Christodora by Tim Murphy

Author:Tim Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 2016-07-21T15:49:04+00:00

Fall turned into winter and she continued going to Sister Ellen’s home on Saturdays, sometimes with Jared, sometimes without. There were the Thanksgiving art projects, the Hanukkah art projects, the Christmas art projects. She woke up on Saturday mornings happy, dying to fill her bag with art supplies and hop on the train. She loved walking in the sunny room now because the boys cheered and went wild when she came in. All except Mateo, who, immediately upon seeing her, would smile quietly and go sit off by himself at a little table he had designated as his personal art area, out of which he would carefully pull the projects he had been working on that week to show Milly. He waited patiently, professionally, for Milly’s attention, his arms folded, watching her every move as she set up the other boys. Milly knew that he knew that they were mere prologue to him, Milly’s star student, and he was right. Milly adored him, but she never let herself show it too much because Mateo made it very clear with her that he wanted them both to keep a cool tone.

On December 20, the Saturday before Christmas, Mateo turned five.

“We’ll have his cake at dinner tonight,” Sister Ellen said. Then Sister Ellen looked at the wrapped gift that Milly had brought for Mateo with Sister Ellen’s approval. It was his own paint set.

“Do you want to foster him?” Sister Ellen asked her.

Milly felt like her eyes popped out of her head. “What? Be foster parents?”

“It’s not adoption,” Ellen said calmly. “It’s a trial-basis thing. Your mother would retain legal guardianship for the time being. If it doesn’t work out, he comes back here.” She paused. “How can I give that boy the opportunities that his talent deserves as he gets older with a whole house to run?”

Sister Ellen scared Milly a little. It seemed like she could read minds, or hearts, because it was as if she knew that Milly had been running this scenario over and over in her head nearly every day for the past month. She found herself taking her cue from Ellen and being strangely, bluntly honest: “I do want to,” Milly said. “But I don’t know if Jared does. He wants us to have our own baby.”

“Who’s to say you couldn’t?”

Milly said nothing.

“I will tell you this,” Ellen continued shrewdly. “I know parents who’ve fostered, then adopted. They thought they couldn’t do it because they didn’t have enough money or time, or they wanted their own kids someday. They thought it was going to close up their lives. And what happened was their lives exploded open. Before their eyes.”

Milly nodded, taking this in. She glanced over at Mateo, who sat with his arms folded, project in front of him, kicking his legs off the chair into the air, watching her with an air of patient expectation.

She giggled at Ellen. “Just look at him. He knows he’s my star student.”

Ellen smiled. “Plus,” she added, “it’s his birthday.”

“Well, you’ve planted the seed,” Milly told Ellen.

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