Choosing Family by Francesca T. Royster

Author:Francesca T. Royster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2023-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

13

WE’RE GETTING MARRIED

June 2014

There is a large group filing their way through the Thompson Center, Chicago’s one-stop shop for all things legal. They are chatting excitedly, laughing, touching each other lightly, posing and snapping pictures from their iPhones. Three teenagers, two adult women, a little girl. The guards are watching them closely. A few shades of white. A few shades of brown. Definitely some Black. No one matches. A lot of different people pass through their gates, and they’re used to odd groupings. Tough-looking teens with baggy pants, off to juvenile, accompanied by mothers who fuss after them with sharp voices and eyes soft with worry. Grumpy old men who’ve been sent to retake their driver’s exams after years of dodging, afraid they’ll fail now. Snappy young women on their lunch hour, off to get their nails done at the place near the food court. They look way too good to be stuck in any office, the guards think, and the women may flirt a little with the guards, linger before moving on. The day is hot, humid, and the air conditioner is working like a beast, so once inside, just about everyone shivers a little as they take off their jackets to go through security, but this group, the one with the mismatched children, doesn’t seem to notice. They don’t complain as they’re asked to take out their water bottles or to put their keys in the holders. This group seems to be here for happier business.

It irritates the guards a little, the fun they seem to be having. And they have odd haircuts. One boy, about twelve or thirteen, has long, floppy bangs he’s constantly flipping out of his dark-lashed eyes. The other boy is a little older, almost a man. His hair is cut close—curly choirboy hair. He is slim and neat. Shirt tucked in. The teenage girl who is carrying the baby looks like she’s just coming into her womanhood, fourteen or fifteen. Her hair is braided, with some lavender and blue-green, some kind of mermaid. Watching everyone with shining eyes are two women who look like boys at first look. They both wear converse high tops and T-shirts and messy jeans. One is olive skinned, Italian, maybe, the other a Redbone, with not-so-neat dreadlocks, brown with gray at the temples. They stand close to each other so their shoulders are touching. They are holding a little gingersnap girl who is bright-eyed and smiling. Her skin doesn’t match anyone else’s. She’s three at the most, and she smiles at all the strangers, unafraid. Goes right up to them and crows, “We’re getting married.”

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