FOUND IN THE RAIN

EPISODE6

They found the Harrisons three weeks later.

Emma stood on the sidewalk in a neighborhood that could have been hers. Worn-out hedges and chipped paint. Hard work to keep a roof over your head. She held Lily's hand as Alex knocked on the door.

The woman who opened it had Lily's eyes. Pale gray, green, and slightly downturned. Emma had thought Lily got them from her dad. "Must be Emma", the woman said. Her voice was tired. "I'm Rachel." They sat in Rachel's kitchen. Coffee scent lingered. Quiet had fallen as the kids napped. A small girl appeared in the doorway. She leaned against the frame and watched. Dark hair framed her face. Emma saw a familiar jawline—Alex's. "Maya", Rachel said softly. "C'mere, sweetie." The little girl crossed the room and leaned into her mom, gazing at the people at the table. Alex crouched low until he could see Maya eye-to-eye. "Hi, Maya", he said. "I'm Alex." Maya regarded him for a long time. Then she turned to Emma. Then her eyes moved to Lily, who sat quietly beside her, watching Maya. Maya pointed at Lily. “She has my nose.” Lily touched her nose. "I do?" "I think so", Maya said. "And she has my color of eyes." Lily considered this. "You have my jaw", she said. Maya frowned and touched her jaw. "What's a jaw?" Lily showed her. Rachel laughed. Tears dripped down her face. Emma reached across the table and took her hand. "I'm sorry." "Not your fault", Rachel said. She wiped her face. "Nobody's fault. I just —" She glanced at Lily. Her voice softened. "Always thought she had her daddy's nose. Then I would see her eyes and wonder where in the world she got those. Nobody in either of our families."

She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "I knew. I think I always knew, someplace I couldn't get at. I mean, she was perfect. She was mine. But there would be these moments, when she laughed a certain way or turned her head, and I'd think, where did that come from? Who did she get that from?"

Rachel looked at Emma. "Did you have that feeling, too? With Lily?"

Gray green eyes in a face that looked nothing like her own. Five years of telling herself genetics were funny things, five years of not asking the question she was afraid of the answer to.

"Yes", she said. "I had that feeling, too." Rachel nodded. She was past crying or whatever phase she'd been in before and into something harder and quieter, the place that people came to when they'd carried something heavy a long time and finally set it down. "I don't know what we do now", Rachel said. "I don't know what we're supposed to do now."

"Neither do we", Alex said. His voice was even. "But we figure it out together. All of us." Rachel stared at him a long time, and then she stared at Emma. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the hum of the refrigerator and the feel of something passing between them, not exactly understanding but the determination to understand; not exactly forgiveness but the determination to try. Rachel hadn't released Maya's hand since she walked into the kitchen.

They talked for a long time, two families linked by a mistake, trying to build a future that didn't exist an hour ago.

The girls went outside. Emma watched them through the kitchen window. They stood two feet from each other, circling each other like two wary kids with a new dog. And then Lily extended her hand, holding out a rock she'd found. Maya took it, examining it gravely, and then put it in her pocket and smiled. Twenty minutes later, they were running around the yard.