Recap: Evie’s mother informs her that they are moving to Utah and they’ll be staying with her Aunt Ruthie. Evie doesn’t want to move, but she does see this as an opportunity to ask Aunt Ruthie about her father.
Everything was on the moving truck, and the house was empty. It felt so strange. I was leaving part of my life behind. My skates and skating outfits were packed in a duffle bag with our luggage for the plane.
“Aunt Ruthie is going to meet us at the airport, and she’s bringing the new baby,” Mom said.
My aunt and uncle had been childless for many years, and they adopted a baby a month ago.
“I can’t wait to see her.”
“She’s very cute. Aunt Ruthie won’t send photos of Emmie. She wants us to see her in person.”
“How old is she?”
“I think she said 14 months.”
Allie came over to say goodbye. I tried not to cry, but the tears spilled out anyway. Then Allie started crying. Allie handed me a photo.
“It’s you and me when we were skating in Central Park.”
I studied our smiling faces from last winter. I was wearing my beige skating outfit with the fur trim. Allie was wearing a navy-blue outfit. People often asked if we were sisters. I could see why from the photo. We both have blue eyes and light brown hair, and we both wear it in braids when we’re skating. She’s taller than me, though. I’ve always been self-conscious about how short I am. My mother says it gives me a lower center of gravity that’s good for triple axels.
“Maybe you’ll come visit me in Utah?” I said, doubting Allie’s family would ever let her travel so far. They never went anywhere. Family vacations for them were a trip to the local park or local museum. Allie’s parents were older. They were in their 60s, and they were super overprotective. Allie explained to me that her brother had died in a skiing accident when she was little, and that had triggered all this overprotection.
“I really want to come. Hey, we’ll call on the phone a lot,” Allie said.
I nodded.
The cab pulled up, and Mom and I slid in. I waved to Allie and my old house as the cab pulled away.
…
The flight was long, but I’m used to flying to skating competitions. I kept thinking about the new rink and my mother’s new job and living with Aunt Ruthie until we found an apartment.
“What will it be like living with Aunt Ruthie?” I asked.
My mother looked up from the airline magazine she was reading. “It’ll be fine. She’s always been a wonderful friend to me and a loving aunt.”
I thought of the questions I wanted to ask her about my father. No one ever spoke about my father, especially not in front of my mother, but I once recalled Aunt Ruthie commenting on what a terrible mistake my father made to leave us.
Recalling those words was a painful stab right through my heart. How could my father have abandoned me? It wasn’t natural. Parents love and protect their children.
The plane landed, and we retrieved our hand luggage and headed out toward the gate.
Aunt Ruthie was standing in the arrivals area, waving. She had a stroller, and a little baby girl was waving at us.
“Laura!” Aunt Ruthie hugged my mother. “Evie!” She enveloped me in a huge hug. Aunt Ruthie is a large woman. She towers over Mom. She always joked that she needs to feed us up, the skinny relatives.
“The baby is so cute!” my mother said.
“This is Emmie!”
As I came closer, I saw that Emmie was different. She had Down syndrome. Her dark silky hair was tied into cute pigtails with lavender ribbons. She gazed at me with curious brown eyes. I wondered why Aunt Ruthie hadn’t mentioned that Emmie had Down syndrome. It didn’t matter, of course. Emmie was a little doll. I loved her immediately.
There was a girl around my age standing behind Aunt Ruthie.
“This is Maggie, our awesome babysitter helper.”
Maggie was skinny. She had stringy brown hair and bangs that almost covered her eyes.
“Hey,” I said.
Maggie didn’t respond. She bent down and handed Emmie a rattle.
“Emmie’s the most affectionate little girl. We are so blessed,” Aunt Ruthie said, leading us to the baggage claim area.
“How did you get her?” I asked.
“It was a miracle. Arnold was talking to one of the skating coaches about us wanting to adopt, and this coach said her sister had a baby girl whom she was putting up for adoption. She has a large family and found the needs of this little girl too overwhelming.”
How could a mother just give up a baby like that?
“Anyway, Arnold said we were interested, and we flew to Colorado to meet Emmie and, well, lots of paperwork later, the rest is history, as they say.”
Aunt Ruthie led us to her minivan.
Maggie helped Aunt Ruthie buckle Emmie in, and then she slid in next to her. Emmie dropped her rattle on the ground. I bent to pick it up. I was in the middle of offering it to Emmie, but Maggie grabbed it. “She doesn’t know you. I’ll give it to her.”
I shrugged and slid into the very back seat by myself.
“You and Maggie are the same age,” Aunt Ruthie said.
“You’re 13?” I asked Maggie.
She didn’t answer.
Maybe she hadn’t heard me. “Are you going into seventh grade?” I asked.
She opened a baby book that was on the seat and began reading it to Emmie.
“I’m sure you’ll be good friends,” Aunt Ruthie said.
I wasn’t sure about that.
“We pass the rink on the way home. You’ll get to see it from the outside.”
My mother and Aunt Ruthie chatted about the plane ride and the skating rink and the new job.
There was no sound in the back seat except for Maggie reading the book and Emmie making baby sounds as she responded to the pictures.
Well, I’d tried to be friendly. What else could I do?
It wasn’t pleasant to be ignored, but the main thing was we were going to Aunt Ruthie’s house, and I would be able to ask her about my father. Just thinking about that, I felt an excited flutter in my heart.
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of a newly released historical fiction novel, Captured (Menucha Publishers, 2025), as well as historical fiction novels Please Be Patient (Menucha, 2024), Flight of the Doves (Menucha, 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha, 2022), A Bridge in Time (Menucha, 2021), Secrets in Disguise (Menucha, 2020), Denver Dreams, a novel (Jerusalem Publications, 2009), Memorable Characters…Magnificent Stories (Scholastic, 2002), Befriend (Menucha, 2013), The Road Less Traveled (Feldheim, 2015), fiction serials, and features in Binah Magazine and Binyan Magazine, and “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021–2022) and Alaskan Gold (2023–2024).
