"My parents?" Rita asked, her voice dry. She looked at the envelope in her hand; it felt suddenly heavy.
"These are the items we found when we found you. You were abandoned-"
"So...you took me?"
"Yes, well, someone else took you and then we adopted you"
Rita looked at the envelope again, she desperately wanted to open it but she wasn't sure if she should. Her parents noticed her obvious hesitation and interjected to make her feel better.
"You don't need to open it, we just thought that you should know, and better sooner than later."
Her parents waited for her to open it but Rita couldn't bring herself to do it. They stood there awkwardly. Shifting their weight from one door to the next.
"We'll leave you to, um, look at it."
The shuffled out of the room. Leaving her alone. Rita sat down on the wooden floor and stared at the unopened envelope one last time. She took the edge of her nail and pressed it against aged paper. It tore open easily, Rita tipped it upside down and watched as a small pouch slipped out and fell on the floor. Rita looked at it curiously, she went to pick it up then remembered that there could be something else inside the envelope. Rita peered inside the envelope, and there were several pieces of paper. Rita stuck her hand in and pulled them out, they were dusty and worn pictures of a couple. They looked poor but happy. The woman in the picture, the one who must've been her mom, was smiling with the same smile that Rita had. The man in the picture, the one who must've been her father, looked at the camera with the same twinkling eyes that Rita had.

They probably couldn't support a child, that's why they abandoned me.

Rita looked through all of the pictures, they looked American. They looked like her. Rita placed the pictures in the pocket and picked up the pouch, it make a clinking sound. Rita lifted up the worn leather pouch and tugged at the strings to open it. Inside there was a glint of gold. Rita poured its contents into the palm of her hand, it was a charm bracelet, and there was only one charm though. It was a golden "R". Rita undid the clasp and put it on her right wrist. She lifted her arm up and marveled at how it looked. She shook her wrist and listened to the sound of it jingling. It must have cost a fortune, how had they afforded it? They had looked very poor in the photographs. Rita sighed and walked into the kitchen, her parents were eating small salads. Rita sat went to the pantry and the fridge and made herself a sandwich. She sat down with then at the table and ate her meal silently.

"What was in the envelope?" Her mother asked.

"Just some pictures, and a bracelet."

"That's wonderful dear, eat up your sandwich before it turns stale now."

Rita rolled her eyes and took a big bite out of her dinner before continuing to talk.

"What happened to them?"

Her parents stopped eating and exchanged a glance before swallowing and answering.

"We don't know; a government worker found you by a bridge. You we abandoned so we took you in, we don't know if they're alive or dead. I'm sorry honey."

"It's okay, I'm gonna go upstairs and say goodbye to everything, since I have to leave it all behind."

"Well actually you can bring some of them, it was in the letter, I assumed that you had read the whole thing but apparently not."

"I can bring things?"

"Yes, what did you think that you'd be doing all day long?"

"Learning I guess."

"No! You need to do so much more to stay healthy, you'll be socializing, exercising, and testing your new abilities."

"We picked up a box from the store while you were at Robins, we've become so good at packing up that we can to it in ten minutes. We spent the rest of the time searching for a box with the exact dimensions."

Rita watched them lift up a box that had been hidden behind the chairs before. It was wooden and was about a foot and a half by two feet, it was a foot tall. Rita took it in her hands and lifted up the hinged lid.

"What were the odds that it was the correct dimensions?"

"Slim, it was custom made actually"

Rita set the box down on the chair next to her and continued to eat her sandwich. When she was finished she threw away her paper plate and put her glass in the dishwasher. Rita walked up the stairs carrying the box and the photos. She opened her door and walked inside her room, she sat the box down on the bed and began rooting through her belongings to find what would fill the box. She found her snow globe collection on her shelf but decided against it, she wanted something more that tiny zoos in her new life. She looked through her closet to see if she could find any special outfits to bring, or maybe a piece of jewelry. Rita walked across the plush carpet to her desk and looked at all of her favorite books. She could always get new ones, she wanted to bring something that couldn't be replaced. Rita looked at all of the yearbooks that she had collected over the years, full of faces she could never replace. She walked over to her bookshelf and pulled out all eight yearbooks, all from different schools, all from different states. The most recent one was from where she was currently living, Michigan, she packed up all of her yearbooks and looked for something else that would fill the remaining empty space. Rita packed a camera and her laptop with their chargers, she slipped them in the box across from the yearbooks. Rita grabbed a photo album off of her desk along with several blank journals and a handful of pencils. She grabbed a silver necklace chain and a handful of pendants that she could switch out. Rita grabbed her stuffed elephant off of her bed and put it in the box. She took posters off her walls and grabbed a roll of tape, Rita opened her closet and took off blankets from her shelf. She took the photographs of her parents out of her pocket and put them on top of everything before putting on the lid. Rita got her pajamas and toothbrush from her suitcase and got ready for bed. She sat on her bed, she looked at her room, knowing that this would be the last time she would here. It was never easy to say goodbye. She grabbed a brush from her nightstand and pulled it through her brown tangled hair. Rita walked up to her window as she heard a soft scratching sound. She opened it up and saw a familiar looking homeless cat. She hadn't seen the rouge cat at first because it was an inky black color. It jumped from its tiny perch, a tree branch, to her windowsill.
"Hey Panther, how ya been?"
Rita asked quietly as not to startle her feline friend. She pet Panther between the ears; in response she got a soft purr. Rita wasn't surprised by her visitor, in fact, she expected it. She had been feeding Panther for the past ten months and the stray had come to trust her. Rita took a red bandana and spread it out on the floor about a foot from the window, Panther bunched up and leapt down. He landed silently on the red cloth and sat down; he wrapped his long tail around her paws, its tip twitching expectantly. Rita sighed and reached under her bed blindly feeling around until she found where a bag of cat food lay, hidden from her parents. Rita pulled it out from its hiding place and turned around. She saw that Panther had grabbed one of the bandanas red corners in his mouth. Panther rolled over, the cloth pulled around him like a cloak.
"You look like that cat from my favorite book Red Sun, except Red Sun was a girl."
Panther meowed, eying the bag greedily, paying no attention to Rita's book references. Rita sighed and poured a small pile of food on the bandana's corner that wasn't occupied by a cat. Panther jumped up, dropping the fabric from his mouth and eating all of the food up. Rita felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards, she poured a bit more food on the cloth and closed the bag. She rubbed Panther's back softly while she reached over to grab her phone. She scrolled through her contacts until she found Robin's. Rita called and Robin almost immediately picked up.
"Hello?" He asked uncertainly.
"Hey Rob, it's Rita. I need to ask a favor."
"Anything. No, wait, scratch that. What do you want me to do?"
"Watch a pet."
"Don't lie to me. Your parents are allergic to everything."
"Well, they don't know about him."
"What is it?"
"Cat."
"......"
"....Robin?"
"Yeah, sorry. Gimme five minutes."

"Wait no you don't need to-"
Robin hung up so Rita put her phone down and continued to pet Panther. After all of the food was gone, Panther tried to jump on a nearby chair. Rita blocked Panther, if her parents saw cat fur anywhere they would suspect a pet. Rita rubbed her hands in her pants to get rid of the short black hairs.

"You know you can't do that." Rita scolded, wagging her finger at the naughty cat. Panther meowed loudly, and lay down. Rita checked to make sure that her door was locked and went to wash the hairs off her clothes. Rita wet down her hands in the sink and wiped off her jeans, it took a while but eventually, there was no evidence of a cat. Rita heard panther meowing loudly so she left the bathroom to quiet him down. Rita found panther balanced on the windowsill, meowing at the darkness. Rita picked up panther and placed her back on the bandanna, she looked out the window and saw Robin standing in her backyard with a flashlight.

"How'd you get here so quickly? You live half a mile away and you're not exactly a runner." Rita asked and out of breath Robin.

"Well, the road to our houses is like a "U" and I just walked through your neighbor's yard to get here. I hopped a fence here; that means that I scraped my leg to get here, and this cat better be adorable."

Sorry grumpy pants, next time I'll be sure to specify that you only need to answer and not show up in the middle of the night."

"I was doing you a favor, if you're going to be crabby about me helping you then I won't take the cat. And it's not the middle of the night, it's 10:00."

"Whatever, can you just help me?"

"Say please."

"No."

"Then I won't-"

"Fine! Please!"

Robin grinned and looked at Rita gloatingly.

"I got you to say please."

"I deny it."

"Whatever, I know you said it and so do you, I'll take the cat."

Rita dashed into her room and looked opened her bed there was an old Easter basket tangled up in yarn, Rita grabbed some scissors and cut off the yarn, she grabbed the bag of cat food and put it on one side and the red bandanna on the other. She grabbed panther and placed him in the basket. She tied some of the yarn that survived the scissor attack around the handle and brought it all to the window. She lowered it down and Robin grabbed it, he looked at it and glanced up at Rita.

"She's in safe hands."

"It's a dude cat."

"He is in safe hands."

Robin waved and walked away, Rita shut her window; she felt strangely empty. She turned off her light and climbed into bed, Rita tossed and turned but eventually she fell asleep.