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Mockingbird

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,
Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don't sing,
Mama's going to buy you a diamond ring.

Marlene Wallace's first memory of family exists within the framework of the Seventh Heaven bar: a long-haired girl and a dark-skinned man who she calls "Papa." Later, there are interruptions - a young man with haunted eyes, the sad lady who rocks her to sleep at night when her Papa is not there. Marlene wonders why the others have gone away, but they go away often, and she does not worry that they will return.

They do return, and then there is Denzel. There is no question that he should become part of the family, too. That first night, she holds his hand as he sobs into his pillow, stroking his hair and whispering to him as the sad lady whispered to her during those long nights her Papa was away. Marlene knows that is how family is passed on, one good deed to another, like a kiss on the forehead.

When she starts school in the spring, the Edge kids are all accompanied by their mothers and fathers, who cling tightly to them like Denzel clings to his pillow during nightmares. Marlene thinks they are silly. Tifa takes her as far as the school gate, hands her a sack lunch, and waves her hand to see her off. The children sit in a frightened circle as the teacher coaxes forth introductions. "I'm Marlene Wallace," she says when her turn comes, standing up straight like Tifa has taught her to do when talking to important people. "I'm from Sector Seven."

Later, as Marlene makes friends, she brings them over to the bar after school, where they sit chattering and watching Tifa roll dough for tonight's bread. Tifa's hands are scarred, rough, her arms knotted with muscle and tendon and smooth skin over old wounds, but her smile is gentle. The children catch sight of the picture on the counter of Cloud and Tifa with Marlene in their arms, and one of them asks, "Is that your dad?"

"No," Marlene answers, and then continues carefully, as Tifa has told her to say "My dad's out-of-town." She looks at Tifa, who smiles encouragement, and Marlene slips carefully from the stool, runs to her room and returns with the dark-skinned man's picture. "This is my Papa," she tells them.

They look at the picture and then look at Marlene, and another one questions curiously, "How come you and your Papa don't look the same?"

Marlene looks up at Tifa again, who is not smiling now, and Tifa says, "You girls want to help me put the bread in the oven?"

It is in this manner that Marlene learns the meaning of the word "adoption."

There is no shame in the word, Tifa tells her later. The flower lady was adopted, and so is Denzel, and that does not make either of them false members of a family. Marlene is confused, because to her, family is still the dark, stained rooms of the Seventh Heaven, Tifa's smile and Denzel's banter, the peace of being held in Cloud's arms, music and laughter and fresh bread from the kitchen ovens. She does not bring friends over again for a long time.

--

Another year passes and the dark-skinned man returns for a visit. Marlene runs to him and is scooped up in his arms. His face is scratchy as he kisses her cheek and asks her, "Have you been a good girl for Tifa and Cloud this year?"

She beams up at him and he stays for dinner and also for the night. The next day he crouches down before her and tells her that he has a present for her, that this is the last time he will go away for so long and next time he comes back, he will take her home with him to stay. Tifa is standing behind him as he kneels, and Marlene sees a strange look come into her eyes as Papa says those words. She isn't sure if it's because of the beauty of the gift, which is a delicate pendant on a chain of fine silver, or because of what Papa has said about taking her home with him. The thought of leaving the Seventh Heaven is strange, so she simply hugs him goodbye and fingers the pendant as Tifa closes the door behind him.

"He's meant for you to have that for a long time," Tifa tells her quietly. "He wanted to wait until you were old enough."

"Old enough for what?" Marlene asks, but Tifa has no answer to that, disappearing into the kitchen. Soon there is the delicious smell of baking bread wafting into the outer rooms.

Marlene goes upstairs. Denzel is out on deliveries, and the rooms are cool and dark. The pendant hangs heavy around her neck on its slender chain and she thinks about the Edge kids who are each safe and warm in their houses with their mothers and their fathers, parents who are soft and comfortable like old, worn shoes. A door slams downstairs. She hears the sound of Cloud's boots in the entryway and Tifa's voice welcoming him home, and then the roar of Denzel's motorcycle pulling into the driveway outside.

Cloud calls for her to come down to dinner. Boots clump heavily up the stairwell, and then she sees Denzel come around the corner.

"What are you doing there in the dark, Marlene?" She unclasps the pendant and drops it in a darkly silver puddle on her dresser. "Nothing," she says, and smiles. "It's time to eat. Tifa's baked fresh bread."

--

It will be another year before she sees the dark-skinned man again, several years before she begins to understand the implications of his long disappearances, even longer before she ever hears of the name Dyne, of a town called Corel and the war that took the family that could have been away from her. But Marlene Wallace does not dwell on these things, nor on the pendant that she keeps safely at the bottom of her jewelry box. She has no mother, but there is Tifa's quick smile and sure hands; no father, but there is Cloud's familiar voice wishing her good morning at breakfast; no brother, but there is Denzel's sleeping form beside her on the bed when she wakes in the night.

They are an odd family, but they are still a family. The Planet turns, the autumn sweeps in gently, and snow falls over Edge, covering the dinginess and poverty with white. It is a calm winter, a quiet winter, and Marlene sits by her window, looking forward to bringing friends over again when school starts in the spring.