Chapter 23 - Sofia gets two mothers?
No.
She had one mother.
Elena.
Veronica had been an important caregiver.
Then a harmful one.
We did not teach Sofia that all of Veronica was fake.
At four, she asked:
“Vronca make pancakes.”
“Yes.”
“Vronca bad?”
“She made unsafe choices.”
“She read book.”
“Yes.”
“Bad people read?”
I nearly laughed.
“Everybody can do kind things and unkind things.”
“Mommy kind?”
“Usually.”
Elena called from the kitchen:
“Excuse me?”
Sofia laughed.
Ordinary.
Her relationship with Elena grew slowly.
First:
Short visits.
Then afternoons.
Then bedtime.
The first overnight with Elena came after three months.
Sofia woke at 2 a.m.
Cried for me.
Elena called.
Not offended.
I walked in.
Sofia held both our hands.
“Daddy stay.”
I stayed twenty minutes.
Then left.
Elena told me the next morning:
“I thought I’d be jealous.”
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
“Of me?”
“Of your three years.”
There.
No villain.
Time itself was the rival.
Sofia began calling Elena:
Mommy
consistently after about six weeks.
Not because we instructed.
Because the word from photographs became attached to a real person.
One day Sofia asked:
“Mommy leave again?”
Elena answered:
“I might travel. I might sleep somewhere else. But I will tell you.”
That was the promise.
Not:
Never leave.
Communication.
May you like
The very thing stolen before.
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