“Why you?” asked Marlin.

“Because the fishing gear is now mine,” he said slowly as if Marlin were dim-witted.

“No, I mean why would she leave it to you?”

“Marlin…” said Fiona again.

“Well, he said he didn’t know her,” said Marlin. “So that’s a reasonable question. Why leave everything to someone you don’t know? Or even just the fishing gear? Why leave anything?”

“No one knew her,” said the man. “No one knows me either. I got no time for it. I told her not to take on four kids but you could never tell her anything. She was…” Suddenly the man seemed choked up and turned around and slammed back into the trailer.

“Well,” said Fiona as they all stood in shock, half expecting the man to come back out and finish his sentence, but he didn’t. “I guess we got what we came for. I guess we found out why she didn’t come to meet the plane.”

They turned around and started to walk back to the house. At the bottom of their driveway, as if it had just occurred to her, Marlin said, “We’re back to square one. Social services.”

Charlie began to cry loudly and hiccup. “They’re going to take us away? We won’t be together anymore?”

“No,” said Fiona. “No, they aren’t. We have a house of our own now. We’re not just renting. Aunt Martha left us everything so that probably means some money on top of Mommy and Daddy’s. We’ll have to find out how that works. I guess we’ll have to see her lawyer, Mr. Pennypacker. We’ll have to get the money put in an account for us the way we did after Mommy and Daddy died. Mrs. Weatherspoon talked to Aunt Martha about the arrangements. I have it all written down somewhere. Our money from Mommy and Daddy is in the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a branch in St. Mary’s By the Sea. We may be able to live fine on that for now. Maybe for a long while, until we’re old enough to get jobs.”

“Why don’t we call Mrs. Weatherspoon and tell her what happened?” asked Natasha.

“No,” said Fiona musingly. “I think as badly as she’d feel about it, that would only land us in social services again.”

“Then that means we have no grown-up,” said Marlin. “Aren’t they going to object to that?”

But Fiona was thinking. Who was the they this time? The last time it had been the church but the church wasn’t keeping track of them anymore, was it? They had them safely placed in a new home with a family member. Their part in things was over. If they didn’t tell anyone they were living without a grown-up, who was to know? Who was to care now what became of them?

“Do we send out letters again? To all the aunts and uncles begging one of them to take us? Maybe we could offer to pay them?” Marlin said half jokingly.