We had been receiving letters in the past few months from Ruby. They said that Ruby had looked for my twin sister and me for 17years; that she had found God; that someone – who wasn’t supposed to – gave her our address; and that she wanted to see us one time for her peace of mind.
It was because of the letters that I guessed who she was when I opened the door that Saturday morning.
Mother knew she was coming. She knew, and she was terrified.
Mother had lost her parents to a car accident when she was a little girl; she was now a widow who had buried two husbands; my twin sister had left home to be married two months earlier; and now, what if I – the only one who had not left -wanted to go with Ruby?
Mother had alerted our good neighbors. Shortly after ten o’clock, they began to flow in to wish me happy birthday, bringing gifts. It was an unnecessary protection, but …….
Ruby had stayed about an hour.when Mother and I walked her to her car. Her husband, Lloyd, had waited for her there. My birth mother and I hugged a goodbye. and I felt a strange tug in my tummy. I imagine she did, too.
“Maybe you could come up to Bakersfield for Christmas vacation,” she suggested.
I began to answer that maybe I could, when Mother chimed in, anxiety in her voice. “She has to work then.”
That was actually true. I had the job at Woolworth’s while I was attending San Diego State. But I somehow wanted to go. Family was scarce and I loved family. Now I felt that I had found a new aunt.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I do.” And the subject was dropped.
Ruby had said in a letter that she did not want to cause trouble, and she did not. At least not for me. My mother, however, the one I called Mother, my adoptive mother, saw it differently.
