Chapter 9
Tobin asked what an orphanage was three days later.
I hated Jessamine for making the word necessary.
I explained simply.
“A place where children can live when they don’t have a family home ready for them.”
He frowned.
“I had one?”
“For a little while.”
“Why?”
“Your first mommy died.”
He knew Leah was his first mother.
We never hid that.
He had a photograph.
Sometimes kissed it.
Sometimes ignored it.
Normal.
Then:
“You got me.”
“Yes.”
“Paid?”
I froze.
Coins.
Of course.
“No.”
He looked relieved.
“Jessamine said money send me back.”
“She was wrong.”
“Can money send kids?”
“No.”
Not like that.
No legal explanation needed.
Then he asked:
“Why people laugh?”
Harder.
I thought.
“Some thought it was a joke.”
“It wasn’t.”
“No.”
“Why they not know?”
Because adults often outsource moral judgment to context.
Too much.
“They should have looked at you instead of looking at each other.”
He understood enough.
Then:
“You looked at me?”
Eventually.
Not fast enough.
“I do now.”
He climbed into my lap.
No ceremony.
May you like
Then stole my toast.
Family.
