Mabel was sitting in her room, looking out of the window, as she sighed out.

Sharmie was over to some of his friends' house today. She didn't mind, of course. Despite their good bond, the boy was still five years younger than her, so she could understand the want to spend time with people of his age. She had her own plans with a couple of girls from her class. (from school Caryn and Filbrick enrolled her for now)

But the weather had it's own plans.

As the autumn has finally stepped over the border of the New Jersey, painting all the leaves of rare trees in orange, red and yellow, Mabel loved picking up on the recess and way back home. But today, it also was a good opportunity to have a rain for whole day straight after school.

So her plans were ruined and she was stuck inside until bedtime.

The girl sighed, as she climbed off the windowsill, leaving her room to look for something interesting to do.

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First person, she found, was Caryn.

The woman was sitting on table, some cards on her hands, as she was mixing them, pulling one out and showing it to Filbrick, who was sitting on the other side of the table. The girl got curious about what her foster parents were doing, so she decided to take a closer look, peeking at the side of table.

Caryn glanced at the girl, who just whispered "Keep going. Pretend I'm not here". The woman smiled lightly, before turning back to her husband and pulling out a card out of the deck.

"Is that your card?"

Filbrick looked up and onto the card. For few seconds, it was quiet, through something in his face changed. Caryn caught on this change and sighed.

"Filbrick, I told you to remember the card, BEFORE you put it back! How will I be able to use it, unless it looks convincingly?"

"What are you doing, Ma?" Mabel asked, looking at the deck, crystal ball, beads and, obviously, fake crystals.

"Well, Mabel..." Caryn smirked lightly. "I'm getting ready to start my psychic business..." She then flashed the cards in front of her face in form of a fan. "But, you see... while I have my charisma since birth... I still need some training to sound convincing for people to actually trust in my words"

Caryn then sighed, turning back to Filbrick. "But your father doesn't seem to be able to give the help for it..."

Mabel looked at her mother with wide eyes, both intriged and awe.

"Do me! Do me! I can help!" The girl jumped up, bouncing on her feet.

"I need to restock the shop either way." Filbrick just raised his hands and stood up. "Have fun, girls"

Mabel instantly jumped onto the chair, watching her mother do her thing. Which, on this one, was reading the girl's hand.

"Ahh, let's see..." Caryn said.

Mabel listened to the woman speak, going over her lines of her hand. Head, heart, life, fate and sun. How it said that she was smart, but would prefer to show it in her own, unique way. How her life and fate would be rough, but will end up in good place in the end. How she would seek romance in those around her, but that would come eventually from unexpected place.

Through, someway through, something came into Mabel's head.

"Ma... I have a question..." She looked up. "I remember Mrs. White said you've been on the fostering list for years... why did you decide to go for fostering? Some kids at my school say it's weird and that people adopt somebody else's children out of petty. So why did you?"

Caryn was slightly taken aback by that question "Well..." She sighed. "You see... we... wanted to have more than one child, after having Sherman, but..."

Caryn slightly cringed at something, grasping her stomach.

"An... accident... happened. The doctors say it would be a miracle if I would be able to even conceive, not talking about carrying another baby..." She sighed, gently strocking the girl's hand with her own. "There's not much that could be done about that, so... we decided to go for adoption. It would be a way for us to give that long wanted child and sibling for Shermie..."

"And I'm glad we did that. Because otherwise..." Caryn chuckled. "We would've never met you."

Mabel looked up with a hopeful face. "I'm glad you did. I wonder if I'd be a good mother, like yourself, when I have kids..."

Caryn just smiled back. "Well... I don't know for sure, what and when will anything happen on your journey, Mabel." She then picked up one of the cards, giving to Mabel "But I'm sure that a girl, like yourself, will be able to go through it and come out with a smile."

When Caryn stopped speaking, Mabel had a chance to look down on the given card. A smile came onto her own face as she saw a picture of a brunette woman, holding a small bundle in each of her arms.

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Another few hours went by and Caryn took the car to pick up Shermie, because the rain had no intention to stop any time soon. And it meant that Mabel was, once again, left to deal with boredom on her own.

The girl groaned, leaning against the counter in the Pawns shop.

Filbrick looked from counting the jewels sighing.

"Mabel, stop making that noise and sit properly. This is really unbecoming of a young lady, like yourself."

"But I'm BORED, Pa!" The girl whined, walking up to her father. "Mom left to pick Shermie and, with such rain, they won't be back for another hour, at least!" She then held onto his hand. "Do you have anything interesting here? I'm sure you have something cursed with so many old things like that!"

Filbrick sighed, rubbing his forehead. "No, Mabel. I don't have cursed objects in my collection." And it followed by another groan and the girl pulled his hand down again.

The man looked around, trying to find anything that would get the girl's interest for, at least, another few minutes, like a doll or some stuffed toy, he was sure he still had after some yard sale few months back. But nothing seemed to look even decently interesting for the kid.

Until he did spot something that made him smirk.

"Mabel..."

The girl looked up surprised, eyes widened.

"Have you got a good rhythm?"

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The door was shut behind them.

"And we're back!" Caryn called out, putting an umbrella down, helping Shermie to take off his jacket.

But no response followed. Unless, it was untol Caryn could listen closely and hear there was something in distance.

"Pa! May-May! I've got candy, I still haven't finished yet!" But it was short-lived, because Shermie decided to chime in...

"Shermie, quiet, I'm trying to listen..."

And so, they followed the noise up the stairs into their apartment. The noise came from the kitchen, and when they came there, it was...

...Filbrick playing on trombone and Mabel hitting oven open and shut over and over. They both had matching sunglasses and stone faces.

Caryn couldn't shake a smile from her face, as Shermie laughed, finally getting attention from his father and sister.

"Ma!? You're back already!?" Mabel asked, fixing her glasses.

"Yeah, we took shorter route back." Caryn explained, before chuckling again. "Looks like you two had fun through."

"Mhm!" Mabel nodded.

"I never knew Pa could play trombone!" Shermie said, looking to his father's face.

"Neither did I." Caryn crossed her arms, still smirking at her husband.

"Alright, Sherman's home, now why don't you go and play together?" Filbrick sighed, pushing the kids away, as they giggled and ran off from them.

Caryn did stay through. Filbrick looked at her, rasing an eyebrow.

"What?"

"You like being a dad. Admit it."

Filbrick just rolled his eyes (through Caryn didn't see it) "I just wanted to get Mabel to stop whining, that's it."

"Of course you did..." Caryn laid her head on her husband's shoulder.

They then both turned to their kids, who were telling each other of their day. Now focused on only each other, like there's no body else in this world. Caryn looked up at Filbrick's face, to see him smiling fondly at two children.

"Of course..."