“Are the rumors true Jake?” Rachel questioned her husband.
“I’m afraid so,” he sighed. He looked down at the ground, frowning at it. “I just don’t understand, the government already threw us out of Providers Land and now we are losing one of our---” Neither Jake or Rachel could speak. The thought of losing their children due to an unnecessary law was eating the Web family alive, yet it was no surprise. Ever since the government became an oligarchy new rules were being thrown at the Exiles every few months, but they never affected the Web family as much as this one did. Yes, the fact that Exiles couldn’t have two or more children seemed insane, but killing their kids in order enforce this was ridiculous. It was hard to grasp the idea that the Exiles were gradually becoming disregarded. Every. Single. Day.

Time went by quickly, and soon the sun was setting. The Web’s usual dinner consisting of a small bowl of rice had just come off the stove. This was all the Exiles had in order to survive and they couldn’t take anything for granted. Rachel continued to scoop each drop of rice into the bowls that were set on the rickety table at her side. It was clear that both her and Jake were flustered.
“You know…” Jake took a breath, being the brave one to speak, “we are gonna have to explain this to Willie and Chase at some point. It’s not going to be easy but we can’t just ignore the issue.”
“I know that, but I don’t know how we are going to explain this to the kids. Imagine being told that either you or your best friend may not live to see another day.” Rachel got goosebumps as she said this. She was putting the bowls down and setting the rest of the table. Rachel looked at the table once again. This time, visualizing only three places set for dinner, one less than the usual four spots.  “It wouldn’t hurt to talk to the spirits about this,” Rachel suggested. “They’ve been giving us food and other supplies ever since we have become exiles, so they probably wouldn’t mind giving us a hand. I’m gonna forget about this for now hun. Alright?” Jake slowly nodded his head, not even to slightly lift his head up. He just stared at his meal, as if it was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.

“Hello?” Rachel called. Her voice echoed throughout the cave. She grabbed Jake’s hand and stepped further into the home of the Spirits.
    “Nice to see you guys here,” exclaimed a spirit, named JoJo. “Why are you here?”
    Rachel looked down at the alien-like creature. He was small and green with many spots scattered across his body. Usually, it was hard to tell one spirit from another but Rachel had known JoJo for such a long time, that he was an exception.
Soon, she explained, “We came to discuss the new law that has just been made by the government. I’m not sure if you’ve heard but the government decided that each family can only have one child. Nobody is sure why but--”
    “Ahhh,” JoJo was quick to interrupt Rachel, “and I’m guessing you came here to get our advice on what you should do with Chase and Willie. Right?”
    “Correct” Jake chimed in.
    “Harrison, come over here. I have an interesting situation that I need your input on.” JoJo motioned over to another Spirit that was standing towards the back of the room. Once he was called over, Harrison quickly came to JoJo’s side. Next, JoJo explained the law and why the Webs were here. Then he asked Harrison one important question: “Do you have any ideas on what we should do with their children?”
     Harrison thought. He tapped his foot. He made some “hmm”s and “ahh”s along the way when finally, he came to what he thought was a reasonable solution. He didn’t know what the Webs would think of his idea but he gave it a shot anyway.
“We could… umm… hide one of your kids?” He said it as if it was a question and there was actually a correct answer to this case. Jake and Rachel looked at each other as if they were trying to read each other’s minds.
“I dunno,” Rachel said as she thought about Harrison’s idea. “Where would we hide them?” JoJo pulled Harrison over to the side and he started talking. They spoke for five minutes and then turned to the Webs.
“Come back tomorrow and we’ll talk.”

The next day, the Webs returned to the cave of the Spirits. Hopefully by today, they would be informed of how to execute Harrison’s plan. JoJo flew up to Rachel as soon as he heard her feet hit the dusty floor.
“We have some good news for you; Harrison and I thought about what you said and we know how much your kids mean to you, so… we both thought it would be a good idea if we hid one of your kids in our cave. Of course, you would visit him daily and as spirits would treat him like he’s our own child. I was thinking that Willie would stay with us because he’s older, but what do you think?” JoJo caught his breath and then proceeded with a toothy smile.
Rachel was quick to answer. “That sounds great” she exclaimed, “Jake, how do you feel about this plan?”
“That isn’t such a bad idea. We need to explain this to the kids real soon because the government should be checking our houses shortly. I’ll go get ‘em and we can tell them what’s happening,” Jake said.

    Mr. Web walked in with Chase and Willie following him. They were confused why they had to come to the cave in the middle of their “play time”.
“Make this fast” Willie snapped, “we want to get back to our game of basketball.”
“Yeah. We were about to win,” Chase complained. He was always quick to back Willie up.
“Yes, yes we’ll try to do this as quick as possible but this is important and you need to hear this before it’s too late.” Jake and Rachel took turns explaining the new law, and what they were going to do about it. Chase interrupted with the occasional “but why?”, but besides that, the boys handled the news better than Rachel and Jake expected. Of course, Willie was upset that he would have to depart from his family until he turned into a real adult but he was reassured that he would see both his parents and brother very often.

It had been five days since Willie started living with the spirits and everything was going as promised.
“JoJo, Willie, I have some news” Harrison shouted, running into the cave at the speed of light. Harrison took a deep breath and then started to talk. “So, I have been observing the land of the providers for the last three days and I realized that the government has not checked anybody’s house for children, so then I started thinking; if the government didn’t watch over the land, what is the point of hiding Willie in the first place? They’re probably just trying to scare us so we obey them.” Finally, Harrison stopped talking as he waited for JoJo’s reaction. JoJo was puzzled. He had never thought about this scenario. After taking in the idea, JoJo suggested that Harrison keep watch of the land for a few more days. Then, if the government didn’t check in, they would let Willie return to his family.

Many days passed and yet again, Harrison came running into the cave with similar news: still, he hadn’t seen any traces of the government entering their land.
Willie was ecstatic when he heard the news. Running, out of the cave, Willie couldn’t wait to tell his family that he will be staying with them again, due to the lack of attention that the government showed toward the Exiles. Arriving at the front door, Willie couldn’t stop smiling. Knowing that he would be safe, in the arms of people who loved him, made Willie’s stomach settle again. The Webs greeted Willie open armed with bright eyes. They were happy to know that Willie was back and that there would be no more holes in the Web family.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Who is it?” Rachel asked as she opened the straw door to her hut, just ajar.
“Government officials. Open up. Now,” said two large men standing at the foot of her door.
“Shoot,” Rachel mumbled under her breath.
“What was that Mrs.Web?” one government official said, confused.
“Oh, nothing,” replied Rachel. She shot a look at Jake as he lifted his head from his book.
“I’ll be right back” shouted Jake, already halfway out of the room. He knew what he had to do: get Willie out of the hut before they were caught for having two kids.
As the officials welcomed themselves in, one of the men suggested, “I expect that you know why I’m here,” he was making a mess of the place as he searched every inch of the house. “We just want to make sure that you trouble makers aren’t hiding any extra kids around here.” Rachel nodded her head and crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping that Willie would not be found.
As the men kept looking, Jake rushed Willie out a small hole in the back of the hut. Willie had to leave. He quickly opened the door, being careful not to slam it behind him. Then, he ran. He didn’t know where he would go, but he knew wherever he went, it had to be far from his house. He climbed up onto a huge rock, and as he stood at the tip of it, he could see the whole town.
That’s when Willie realized: the authorities were everywhere. With nowhere to go, Willie was stuck. He froze and his brain shut down. Out of the corner of his eye, Willie saw a government officer. Soon, his adrenaline kicked in and he realized one important thing, the one place where he wouldn’t be caught: the Spirit’s cave.
As he sprinted, Willie felt time slowing down, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that trouble was near, but that didn’t help. As he kept running his legs got weaker and he began to lose his breath. Over time, Willie’s muscles started to fatigue. His heart, beating 1,000 times a minute due to a wave of anxiety washing over him. Although he felt his whole world was falling apart, Willie managed to stay determined. He knew that if his timing was good, he would make it to the cave in time. Every two minutes Willie would stop and recoup. Finally, the cave was in sight. Willie waved to JoJo who he could see standing outside of the cave.
Now, Willie started to hear footsteps behind him getting louder and louder until...