“
Good night, Grandma!” I called as I was skipping out of the kitchen with Adria on my heels.
Grandma, who was at the sink rinsing dishes to stack in the dishwasher, stopped and looked at us. She had a funny expression on her face, which made Adria and me pause in the doorway and look back at her, waiting.
Grandma wiped her hands on a dishtowel and said, “Simone, Adria, come here.”
There was something different in her tone. I didn’t know what to expect
“You know, girls,” she said as we stood in front of her, “we adopted you both today. So I’m your mother now, and he”—she pointed at my grandpa, who was wiping the table mats—“he’s your father.”
Grandpa paused what he was doing, stood up straight, and smiled. I just glanced from one to the other, my eyes big and round. What had happened in court that day suddenly became clear.
“Does that mean I can call you Mom and Dad?” I asked.
“It’s up to you,” my grandma said, one hand cupping my cheek, the other one smoothing Adria’s hair. “Call us whatever you want to. Now go to bed.”
The two of us scampered upstairs without another word. But when Adria went into the bathroom to brush her teeth, I stood in the middle of our bedroom, my hands pressed against my temples. I was hopping from one foot to the other and jumping up and down, so much excitement was flowing through me.
Mom. Dad. Mom. Dad.
I kept whispering the words, getting used to the sound of them. Finally, feeling as if I would burst, I ran back downstairs to the kitchen.
“Mom?” I said, standing in the doorway.
She looked across at me, her lips twitching like she was trying not to smile.
“Yes, Simone?”
I turned to where Grandpa was putting away the table mats.
“Dad?”
“What is it, Simone?”
“Nothing!” I said, squealing and bouncing up and down gleefully.
I had done it—I’d called them Mom and Dad!
I turned without another word and raced back up the stairs. In my room, I flopped backward onto my bed and let out a happy sigh. Adria and I were finally and forever home.
”
”