"I think I've come up with a plan to get your siblings out. Since your adoptive father hit Evan, have Grace get together any evidence against him. Take pictures of the injuries. Tape his conversation with the family, especially when he is having an outburst."

I cringe.

"I know this will be hard but you have to have patience. We need solid evidence to get him to sign custody papers."

"Custody papers?

"Yeah. You are old enough to get custody of Evan. The best plan I can come up with is for you to get permanent custody of Evan. I can draw up the papers where your adoptive father relinquished his adoption of Evan and gives custody to you."

"What am I going to do with Evan? And what about Grace?"

"Bring them to the islands. I'm sure we can set up some sort of housing arrangement where Evan and Grace can stay in the same house as you."

"I can bring them to the islands?"

"I don't see why not. They are your family and Evan will become your permanent responsibility. That in essence makes you his guardian. Therefore, he would qualify as a child."

"Wow!" I jump up and hug EJ.

"Okay, bärchen ."

"This is the best news you could have given me."

"Great. Now, go call Grace and let her in on the plan. Convince her, however you're able, to follow this plan on her end. Then go make up with Ande, you idiot. That girl is a breath of fresh air for your life. I've seen such a change in you the last few weeks. Don't ruin a potential chance at happiness because of guilt. You have nothing to feel guilt about."

"If you say so."

I feel a hand against my head.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"For being Dummkopf."

"Am I going to have to learn German to be around you?" I half joke.

"It would take a lot of time you don't have right now, but it wouldn't be impossible. I mostly speak English. There's just a few phrases I say in German on a regular basis. You already know some, and probably can guess the rest."

"I suppose you are right, but I'll keep the thought in mind. Thanks for always being here.

"You're most welcome. You and Jonah are very special to me." he says with a smile before he leaves the room.

I jump up, grab my phone from the dresser, and head out to the nearby clearing.

I call Grace, but she doesn't pick up. I send "411" to her to let her know I have something critical to tell her.

It takes about 15 minutes, but she calls back.

"What's so urgent that you had to interrupt my bath."

"Oh - I'm so sorry princess. EJ has come up with a plan."

"Isn't that the guy you left with?"

"Yes, but that detail isn't important right now. What is important is what I need you to do so I can get you and Evan away from that asshole."

"Okay," she says with excitement laced with sadness.

"You are going to start gathering evidence against our adoptive father."

"Evidence?"

"Yep. Evidence about anything he is doing that isn't right. Get pictures of Evan's injuries. Tape conversations he is having that shows his abusive side. Anything at all that you think will help me get custody of Evan."

"Then what do you plan on doing?"

"Then, you and Evan are going to come live with me. I can't give you details over the phone. Just please trust me that it will be better than where you are. EJ also tells me you will be able to have your nursing education without needing funding - from me or yourself."

"Wow! That's incredible."

"I sure hope so. I think, at the very least, it will be better in the hellhole we've been living in all these years."

I can hear the excitement on the other end of the line.

"Unfortunately, this plan hinges on whether you can get the evidence needed. I'm sorry it will put you in a situation where you have to stay there longer, but hopefully he shows his true colors enough that it won't take long to get the evidence."

"I hope so. I want this life for be over for all of us. Probably more so for Evan than for me and you. We've basically found a way out, he will be stuck for another two years if this plan doesn't work."

"If this doesn't work, I'll come up with a Plan B, C however many plans I have to come up with to accomplish this dream."

She's crying now. I hate when she cries.

"Shh. Everything will work out, Grace. Please stop crying. You know I hate when you cry."

"I know, but these are tears of happiness. Well, and a little sadness. I know Mom hasn't been very supportive, but I think she's been worn down by that man. If we're tired of this life, how do you think she feels?"

"I don't know. But I do wonder why she's stayed with him."

"Us."

"Come again."

"She didn't want to leave us alone with that man. I think Mom loves us and the only way to protect us is to take the majority of the verbal abuse that man dishes out."

"I know that's true. It's just hard for me not to be bitter for her allowing that man to wear her down to a shell of the woman she was when I first met her."

Silence predominates. I take a deep breath.

"It will all be okay. I've got to get back. Just do the best that you can, and when you have enough evidence that you think I can win custody, call and let me know. During the day, I will probably be busy, but leave a message. I will check my phone every time I can. It will be over soon."

"I know. Love you, big brother."

"You, too."

I say and hang up the phone before I hear Grace crying again.

Now for me to track Ande down. I enter the cabin and an air of heaviness weighs everything down. I get to the stairs to go up but Mick is sitting at the bottom.

"Uh Uh. No way. Ya done screwed up. Not going near Ande."

"But I want to apologize."

Mick stands up with fire in her eyes—and she's damn scary. "Tell me somethin' anathin' to prove ya are sincere."

I stand there and think. What will convince her? Nothing comes to mind.

"Think 'bout it tonight and come back tomorrow. Maybe ya need distance to clear ya head. You tarado"

I crinkle my forehead, and she chuckles.

"It means fool or moron. Now go think about it."

I go down to my room and mope. What am I supposed to say to make this better?

Hey Ande, sorry I was a jerk but guilt eats me away.

Hey, Ande, you're really important, I just lost my head yesterday.

I concentrate so hard on my siblings that sometimes I don't think about others' feelings.

I come up with an idea that might be a silly plan, but EJ convinces me otherwise. He takes me to Boone Valley and I go to the only jewelry store in the area.

I open the door and go to walk in but I let the door shut and turn away.

"Now what's wrong?"

"This is a stupid idea."

"I have a feeling you'll find something in here that will remind you of Ande. I'm going in so I can look for something different for Ana."

"And she loves that?"

"She likes jewelry, but she tells me that it is the thought I put in to picking it out that warms her heart. With me being gone for this length of time, I want to spoil her."

"Okay. I'll take your advice."

We enter the store together. A clerk comes from the back at the sound of the bell.

We go looking around, and I don't necessarily like being watched. I look up, and the clerk is moving closer.

"Can I help you with something?"

No words form.

"He needs a simple gift for a special young lady he hurt yesterday. I'm thinking maybe something with stars or similar might do" EJ calls out.

The clerk smiles broadly. "I have just the things I think you could choose from."

We get to a display case with different necklaces and rings with bright stones, but what catches my attention is a tiny anklet with stars on each side of a crescent moon.

"That's perfect."

"See something you like?"

"The small anklet in the corner. I think she'd love that."

EJ and I pay for our items and we go to the local cafe.

"I want a soda. How about you?"

"Those cinnamon bagels look nice."

When it's our turn, EJ orders and pays for our snack. We find a nice table outside to sit at.

"How are you feeling now?"

"With training or with Ande or with my situation back home?"

"With any of it. I want to be there for you whenever you need help. Sure, you can come to me when you have a problem, but I want you to feel comfortable coming to me with happy things, too."

"The training is going better than I expected. The situation at home sucks, but hopefully you came up with a solid plan. And I don't know about Ande. She probably doesn't want to talk to me after that boneheaded move yesterday.

"There's more to Ande than you are giving her credit for." EJJ says.

"No, I understand that Ande is special. But how much can a person take of another one's moods?"

"Believe it or not, my life isn't always as smooth as I make it seem. Ana and I have had trying times in our past. The death of the twins knocked us backwards and I went off on my own instead of trying to work through my grief while helping Ana with hers. It almost ended our marriage. But Ana was so understanding after we sat down and had our first real talk after their death. She makes me realize all of the time what an angel I have here on Earth. She's my other half, if you want to call it that. We balance each other out. We have hard times when I have to be away or when Ana has trouble with a spell or a new student and she lashes out at me. However, the two of us don't go to bed angry. We might not agree with the other person, but each of us takes the time to listen to the other. That made a huge difference in rebuilding our relationship. We still follow that rule today."

"That's amazing. I've not seen a lot of happy couples in my life. Sam's parents are relatively happy. One or the other might go off after a fight, but they always seem to work it out. At least, they appear to. Sam says life there isn't so bad, even with the prospect of him moving out. His mom has had a hard time accepting that the baby of the family is finally grown up. Well, as grown up as he can be."

"Just like you. Doing such mature things like taking a job to help your siblings and try to find a better path in life, but then needing to grow up when it comes to other lessons in life."

"I guess." I answer but I really need to divert this conversation to something lighter."

"So you know what Jonah did the other day ..." I start as we throw our trash away and walk up the street to the van.

Maybe everything will work out after all.

We get back to the cabin right around break time. Slowly I approach Ande.

"Ande."

"Yes," she says before turning, "Oh, it's just you."

"Please forgive me. I don't like talking about my problems with others, but to sum everything up, my siblings need to be out of that house. Can we take a walk, then I can explain in a little more detail what is wrong?"

"I guess."

We walk to the clearing with me unloading everything that has been happening onto Ande. We make it to the clearing, and I move some debris for Ande to sit.

"Hey Ande what do you think about this?" I ask, holding the anklet in my hands.

Ande turns to answer, but her eyes widen.

"Did you get that for me?"

My face heats. "If you don't like it."

She squeals and throws her arms around me. I am rewarded with a kiss - a nice kiss.

"When did you get this?"

I had EJ take me to town. " I'm really sorry about the way I acted yesterday. I know I confuse you but I want so badly to get my siblings away from that man. When I thought the issues stemmed from me not concentrating enough - my first instinct was to push you away."

"You don't have to be sorry for what you feel. What you do need to feel sorry for is not trusting that I would understand. Even though we haven't known each other long, I think you should know by now that I will try and understand anything - I may not understand fully or I may not agree but that doesn't mean I wouldn't try to be there for you - however I can."

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[A/N]

Bärchen (German) - little bear

Dummkopf (German) -idiot

3. Tarado – Fool / Moron

Even though you may not know this word, tarado is another word that speakers use as a way to say 'dumb' in Spanish. 'Tarado' is not a bad word, but since it implies that something is defective (in this case, your intelligence), it can be a slightly aggressive way to say 'dumb'. As a result, you may want to limit its use to your friends.

With this meaning, 'tarado' is close in meaning to 'fool', 'moron', 'stupid' or 'dumb' and it's more popular in Latin American Spanish. Notice that you can either use this word to describe someone (adjective) or as a way to call them (noun).

https://www.tellmeinspanish.com/vocab/dumb-in-spanish/