Winter had ended and spring was in full bloom on the Friday morning when Kevin O'Brien looked at the calendar in the kitchen of the apartment where he and his family lived in loving closeness. It was April 15, probably the hardest working day of the year for him, as managing partner at the local branch of the big CPA firm where he had worked since graduating from college. He also noted the following Friday, April 22, was Earth Day, and decided the day following that, since it would be Saturday, would be a good time to take Donna and the kids on an outing to the zoo as a celebration of the occasion.
It was one of the favorite places of Kerry and Kate -- his daughter especially liked Monkey Island -- and they hadn't been there since the previous fall. Shauna Stevens, the young African-American girl who was Katie's best friend and whom they were fostering, had never been there. A few minutes later, when everyone had assembled for their usual healthy breakfast of milk and cereal with fruit, he announced the idea to everybody at the table.
"Monkeys!" Katie announced gleefully. "Lions and bears and tigers!"
"What's the zoo?" Shauna asked.
"They have monkeys!" Katie explained to her friend. "And lions and bears and tigers."
She got up and went to get a picture book she had, and the two little girls spent the rest of their time at the breakfast table huddling together over it, while Katie pointed out some of the exotic creatures, zebras and rhinos and giraffes and, especially, monkeys. In all his six year old sophistication, Kerry ignored the pictures and concentrated on his food. Shauna oooed and aaahed over the strange beasts and, when it was time for her and the other people at the breakfast table to leave for work or day care or kindergarten, she piped up.
"Can I go zoo too?"
"Of course, Sweetie," Donna answered. "You're part of this family too." She bent over and kissed the adorable child, just to eliminate any doubt of her status that might have been developing.
The goal of Donna and Kevin in regards to Shauna, besides providing her what material things she needed, was to make her as welcome a member of their family as they could, while not usurping the place of her real mother, Dorothy. The little girl's mother was being held in the city jail in lieu of exorbitant bail, charged with possession of drugs with intent to sell them.
Whenever she could, Dorothy called on the telephone and talked to Shauna, as well as to Donna, who was a friend and coworker, to get the latest news about her daughter and to pass on anything happening about her charge, which she said was bogus. The concerned single mother told anybody who would listen how a previous conviction was for something she did when she was young, foolish and not the mother of a delightful three year old child. She was still on probation for that conviction, which was why her bail had been set extremely high. Donna was supportive of her friend, but neither she nor Kevin knew for certain where the truth lay, and they had decided to let the case work out the way it would.
Shauna had come to live with them on Valentine's Day and, one evening two weeks later, a social worker from the County Child Welfare Services came to see the new foster parents. Donna and Kevin were surprised when she showed them the approved applications for foster parenthood, which they had never seen before. Neither of them said anything, because they realized some good and clever person had cut red tape to bring about the best result possible. Later that evening, Donna told her doting husband about her employer's good friend, who had no qualms at all about breaking some unreasonable rules or even laws when a child's future was at stake. Even before that, he just grinned at the forged application and the approval, both having happened on the same day, and both appearing to have been completed by the same person using the same pen.
The social worker also presented them with a check which was the first of the stipends to be issued monthly to help pay the expenses of Shauna, and which they were reluctant to accept. Both foster parents were very fond of the sweet child, and didn't want to accept the money, which they didn't need, for what they thought of as an act of love, for her and for her mother. When the social worker insisted, they finally accepted it and, at first opportunity, used it to open a trust account for Shauna. The next check was deposited directly into that account, and future payments would be too. They never gave a thought to the matter after that.
Except for a break to bring Donna and the children home from Day Care, Kevin worked all day on April 15, arriving home well after midnight, glad to get the day and the tax season over. He slept late the next morning, and Donna got the children presentable and prepared breakfast for them and herself before taking all three members of the youngest generation to the apartment of the oldest.
Fred and Wilma Brown had known Kevin and his two children since before he met Donna, and thought of themselves as honorary grandparents of Kerry and Kate, and they had no trouble adding Shauna to that group. As grandparents often do, they had asked permission to take all three children to a Walt Disney cartoon marathon that day. Donna freely gave it, because she wanted to let Kevin sleep, and she had plans for after he woke up. As much as they loved all three children, sometimes they liked to have a few hours of privacy.
The first thing she did after the children left with the Browns was to prepare large cups of coffee for him and herself and, before bringing them to their bedroom, she divested herself of every stitch of her clothing. After setting the steaming cups on the nightstand, she crawled into bed with her equally nude husband and cuddled up against him. Although not yet awake when she joined him, he was unable to continue sleeping with his wife's voluptuous, bare body snuggling against him.
"Good morning." He greeted her. "This is certainly a nice way to wake up."
