Stranger

Lin

Vanessa and I drove down the road, quiet for the first couple minutes.

"Well, that was...interesting," she said.  I chuckled.

"She's a feisty one," I admitted.

"That's one way to put it," Vanessa said.  "She seems a little rough."

"Well, I think she grew up in a rough neighborhood.  I looked up her address.  Not the greatest.  Her middle school is one of the worst performing schools in the city."

"Really?"

"Mmmhmm," I said as we turned onto our street.  "Kid's had a rough life."

I pulled into the underground garage that serviced our building, then parked in our assigned spot.  I put the car in park and looked over at Vanessa.

"V, I have feeling this is gonna be no piece of cake," I began.  "Nora has a lot of issues.  Sebastian and Francisco are so little.  Do you think this is best for them?"

Vanessa put her hand on mine.  "She's family, Lin," she reminded me.  "Issues or not, she's your daughter and we have a responsibility to give her a good home."

"But do you think the boys will be safe?" I argued.  "I mean, she was kicked out of a foster home for assaulting another girl."

Vanessa sighed.  "Well, from what I saw today, she seems starved for love.  If we take her in and provide her with a little structure and a little guidance, she might thrive."

I nodded in agreement, but the boys were still heavy on my mind.  I didn't want them to have to witness drama they didn't need to see at their tender ages. I knew we'd have to lay down some firm ground rules if we were going to do this.

"So," I paused.  "Are we gonna do this?"

Vanessa smiled and kissed me gently on the lips.  "Of course we are," she said.  I kissed her back and we climbed out the car and up to our apartment.  My mother had been watching the boys while we were away.  She was, of course, anxious to hear all about it.

"How was it?" She asked in her still heavy Puerto Rican accent.

"It was interesting," I told her, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.  "She's a little rough around the edges but seems sweet enough."

"So, when are you going to bring her home?"

"We're gonna go spend time with her again tomorrow," I told her.  "We might take the boys to see how she is with them.  Then if all the paperwork is cleared, we could bring her home the next day."

Luz put her hands up to her mouth, elated to hear that she had a new granddaughter.  She wasn't exactly pleased to find out how it had all happened, but was excited nonetheless.

Sebastian ran up to his grandmother and tugged on her pant leg.  "Abuela, ven a jugar conmigo!" He requested. Luz smiled and took his hand, ready to go play with her grandson for a few more minutes.  I smiled, glad that my son was fully bilingual.  Whenever my parents came around, they spoke mostly in Spanish to him so he would grow up fluent.  I thought it was pretty incredible that he could already so easily switch back and forth between the two languages.  He could detect who he was talking to and choose the language accordingly.

Sebastian had fallen asleep on the floor of his bedroom, playing with his toys.  Luckily he was already in his pajamas, so I carefully scooped him up and placed him in his bed.  I knelt down next to him, pulling the covers up to his chin.  I just sat there for a moment, looking at my sleeping son.  I had never known I could love a creature so much until Sebastian was born.  I'd never realized how fiercely protective I could be either.  I'd do anything to protect him from harm or experiencing any kind of hurt.  I felt horrible that I hadn't been there for Nora in the same way.  From looking at her case file, she had experienced years of neglect from her mother.  I should have been there to protect her.

Sighing, I pushed myself up and walked back to my bedroom.  Vanessa was in bed, nursing Francisco for the last time for the evening.  I joined her on the bed and gently stroked Francisco's head.

"What are you thinking?" She asked me quietly, knowing me well.

"I just feel so bad that I wasn't there for Nora," I tell her.  "She's been through so much."

Vanessa reached over and took my hand.  "There's no way you could have known," she reminded me.  "And now that you know, we're going to give her the best environment possible."

I nodded, but still felt guilty.  Shouldn't I have known somehow?  Shouldn't I have sensed that there was another person walking around with half my DNA?

Vanessa shifted Francisco to her shoulder and began patting his back gently to get him to burp.  After he'd performed the deed, we all laid down in bed together, Francisco gently drifting off into sleep.  I stroked his back as he slept on his mother's chest.  His tiny body went up and down slightly with each of her breaths.

As we were starting to drift off, I gently picked up Francisco and cradled him to my chest.  I took him to the nursery and carefully placed him inside, feeling that same wave of protectiveness I felt with Sebastian.  I closed the door gently and tried to get a good night sleep, knowing I would see Nora again tomorrow.