Today we're all going out for supper to the Parker's house. I've never been to their house, but apparently they own the Crashdown. Sandy says they have a girl exactly my age, her name is Elizabeth. I'm hoping I'll have fun there. Right now, Sandy is trying to change Meghan's diaper and Charlie is chasing Kevin into his room so he'll get ready. I'm sitting on the couch watching TV. I'm always ready before every one else. Today, I'm wearing my sunflower dress, which I'm still deeply in love with. Finally the family is ready and we get into the van and drive off.
We pull into a little driveway that sits right next to the Crashdown Café. Charlie knocks on the door and a lady opens it. She has dark brown hair that hangs down her shoulders. She smiles and gives Charlie a hug. She turns to Sandy and gives her a hug too.
"It's been too long! I'm so glad you were able to make it. Come on in." The lady welcomes us in. We walk into the small lobby and take off our shoes. She leads us down a hall way and into living room. "Make your selves at home. Supper will be ready in a minute. I'll go get George and Liz." We slowly walk into the living room and sit down on the couch. A few minutes later, a tall man walks in with a girl about my age holding his hand.
"Charlie! So good to see you!" The man says as he shakes Charlie's hand. Sandy gets up and shakes the man's hand as well.
"George, you remember Kevin, right?" Charlie says, holding hand towards Kevin. George nods head. "This is Meghan. And over here, this is our newest addition to the family. This is Tess." He puts his hands on my shoulders and gives a proud smile. I can't help but blush. All Charlie and Sandy have been doing is telling people about me. They're so proud that they have me as their daughter. I'm starting to get used to the fact that I'm truly apart of their family now.
"Hello Tess. Charlie's told me so much about you over the phone. This is Liz. She's just your age." George tells me and nudges his daughter forward as if telling her to say hi.
"Hi. You wanna come up to my room to play?" Liz asks me. I give her a nod and she leads me up some stairs. In her room, we play with some Barbie's. "I'll be Stacey and you can be Ken." She tells me. I want to protest to being a man, but don't bother. I pick up the male Barbie doll and find some clothes to put on him. Liz is concentrating on brushing Stacey's hair. I think to myself. 'That's what it's all about, isn't it? You never really play with Barbie's, you just brush their hair.'
"Do you have any other girl Barbie's?" I ask her.
"Yup. They're in here." Liz opens up a box and dumps out a bunch of Barbie's. I pick a hawaii doll which is wearing a hula skirt and pink bikini top. Then I start brushing her hair. It's impossible to get the brush through her hair. I start thinking, 'this is ridiculous! I don't need to brush her hair with useless thing.' Liz isn't looking, so I slide my hand over the hair and instantly, it becomes shiny and tangless. Liz looks over at my doll just after I've finished 'brushing' her hair and her eyes open wide. "How did you get her hair so nice? I could never get through her hair!" She says in amazement.
"I'm just good at brushing hair." I say, covering up my real story. Suddenly, we hear Liz's mom calling us to dinner. We drop our dolls and run downstairs. We sit down side by side and wait for the grown ups to sit down. After we've all sit down, George says grace. Then we start passing around the food. I take a drumstick, a spoon full of corn and peas, and some mashed potatoes. It looks so much better than Sandy's home cooked food. I dig in as if I haven't eaten in days.
After supper, Liz, Kevin, and I excuse ourselves from the table and decide to go outside to play in the park.
"What do you want to do?" Liz asks me.
"Let's go on the monkey bars." I say and we all run towards the jungle gym. Liz and I are fast climbers, so we leave Kevin down at the bottom. We stop at the top and sit down for a while, exhausted. Liz looks around and then asks me a question.
"Tess, do you want to come over tomorrow?" I look at her with a surprised expression on my face. I've never been invited over to someone's house before, so it's a very big shock. I reply.
"Sure! I just have to ask Sandy."
"Why don't you call her 'Mom'?" Liz asks me.
"Because she's not my real mom. I just live with her." I answer.
"But she adopted you. That means that she's your mom."
"What, does every adopted kid call their the people who adopted them Mom and Dad?" I asked, rather offended by her remark.
"Well yeah." She says.
"Like who?"
"There's these two kids in my class who are adopted and they call they're parents Mom and Dad." She tells me. I give up. I know she's right. I'm just too proud to call Charlie and Sandy Dad and Mom. I try to change the subject by climbing down the jungle gym and running over to the swings. There, we all swing for a while before we head back.
When we get back, I go up to Sandy and ask her, "Sandy, can I please come to Liz's house to play tomorrow?" She smiles, pleased that I've made a friend so quickly.
"Of course. I'll drive you over tomorrow at 10 in the morning. Is that alright with you?" She asks me. I nod my head in agreement. Liz, who was just talking to her mom, comes towards me and tells me she has permission. Kevin taps me on my shoulder to get my attention.
"What about me? Who am I going to play with?" He asks me in a whiny voice.
"You can play by yourself. You've played by yourself before, what's so weird about tomorrow? Don't such be a wimp." I tell him. He turns angry and runs to Sandy crying.
"Mommy! Tess called me a wimp!" He cries to her. Sandy picks him up and comforts him. 'He's such a spoiled brat' I think. 'He needs someone to toughen him up and it might as well be me'. Then Sandy walks towards me.
"Tess, did you call your brother a wimp?" She asks, disappointed at me.
"Yes. But he's not my brother." I say. She bends down to my eye level and talks to me in a quiet voice so the others won't hear her.
"You know it's not right to call other kids names. That's rude. We'll talk about this when we get home." She stands up. "I think we should be heading home now. Sorry to cut this short, but the kids are tired and they best be getting to bed." She apologizes to the Parker's and then grabs my arm and walks me to the van. I struggle to get free, but it's no use. She's got firm grip and there's no way I can get loose. I'm dreading what waits for me when I get home.
At home, I wait in my bedroom for Sandy to come and lecture me about how rude and horrible I am. I'm afraid she'll tell me that I'll have to go back to 'jail'. I've started to like it here with these people and I'd hate to go back to that prison. She walks in and sits on my bed where I wait for her.
"Tess, what you did today was not very nice. But I'm not going to punish you." She tells me. I'm puzzled by her decision.
"Why?" I ask her.
"Well, because everyone makes mistakes and I'm sure you didn't mean for Kevin to take what you called him personally. Right?"
"Yeah. I didn't mean to hurt his feelings. It's just that he was being a baby about me playing with Liz."
"I know. He's just excited about having a new big sister and I think he just wants to play with you."
"But….. I'm not his sister." I say. How many times do I have to tell her to get it into her head?
"Tess, do you know what it means to be adopted?" Sandy asks me.
"Yeah. It means you want to be my mom."
"Right. When we signed those adoption papers, that was a way of saying that you have been born into our family. Before, you had no family. You were all alone, but now you're not. You have a family who loves you. Charlie and I are your parents. We'll take care of you until the day you die. Tess…. you never have to worry about being alone again. I will never let you go through that again… I love you Tess." Sandy started choking up and sniffing. I've never heard those words before in my life and they're breaking my heart. I turn my eyes to the floor to avoid her eyes. I know that if I look at her, I'll break down and start crying. I can't take it anymore. I'm only a child, how can I live without love and affection. I look up at her face and my lips start to quiver. A single tear slides down my cheek and she wipes it away. Then I give way to all my emotions. I start shaking as I cry my heart out. "Sshhh. It's okay. It's okay Tess. I'm here for you." Sandy holds me and comforts me. It's the first time anyone has ever held me with such love and affection before and it is the best feeling I've ever had.
"All I've ever wanted is a mommy. I was so lonely before you came. I want you to be my mommy. I want you to love me and I want to love you. Please, don't ever let me go back to that jail. I'm so scared!" I cry into her arms. She cries with me, feeling my pain. She gives me more comforting words, telling me my mommy's here and holds me until I cry myself to sleep in her arms.