"Mom is tired," she said. "Be nice in front of the nurse."
Ten minutes later, the nurse took her infant baby boy and left. The new mother slowly walked into the closet and took out a plastic bag full of her usual clothes. She put on clothes. It was hurtful, but she didn't notice anything. The industrial-strength sanitary napkins the nurses gave her absorbed the barely bleeding part of her pants, but she barely used it.
Thirteen minutes later, the nurse took her infant son and left the room. The new mother slipped out of the hospital room and staggered down the long corridor. She went to the trash can next to the hospital. It was here that she met the father of her child. They climbed to a high place together and huddled behind the blue trash can. It was a good height, she recalled.
She never went back.
He never asked about the child.
Less than two hours after Mars was born, he became an orphan.
The woman who raised him was awakened from a deep sleep by the phone. She is listed as a close relative. She brushed her teeth and tied her hair into a ponytail. She drove a long car for four hours. Before the sun rose the next day, she held the baby in her arms.
She held his little brown body in her arms, and kissed his cute baby cheek, the thin baby cheek. She told the nurse that the child is too young, how is he
"We suspect this mother is taking drugs," the nurse said.
"Yes," the woman said. "Sounds like my sister."
"Will he be okay?"
"Stop talking," the nurse said. "But babies like him are like all babies. Love makes them grow. Sometimes love is enough."
The baby opened his eyes for the first time. His eyes were green; the woman screamed happily.
"Baby, welcome to this world," she said. "Did she name him?"
"She named him Mars," the nurse said, "but this name may change."
"No," the woman whispered, "he needs something from her. It will stay."
She stayed with him for two weeks because he needed to be hospitalized. His small body can hardly maintain body temperature, he sucks lazily, and has jaundice. She shook him on the rocking chair, fed him with a nǎi bottle, and he grew up.
Two weeks are enough to find her sister, when she does not swing Mars, let her sign her parental rights, and find a lawyer who will not charge too much for domestic adoption.
Two weeks were enough for her to fall in love and become a family. When she left the hospital and drove home for four hours, April Matthias and Mars became a family.
April Matthias is the school's librarian. She is very young, old and single. She hasn't even started thinking about starting a family. For her, the idea of having children is a distant day. She didn't know that her sister was pregnant until the phone rang the night Mars was born.
As a librarian, the salary is not high, but she makes it work. Mars has clothes, not new, fancy clothes, but good, useful clothes. Mars has stuffing food, plenty of vegetables and whole wheat bread, and entertains guests from time to time, mostly on special occasions. Mars has toys. Some.
Mars has more books than anything else, many, many books, imagination, and the love of a kind and kind woman, a woman who never lies. If she finds $5 in the parking lot of the grocery store, she will take it to the service counter; if she undercharges or fails to charge a certain item, she will immediately get the cashier's attention.
The kind of woman who generously gives hugs, the kind of woman who will put Mars on the dining table to calculate math no matter how many times he loses his temper.
"Mars, you can do this," she would say. "You just need to believe that you can do it and work hard for it."
"I can't," he would say, "I'm not smart, Mom, don't pretend I'm smart anymore."
"You are smart, Mars, but smarter than smart is smart. Smart is to know what you don’t know and find a way to know it. Smart is to do something that others think you can’t do, because you have found a This way. You are the smartest kid I know."
Especially in their small town, they became an unusual pair, a little white woman and her brown-skinned boy.
"Is he adopted?" "Are you a mother?"
Nosy people have a way of asking rude questions, just as they have a right to know the answer.
"He is mine," she would say with a smile.
"Of course," some people will insist, "but he is yours—is yours? Did you know you gave birth to him?"
"Yes," she would say, without blinking her eyes. This is the only lie Mars has ever heard.
He once asked her about this question. He asked her why she lied.
She said to him: "This is not a lie. You are mine. The moment you are pregnant, I am your destiny. Shelly will not like you but I will. God must know this. You may find it through her. Mine, but you still came to me. I conceived of you in my heart. So you weren't born to me? So what? Maybe I gave you life through her. There is an old Chinese proverb that says, who are people Destined to be together, tied together, thin, red line. Through time and distance, this red line connects them through fate. Those who are bound together will find each other, although they are thousands of miles apart. We are just like that, by Bundled together. We are a family. I am your mother. Those people don’t understand what we have. I don’t even want them to imply that our family is inferior to their family. Family happens when people love each other, people take care of each other, people each other Promise that we are all these things to each other."
Mars never asked her about it again. When his friends or classmates asked if April was his biological mother, he always answered yes. Some people can't see the red line, but he can.
Mars was thirteen when his biological mother called him. Obviously, she wanted to see him. just one time.
April took the phone into the bedroom and closed the door. Although the door was closed, Mars could still hear her. He followed her and put his ear on the door, which was very helpful to her.
April took the phone into the bedroom and closed the door. Although the door was closed, Mars could still hear her. He followed her and put his ear on the door, which was very helpful to her.
"I don't know," April said. "Shirley, you have so many opportunities. There are so many opportunities in life, but you waste them. I don't know if I want this kind of influence to appear around Mars.
He is a good boy, a great boy
Are you clean
I have no idea
Only half an hour
Mars was not excited about seeing Shirley. Not at all. Although April didn't mention her much, he knew Shirley was not a good person. He doesn't know his place in this world. If his mother is a bad person, what does this mean for him
"It is important to make the right choice," April told Mars in particular, when Mars would lose control of his temper. Mars was stubborn and very hot-headed. April is neither. Mars inherited all the bad qualities he learned from Shelley, his stubbornness, his impulse, and his math problems.
When April said, "The important thing is to make the right choice", Mars always adds this thought to his mind, "so that you don't become like Shirley."
Shirley appeared as promised. Mars had just finished the shower and was sitting on the sofa, his thin legs at a loss because of tension.
April opened the door.
"Oh, April," Shirley's voice was sharp, and her words rolled out of her mouth. "Something terrible has happened and I need to go home."
"I must do this."
"What about Mars?" April said.
"Sally needs me to bail him. I have to go. He needs me. Tell Mars we will do it next time."
"Who is Sally?"
"My boyfriend. Didn't I tell you?"
"No," April said. "Mars is waiting to see you. Don't you want to see him? Five minutes?"
"Tell him next time."
"Of course," April said.
"Hey, April, can you lend me some money? Go home and take the bus, I'm a little short of money."
"How much is it?" April said.
"00?" Shirley's voice was very high.
"Two hundred dollars for a bus ticket? Sorry, I don't have that much. I can give you fifty." April said.
"Uh, okay. It's better than nothing," Shelly said.
April turned around and fetched money from the wallet.
Mars squeezed to her side.
"Here," he said. He held out a peanut butter jar full of banknotes. He was saving money to buy a game system that he couldn't afford in April. "180 dollars. Take it and go."
"Mars?" Shirley's face showed joy. You won't be angry when you see the cash in the jar. She looks a bit like April, an old, tired, drug-addicted April. When she smiled, her teeth were gray. This is the woman who gave birth to him.
"You look so handsome. Just like the pictures from Epple," Shirley said, but she didn't look at him. She still looked at the peanut butter jar in his hand.
"Get it and go."
"Mars. Wait. No," April said. She knew how long he kept the money. She reached for the peanut butter jar, but not surprisingly, Shirley was faster than her, and she grabbed the jar before Apple pressed it with her finger.
"What a good boy," Shirley said, holding the peanut butter jar, holding her sagging chest in her arms.
"You can have a condition that you don't come back," Mars said. "will never."
"You didn't mean that," Shirley said. She turned the jar in her hand around, trying to see what denominations of banknotes were in it. "I'll come again next time. Let's talk. It will be great.
"I mean it," Mars said. "You can have it only if you don't come back."
"You sound like a villain," Shirley snorted. She stuffed the jar into the duffel bag on the porch. "Maybe one day you will want to know your mother. You may regret it." (to be continued) (end of this chapter)