The few days that followed the first at the hospital made me anxious. The sounds of chattering and beeping wouldn't stop, but Gretchen didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. She still just stared at the window, sometimes even wandering around with doctors and nurses learning about different tools.

     One of the things that kept me occupied was the piano down in a quiet room that usually had old people in it. I spent quite a while down in that room, even learning to play a few nice sounding songs. Most of the old people seemed to like me, but a few of them yelled at me. They wanted silence, and to sit by the fireplace while they napped.

     The fireplace terrified me, it reminded me of our home aflame, but for some reason, during the few times Gretchen came down with me, she stared at it, unphased. I never understood why she didn't even seem like anything had changed. She didn't understand that everything would be different, that mom was gone, that our house was gone, everything we knew was gone.

     "Gretchen, look," I called, and she looked away from the fire. "I can play Hot Cross Buns!" I said, and turned to play the tune. My tiny fingers pressed each key with care, and even though the song was simple, every note was filled with passion. I turned to my sister with a smile on my face.

     "What?" She asked.

     "Did you like it?" I asked.

     "Meh." She replied and turned back to the golden glow of the fire. My smile disappeared as I turned back to the keys.

     The sound of clicking hooves and Dr. Coast's voice echoed down the hallway. "They really are fantastic kids, artistic and intelligent," he said. Dr. Coast walked into the room followed by a cow woman. She stood on her two hind hooves, holding a few books and wearing a red sundress with white polka dots. "There they are," Dr. Coast said, pointing to me and my twin.

     The lady walked toward me, her hooves clicking on the wood flooring, and held out her hand to me.

     "Hello, Adam, I'm Ms. Burns, and I'm here to take you and your sister to your new home." She said with a soft voice.

     "Hi Ms. Burns," I greeted, shaking her hand. "Are you our new mommy?"

     She laughed. "No, Sweetheart, but you will be living with me and a few other kids and adults until we find you a new mommy or daddy," she said. She looked at the piano and smiled. "You like the piano, huh?"

     "Yeah," I said and turned to the keys once again. "I can play Hot Cross Buns," I said, and began to play.

     I played the song for Ms. Burns, a little more nervous than before since Gretchen didn't like it last time. Once I finished playing, Ms. Burns gave a little clap, like mom had done when she was proud of me.

     "That's very good, Adam! Did someone teach you that?" She asked.

     "No, I learned it myself," I told her.

     "Well, good for you, Honey, that's very impressive!"

     "Thank you," I responded, as mom had taught me to do when I was complimented.

     "He's quite the talented kiddo," Dr. Coast chimed in. "Gonna make it big someday, I'll tell you that much!"

     "I'd say so," Ms. Burns added and looked at Dr. Coast. He was kind of sweaty and fussed with his hands like he was nervous about something.

     "Are you anxious, Dr. Coast?" I asked.

     "What? Oh, no, Sport, just excited for you guys is all," he replied, then glanced to Ms. Burns with a nervous smile. "You're gonna be great, you're gonna do great. You've done this a lot, I'm sure, so you'll be great," he rambled, then cleared his throat. "Well, it's been lovely meeting you all, I have stuff to do, important doctor-y stuff." He took another glance at Ms. Burns before turning to leave the room.

     "I think you made him nervous, Ms. Burns," I told the cow woman, "he's never looked like that before."

     She giggled. "You think so huh?"

     "Yeah, I think you made him nervous because you're a pretty girl," I said, smiling.

     She chuckled. "Well that's very kind of you to say, Adam," she told me before clearing her throat, then she looked at the papers she held in her hand. "Well, before we can go I have to talk to your sister. Are you going to come or stay at the piano?"

     I stared at the keys, then looked back at Ms. Burns. "I'll come."

     Ms. Burns smiled and led me to Gretchen, who was still watching the flames on display. She turned and looked at us, hands still on her cheeks as we disturbed her train of thought.

     "Hi, Gretchen! I'm Ms. Burns-"

     "I heard you talking to Adam." Gretchen interrupted, causing the other to stop in the middle of her sentence. "I already know, you're gonna take us somewhere else." She said, standing up.

     "That's right Gretchen," Ms. Burns said. "You remind me of someone else at the orphanage, her name is Ms. Reece, I think you'll like her." She said and picked me up with a grunt. "You're a heavy boy, how old are you?" She asked me.

     I held out five fingers and said "Five!"

    
     "That's right," she said, ruffling my firey hair. "Well, are you guys ready?" She asked us with a smile. Gretchen shrugged and took Ms. Burns' hand when she offered it.

     We said goodbye to Dr. Coast when we saw him in the hall, still looking nervous when he looked to Ms. Burns. Ms. Burns carried me and walked Gretchen to the elevator, where she put me down and let me push the button, which I had done about two-billion times in the past three days. I wasn't scared of the elevator anymore. Once we left the elevator, she led us down the hallway that went outside. She took us to a bright red minivan and buckled us in the middle seats, with the back seats holding two small suitcases, which I assumed were mine and Gretchen's. Once we got on the road, Gretchen was once again looking out the window, thinking to herself.

     I liked watching her think sometimes. She mumbled a little to herself, which I thought was pretty funny. She didn't like it when she caught me though, so I found something else to do. In the pocket on the back of the driver's seat was a small colouring book and three crayons, blue, green, and red. I grabbed them, and most of the pages were coloured in, so I drew on the blank backs of the pages. Aside from music, drawing was one of the only things that calmed me down since the fire.

     Occasionally, Ms. Burns tried to get me and Gretchen to talk. I liked the conversations, but Gretchen wasn't interested in talking. The only time she wanted to talk since the fire was when the doctors were showing her around.

     "So, you guys are a mix of dragon and wolf humanoids? That's pretty cool. Can you breathe fire?" Ms. Burns asked and giggled a little.

     "No, but we have really sharp teeth, and when we're older, we'll be able to fly!" I said, bearing my fangs and curling my hands up to look slightly more intimidating, but Ms. Burns just laughed when she saw me in her rearview mirror.

*****

     I was startled a few hours later after the slam of a car door broke me from tranquility. Turns out, I had fallen asleep, and so did Gretchen, as she looked confused as well. I looked out my sister's window to see a large brick building with a fence around the front. There were a few kids playing outside with adults watching them.

     "Here we are, guys!" Ms. Burns said, unbuckling us from our seats and grabbing the luggage. We followed her into the building which had a green rug stretching down the long hallway, with doorways and nightstands with doilies and clutter on them every couple metres. To our left was a set of old brown stairs, and to our right was what I assumed to be a dining room.

     Ms. Burns took us up the two flights of stairs to the third floor, which had small bedrooms with two beds each, and a little playroom at the end of the hall where a few children were playing. We were led to an empty room with light blue walls and washed-out flowery bedding. Ms. Burns took our luggage to a dresser and began putting clothes away while Gretchen climbed on the bed against the wall, leaving me with the one by the dresser, which was fine by me.

     I decided to wander the halls, looking for anything I could play with later. I climbed down the stairs to the second floor and found what I had been looking for: a beautiful black keyboard sitting against a wall.

     I heard my name being called and I headed back upstairs where Ms. Burns was waiting for me. I sat on my bed and let her talk.

     "Adam, Gretchen, this is your room. I've unpacked your clothes into this dresser, both new and the few we found from the house," She explained. "Oh, and Adam, we found something else at the house that you might be happy to have back." She said and reached into my suitcase.

     What she handed me brought tears of both joy and sadness to my eyes, for she had handed me my slightly singed stuffed bear.