Ulster County, New York
Summertime
Noah and Sophie got off the plane at the tiny regional airport in the sunny heart of the Catskills in summer. Each held a small child in their arms—their new son and daughter. Uba and Aissa were brother and sister, orphaned in the troubles in Umoja. The four of them had cleared immigration at JFK, and their long journey was finally at an end.
They had met their new son and daughter on Noah’s first surprise trip to Umoja. The little boy and girl had been staying at the Children’s Village, amid a sea of waifs with cardboard identification tags around their necks, desperate for a family. Madame Lateef had lent her considerable influence to expediting the adoption, and within a matter of months, Dr. and Mrs. Noah Shepherd became the proud, elated parents of an adorable brother and sister. At age three and six, they were undersized and bashful, but already clung to Sophie and Noah, recognizing them to be a safe haven in this strange new world.
Daisy and Max were at the county airport, waiting to greet them. They had been part of the decision to adopt, and to Sophie’s eternal gratitude, her older children were as excited about it as she and Noah. Max and Daisy understood that their mother wasn’t trying to replace them, but to add more love to all their lives.
Daisy went down on one knee and hugged each child briefly, showing a keen sensitivity to their fatigue and apprehension, and then Max followed suit. Daisy presented Charlie, who was napping in his stroller. She took out her camera, snapped a few pictures. She already had big plans to do a photo essay on the children.
“I’m very proud of you,” Sophie said to her new son and daughter, speaking in Umojan. “You are very brave.” She had given Noah a crash course in their language, memorizing phrases like “I love you” and “Do you need to go to the toilet?” During the adoption visits, she had shown them pictures of their new home and family—Daisy, Max and Charlie, Opal and Rudy and the horses in the barn, and the big painted farmhouse where they would be living, on the brow of a hill overlooking Willow Lake.
Now the children were seeing their new family for the first time. Uba was quiet. Aissa clung to Noah’s pant leg, but the little girl’s eyes danced with interest as she looked around.
“You guys are awesome,” Daisy said. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. And so soon after getting married. You’re the only people I know to bring two kids home from your honeymoon.”
“They need us now,” Noah said simply. “It’s not too soon.”
Sophie looked down at her youngest children, and her heart was so full of love she couldn’t speak for a moment. Already these two, lost in a world of flame and then given to her like a gift from heaven, were so beloved that she sometimes wept at the mere sight of them.
Max sat down right on the floor of the airport lobby and took out his Hornets baseball cap, putting it on his head. Then he handed one to each of the others. “It goes on like this, see?”
Uba took the cap, soberly inspected it, and put it on his head with a gap-toothed grin. Aissa handed hers back to Max, silently requesting that he do the honors, which he did with a tenderness that caught at Sophie’s heart.
Sophie noticed Daisy wiping her eyes. “Just like Brad and Angelina,” she said.
“Not funny,” Sophie told her, though she couldn’t help laughing.
“I’m going to have to give you a celeb couple’s name,” Daisy insisted, mimicking the paparazzi with the camera to her eye. “Let’s see…Soph-Noah? Snophie? Sofa?”
“Ha-ha,” Noah said, lifting Aissa and settling her on his hip. “Let’s take your baby brother and sister home.”