“I know.” My voice is desperate. I’m scared she’s about to hang up, so I just start talking faster, hoping to get it all out before she does. “We know you can’t discuss it. We aren’t asking for contact. And I’m not calling because we want him back. I mean, if he’s not in a good situation, we do, but if he’s happy and his parents are happy, that’ll make us happy. We just…” I feel out of my element. Nervous. I feel like I don’t know how to ask this woman for a morsel of information. But then I think about what Hannah said. She’s right. I am annoying. I’m persistent. I blow out a breath and continue. “She cries, you know. Every night. It’s the not knowing that kills her. I don’t know if you have a way of contacting the people who adopted him, but if you do, maybe they wouldn’t mind just sending her an email. An update. Even if you just respond with one sentence saying he’s fine, I’m sure that would mean the world to Six. That’s all I’m asking for. Just…it’s hard, you know? Not knowing. It’s really hard on her.”
There’s a long silence. Such a long silence. I’m worried she hung up, so I look down at the phone, but it still says the call is connected. I put it on speaker and wait. Then I hear something that sounds like a sniffle come from the phone.
Is she crying?
Me and Hannah lock eyes and I know my expression must match the shock on her face.
“I can’t make any promises,” Ava says. “I can reach out to the adoption agency with your message. Email me your contact information, but…don’t get your hopes up, Daniel. Please. All I can do is try to get a message to them. I can’t promise they’ll receive it or that they’ll even feel comfortable answering it if they do.”
I frantically point at my desk, motioning for Chunk to get me a pen and paper. “Okay.” I sound so desperate, I know. “Thank you. Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me. To us.”
“You already sound excited,” the woman says. “I told you not to get your hopes up.”
I grip the back of my neck. “Sorry. I’m not excited. I mean, I am. But, a realistic excited.”
“Do you have a pen?” she asks. She already sounds full of regret for even agreeing to do this, but I don’t care how much regret she feels. I feel no shame.
I take down her email address and thank her two more times. When I hang up, me and Hannah and Chunk stare at each other.
I think I might be in shock. I can’t form any words, or even much of a thought.
This is the first time I’ve ever been grateful for being called annoying.
“Wow,” Chunk says. “What if it works?”
Hannah presses her hands to the side of her head. “Oh my God. I honestly didn’t think we’d get anywhere.”
I let it all out by punching the air with my fists. I want to scream, but Mom and Dad are here in the house somewhere. I pull Hannah and Chunk in for a hug and we start jumping up and down. Hannah starts squealing because that’s what she does when she’s excited, but it actually doesn’t annoy me this time.
“What the hell is going on?”
We all separate immediately. My father is standing in the doorway, looking at us suspiciously.
“Nothing,” we all say in unison.
He cocks an eyebrow. “Bullshit.”
I put one arm around Hannah’s shoulders and one arm around Chunk. “I just missed my sisters, Dad.”
He points at us. “Bullshit,” he says again.
My mother is behind him now. “What’s wrong?”
“They were happy,” my father says, accusatory.
My mother looks at him like he’s lost his mind. “What do you mean?”
He motions toward us. “They were hugging and squealing. Something is up.”
My mother is looking at us suspiciously now. “You were hugging? Like all three of you?” She folds her arms across her chest. “You three never hug. What the hell is going on?”
Hannah walks toward the door and smiles at my parents. “With all due respect,” she says, “this is none of your business.” Then she closes the door in their faces.
I can’t believe she just did that.
She locks the door, and when she looks back at Chunk and me, we all just start laughing, and then we hug again and resume our celebratory moment.
My parents don’t knock again. I think we’ve thoroughly confused them.
Hannah falls onto the bed. “Are you telling Six?”