Chapter 23
Jericho does his “happy dance” when he sees Willow’s dog, Granola, and they run to the back door to be let out to play in the yard. Saturday has arrived quickly, and Sol drops Jericho off at Willow’s house before she goes to pick up Thea. After Thea gets in Sol’s orange hatchback, squeezing to fit her Erykah Badu-inspired headwrap, she connects her phone to the car’s sound system. “I made a playlist,” she says. “The ultimate ‘meet-your-sister-you-didn’t-know-you-had-because-your-biological-mom-you-didn’t-know-you-had-needs-a-kidney playlist!” They both laugh. “Let’s start with ‘Family Affair’ by Sly and the Family Stone!”*
“Once a DJ, always a DJ!” Sol says.
The whole ride, they sing along or chat about lighthearted things like movies or the antics of Thea’s kids and Jericho. As her long-time friend, Thea knows now is a time to distract Sol from the stress and anticipation of the situation.
After about three and a half hours, they make it through the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, and Sol texts Shyla, Be there in 5 minutes. There was a time when Sol came to Manhattan several times a year for work or to meet up with friends who lived there, so she knows the city a little. She even dated a guy there briefly, but that didn’t go anywhere.
“How are you feeling?” Thea asks as they get close to the meeting point.
“I’m nervous but excited—I think.” Sol quickly checks herself in the rearview mirror at a red light.
“Let me pray for you real quick while we’re at this light. You know they’re not going to let us double-park for long when I drop you off. Lord, please bless Sol and Shyla’s meeting right now. Hold them in your hand. No matter what happens. Amen.” They drive around the corner and see the fountain Sol has picked to meet at with tons of people and dogs walking around.
“Amen! Thank you, Thea! Okay, meet me back here at 2:00. I’ll text you if anything changes! Love you!” Sol calls as she tries to quickly get out of the car while Thea runs around to jump in the driver’s seat.
She looks at the picture on her phone that Shyla sent her. Yes, she’s the black lawyer from Boston that Sol originally found when she Googled her. Sol takes a couple of deep breaths and closes her eyes. When she opens them again, she thinks she spots Shyla behind a group of kids by the fountain. It’s hard to tell with the sunglasses. She’s dressed in jeans and boots and her curly, natural hair is in a pretty up-do created by an intricate pattern of twists. She looks like she should be on the cover of a magazine for “stylish lawyers you want to hang out with.”
“Shyla?” Sol tentatively asks as she approaches the woman.
“Oh my gosh, Sol! It’s you!” Shyla exclaims as she rushes to give her a big hug. “I can’t believe this. You do look like her. Look at you. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening. How did you get here? What do you want to do? Should we go by the water? Or do you want to get a coffee? Honestly, I could use a glass of wine! I’ve been so nervous with anticipation. What do you think?”
As Shyla takes a breath, Sol jumps in, “Let’s go by the water! I think there’s a coffee stand over there too.”
“Okay, great idea! Let’s go. Good thing I wore these low heels. I wasn’t sure what to wear. What do you wear when you’re going to meet your sister for the first time? You’re so cute! I love your bag! Did it take you long to drive up? My drive wasn’t too bad. I have to come here for work sometimes, so I’m used to it. I like to drive, and if you can believe it, the New York drivers aren’t as bad as the Boston drivers. The only issue is where to park. I parked in a garage over here, but it’s going to cost me like $40. But don’t take that the wrong way—you’re worth it, of course. I would pay anything to be here with you. Oh, here’s the coffee stand. Do you like coffee? I can’t live without it! But I did have to cut back last year because I was having serious withdrawal issues when I didn’t have like ten cups a day! But that’s the lawyer life for you!”
Sol’s worries about their meeting being awkward are quickly fading away as she sees—or hears—that Shyla is a talker. After they get their coffee, they find a bench near the water. “Oh my gosh, do you want to see pictures? I have so many to show you. I’m like the family photographer. I’m always up in people’s faces taking pictures! But maybe you don’t want to see? I don’t know what you’re thinking or feeling. Do you think we look alike? I see you got Mom’s nose. I look a lot more like my dad. His side of the family has such strong features.”
“Yes, I’d love to see pictures. You can tell me about everyone. I was wondering about your dad. I can show you my family too.” They both settle on the bench and put their purses next to them.
Shyla gets out her phone and starts swiping through. “Okay, here’s one of Mom. This is from last year before she started getting really sick. We were having a birthday party for one of my dad’s sets of twin siblings. We call them ‘Salt and Pepper.’ I’m not sure where that came from, but it was from their childhood. Like I said, the families are huge, and I have tons of cousins. I don’t even know them all! But no sisters. You’re my only one! Okay, here’s Dad and two of his brothers. There are my oldest cousins, their sons. Oh my gosh, I bet you want to see Mom’s parents. Okay, let me see if I can find a picture.”
While Shyla searches for a picture of her grandparents, Sol says, “Oh wow, the family really is huge! I can’t believe I had all these relatives and didn’t even know! I guess I would have shown up on your tree if I did the DNA test. This is just so weird that we didn’t know for so long.”
Sol tries to put a finger on what she’s feeling, but she finds that she can’t. Shyla’s chattiness puts her at ease since she doesn’t have to come up with things to say—not that she could get a word in edgewise. All the relatives make her feel a little overwhelmed, but there’s also a strange sense of relief.
Shyla nods. “You’re right,” she says, “but with this big family, you would probably just pop up as a cousin somewhere and no one would look into it further. Anyway, here are Mom’s parents, Pops and Gran. Mm, I think this was Gran’s eighty-fifth birthday. They got out there on the dance floor!”
Sol stares at the picture. “Can I look at that?”
“Of course,” Shyla says as she hands her phone over.
Sol zooms in to the picture and scrutinizes the faces of the people she now knows as Pops and Gran.
Shyla digs in her large satchel purse for lip gloss while Sol looks at the picture, but after a minute, she notices Sol is still not talking. “Are you okay? Is this all too much for you? I mean, I meet one new person, and you’re finding out about like forty new people.”
“Um,” Sol stalls. She takes a sip of coffee.
“What?”
“I don’t know how to ask this without it coming out wrong.” Sol continues to peer deep into Shyla’s phone.
“What? You can ask me anything! I’m sure you have a million questions!”
“Uh.”
“Just ask me!”
“Is Pops black?” Sol blurts out.
“Oh my gosh, Sol. You didn’t know? Yes, he’s black. So is Gran. But they are so light-skinned that Mom can pass for white with her wavy hair. Of course, my dad is black so that’s what makes me darker. But you are pretty light. You actually look so much like her. Your skin tone, that is. Did anyone ever ask you if you were black? I guess they would just see your parents and think you were white. I’m so sorry no one told you. Are you okay? Wow, that is a lot to find out! I wasn’t even thinking about that.”
Sol keeps looking at Shyla’s phone and flips back to the picture of Janice. “Yes. I mean, I just found out that my mom isn’t even my mom. So I guess I’m as okay as I can be. This makes a lot of sense, actually. You do look like her too. But I can see what you’re saying about your dad’s family’s strong features. They all really look alike!” Sol tries to keep her tone lighthearted, and thankfully there are a lot of people walking through the park creating distractions.
Sol takes another sip of coffee and tries to digest the latest revelation. Her biological mother is black?
Shyla jumps back in to allow Sol to compose herself. “Yes, something about those eyes and cheekbones! Let me show you some pictures of the Salt and Pepper twins! They are identical, and sometimes even people in the family can’t tell them apart! Sometimes they dress alike just to mess with our heads! Especially when the Patriots are playing and they’re wearing their matching jerseys! Let me see if I have a picture. Oh my gosh, look at them here! They crack me up! They are older, but they have so much spunk. They keep us all on our toes!”
Sol forces a smile and tries for an easy question that won’t bring up more emotion. “So how did you all end up in Massachusetts?”
“Oh, the family has been living there forever it seems. I guess since Pops’ dad got a job there back in the day working as a Pullman porter on the railroad. You know, the Great Migration, a lot of blacks were moving out of the South if they could—looking for jobs and to get away from that slave legacy there. Of course, that’s how he met his wife—right there at South Station. The rest is history! They made a life there. Of course, their family probably make up 10 percent of the whole black population in Boston! You know, New England isn’t exactly known for its diversity, though Boston has changed a lot over my lifetime. Mom ended up going to Baltimore for law school, and that’s when she met your dad. Once she gave birth to you, she moved back home. Is your family from Baltimore?”
“My family…oh, it feels weird to say that now that I’m finding out all this. I mean, the two parents I have at home right now—I’m not biologically related to either one!” Sol sinks down a little on the bench.
“But they’re still your family,” Shyla says softly. “Family isn’t just about biology.”
Sol doesn’t answer right away, and this time, Shyla lets the silence continue. Finally, Sol clears her throat. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m still adjusting to everything. I mean, I am officially adopted by both of them, so they are my family. Anyway, my mom, Patty, my dad, Patrick, and my stepdad, Mickey, all come from Baltimore families. People don’t leave there! I guess that’s why it ends up being ‘Small-timore’! Everyone is one step removed from everyone else. A lot of people do come for school or work and some of them stay too.”
“Did you ever live anywhere else?”
“Well, I went away for college to Charleston Southern University. I wanted to experience living in a different place for a while, but I didn’t want to stay down South. I wanted to come back in Baltimore. I mean, you know the reputation. People love to bash it or avoid it. But that’s my home. It’s a special place. But why not me and each of us to do something to make it even better?”
“That’s great that you could do that, Sol. I will have to ask Mom what her experience was like there. This is bringing up questions I never thought about.” Shyla gets up to throw her coffee cup in the trash can.
Sol does the same, then says, “Yeah, sometimes I feel like the problems are too big to make a difference. But what choice do we have? Just give up and let it fall apart? Anyway, what kinds of lawyer things do you do? Sorry, I don’t know the right way to ask that!”
Shyla laughs. “That’s okay, people ask me that all the time! Some lawyers don’t even specialize and try to help their clients with whatever they need, and in the big firms, some specialties are very, very narrow and you spend all day doing the same type of thing. I guess I’m kind of in the middle. My firm works with mostly medium-sized companies, and we help them with a variety of needs, everything from intellectual property to real estate to employee rights. Now tell me about what you do. I mean, I already scoped you out online, of course!”
“Oh, that makes sense,” Sol replies. “I guess every company has legal needs. As for my job, we have a program that partners up with the city schools to bring volunteers in so the students can get more one-on-one help with their reading. I manage the program at four of the schools, working with the administration and supporting the on-site staff. But, Shyla, I’m kind of nervous, but I do want to know more about your mom. I mean, our mom. Is she in the hospital now?”
“No, it’s okay. She’s not in the hospital now. She’s on dialysis and doing pretty well. I mean, some days are better than others. But we have to find a donor because she can’t stay on dialysis forever.”
All of a sudden, Sol cries out, “Why could she keep you but not me?” Then she breaks down sobbing. Shyla puts her arms around her shoulders, and they sit in silence for a few minutes. Sol blows her nose with her napkins from the coffee stand.
“I don’t know,” Shyla answers. “She met my dad and they got married. But just because she gave you up doesn’t mean she didn’t care. I mean, your dad was still married to your mom when she was pregnant. She told me she never stopped thinking about you. I think you should meet her. Then you can ask her all the questions you want to ask her. What do you think?”
Sol thinks to herself, it’s too late to turn back now. You have to get your questions answered. What if she dies and you never have a chance to meet her?
“Okay,” Sol whispers.
Shyla hugs her. “Let me call her right now! Be right back!” She walks a little bit away, and Sol sees her talking on the phone.
Shyla rushes back over. “She wants to know if you can come tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Sol never thought this would happen so fast.
“She says, please. If you can.”
Sol closes her eyes and prays, Lord, help me. I’m scared to meet her, but I want to meet her. Sol takes deep breaths and texts Thea: Hey hon, there may be a change of plans. I’ll let you know ASAP. When do you have to get back?
“Okay, let me see if I can make it happen. Can I ride with you?” Sol says.
She texts her boss, Zakirah, apologizing for bothering her on the weekend, but Zakirah says she’s happy to cover for her on Monday since Sol rarely takes time off. Sol then calls Willow to ask her if she can keep Jericho. Then she calls Thea and explains the situation, and they agree that Thea will drive her car back to Baltimore.
“I guess we will have a lot more time to talk,” Sol says, still not believing she’s doing this. She never considered herself a very impulsive person.
They quickly grab some snacks and pick up Shyla’s car from the expensive garage. They spend the four-hour ride talking and getting to know each other. Once they get to Massachusetts, they stop at Target to get some clothes, deodorant, and a toothbrush for Sol. Shyla drops Sol off at the hotel she found on a last-minute deal site for her. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with me?” Shyla asks as Sol gets out.
“Yes, I’m sure, but thanks. I just need some time to myself to prepare for this. See you tomorrow!” Sol says as she goes to check in.
*See the appendix for the playlist or listen on Spotify >