell the mean big man that I hit him. I got spankings from the mean man. He scared me a lot. He would yell, take off his belt, and hit me on the back with it. The other kids would laugh when I cried. The ladies in black say that I am going to have my own room this time, with a bed and windows. I had my own room last time, and I didn’t like it much. It was also where all the clothes and shoes were kept. One little light hung from the ceiling, but most of the time it didn’t work. It was so high I couldn’t reach it anyway. I don’t remember ever having a bed. I saw the beds those other kids had, but I don’t remember having one. Where I slept, the floor was always cold. I would take the furry coat off the hanger, put it on the floor, and sleep on top of it. It smelled like the lady. I’d lie on top of it and watch the little light under the door. Sometimes shadows would move around in the light, but nobody ever opened the door when I was scared. Finally, the light would go out. It was real dark then. The lady in the house was always sad. She cried a lot. Sometimes late at night when all the lights were out, she would come into my little room and wake me up. She picked me off the floor and took me to her favorite chair. She always cried. I’d sit on her lap...

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