“Oh, all right.” Joey said. He continued on his path up the stairs. Tracy and Kristin came down the steps. Tracy was fixing her hair. She was dressed in a turtleneck, button-down shirt, and jeans. Kristin followed in a sweat-shirt and jeans.

“Did I hear that we’re going to the zoo?” Kristin asked.

“Yes.” I replied.

“Is Joey coming?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to go.” Kristin said. Tracy nudged her. Kristin then apologized, and Tracy looked in the room.

“Misplace something?” Phillip asked.

“No, I was just looking for Belle.”

“Not to worry miss, Belle gets like that sometimes. She doesn’t mean it.”

“Oh, I just wanted to compliment her on the house and the bed. It was so soft, I just fell to sleep.”

“Wow! You Americans!” Phillip said. “I must go ‘find her.’ I’ll see you later.” Tracy and Kristin joined me at the table, where they ate their breakfast.

That afternoon we went to the zoo. To my surprise, Kristin asked Joey a question, and they darted off toward some animal. Tracy and I told them to meet us for lunch at the in-park restaurant. Then we went for a romantic walk in the zoo, seeing all the animals. We sat underneath a tree, where some flowers were growing. I picked some, and hand them to her. She gladly accepted. We were happy. So happy, that for a moment we forgot about our missing friends, the children, and everything.

That night I got a phone call from the Colorado orphanage. “Mr. Schofield, we had no idea that you intended for Kristin Smith to be take out of the country. You must return her immediately.”

“Well, what if I adopted her?”

“That would be kind of hard from over there. Now if you were here in Denver, it may be arranged.”

“Okay, I’ll come over there in two weeks.”

“Not acceptable. We need her here now!” The orphanage director said.

“Okay, I’ll bring her there as soon as possible.” I hung up and dialed Andy’s phone number, forgetting that he was gone. I then called a friend of mine in Denver and told him to get some adoption papers ready and meet me the next day at the orphanage. My ‘wife’ and ‘daughter’ had gone to sleep.

“Phillip, I need to take Kristin back to the states. I’m leaving Tracy here, when she gets up, tell her that it was urgent. I don’t want her leaving your house!” I said.

“The apartment will be ready tonight.”

“Well, I guess that I’ll have to pay for a day that I’m not there. This can’t wait.” I said. I walked up to Kristin’s room and opened the door. “Kristin.” I whispered in the door. “Kristin, we have to go back to the orphanage.”

“I knew that it couldn’t last.”

“Kristin, there may be a way, here, get dressed.”

“What’s this way?”

“I could. . .adopt you.”

“Anything’s better than the orphanage … dad.” She stammered.