Jonathan had seen Jordan and Natalie conversing on the rock and laughing together. He didn't need superhearing to know that they were talking about some pretty heavy stuff.

He didn't want to be jealous, especially when it became obvious later that it had ended badly, but he'd gotten further with her than he had. For the rest of the swim, Jordan somehow managed to evade her by swimming off or engaging in conversation with others.

Back at camp that evening, he asked his brother, "So what did you and Natalie talk about?"

"Not a lot, but I found out she's very anti-Kryptonian."

"Well, that's a given. Why do you think they decided not to tell her everything about Dad?"

"I know, but how are we ever supposed to get close to her? This trip is all a waste of time, and worse, it's running everyone through an emotional ringer. Except maybe Grandpa, but then I've always suspected he might be part robot."

He grinned at that imagery in spite of himself, but he quickly got serious again. "Don't you want a sister?"

"I don't know. There was nothing wrong with our family the way it was. And anyway, she's not really our sister whatever a DNA test might say."

"I know that. You don't have to be a jerk about it."

"I'm not, Jon. I'm just the only one who is being realistic about this thing except maybe Natalie. She doesn't want to be our sister. Maybe that's why she felt more comfortable with me because I don't expect her to be. And you know what? I'm good with that. Why would I want to bond with someone who hates our father and us too if she knew?"

He walked off, annoyed.

Jonathan really did know what he was saying was true, but he'd felt a void since learning about his real sister. How could you miss someone you'd never gotten the chance to know or even anticipate knowing? But he did. And he'd wondered many times what she would have been like, how their lives would have been different. Maybe that's why he'd felt connected to this Natalie from the moment he saw her pictures in the RV.

But that was unfair to think that this Natalie could fill that empty place in their family. Perhaps he had been trying too hard. He had to attempt to rectify that.

She was by her tent, fiddling with the RV's backup electrical generator that was on the fritz.

"Hey, care if we talk?"

She looked up at him with suspicion as she held the screws to the panel in her hand.

He sat down cross-legged in the dirt beside her and opened the palm of his hand. "I can be your assistant if you want."

She gave in and handed him the screws, allowing her to move her hands more freely. "Is this about your brother going Houdini on me? Are you trying to explain it away?"

He didn't miss the way she said your brother. "Nah, I don't even understand Jordan half the time, and I'm his twin."

She smiled at that, not the hearty laugh she'd shared with Jordan, but it was something.

"You don't have to explain anything. I get why everyone's acting so strangely."

"I really don't think you do."

"Sure I do. Some black girl drops in from the sky and complicates the whole family feng shui, it's enough to throw anyone off kilter. You guys were the perfect, nuclear family: two parents, two kids. I bet you even have a dog somewhere on the farm. Am I right so far?"

He didn't answer.

"Your poor dad has to face the fact that he's not her soulmate but rather only a guy she married since she got together with and had a child with someone else in another world. This version of Mom is totally wigging that she has a daughter in another universe that looks nothing like her and has all these problems. You try to act like it's all cool and you're happy about it without admitting you find it weird too. At least, Jordan's honest."

"Cut Mom some slack, okay? It's more complicated than that."

"Why should I?" she said with a look of disgust as she messed around with the parts with amazing speed and total disinterest in hearing anything else on the subject.

"Because she lost a baby!"

"What?" she asked, stopping her tinkering and a look of caring breaking through for the first time in the course of their conversation.

He didn't mean to blurt it out like that, but he couldn't stop there. "The baby's name was going to be Natalie."

"I-I didn't know."

"So yeah, that weirdness you've been sensing has nothing to do with your race or anything else you may have been imagining. You simply remind her of the daughter she lost like she reminds you of the mother you lost. Like you remind Jordan and me of the sister we lost."

"I didn't know."

"It isn't something she's comfortable talking about. I didn't even know about it until this past year as we were babies at the time and only then because something happened that made her feel compelled to. That's the thing about people. You don't know their stories or their hidden scars, so you shouldn't be making snap judgments about them."

She was already holding the panel back in place with the screwdriver in the other hand. He put the screws back in their holes for her and then he left her to mull over that information.

Mom was going to be ticked at him probably for revealing that, but though it had been accidental, he was glad he'd done it. Someone had to take action to end the stalemate they had reached.