by Morgana (Fall 2020)
Hannah was a little girl with light skin, curly blonde hair, and blue eyes. Her mommy had skin like hers and curly hair like hers too, except it was brown. Her daddy looked different from both of them because he had dark skin and black hair. But none of that mattered much to Hannah because she loved her mommy and daddy and they loved her. Hannah loved to go out to restaurants or shopping with her parents because they always had fun together. She didn’t notice the way other people would stare at her family, especially when it was just her and her dad together.
When Hannah turned five, she started kindergarten. It was a lot of fun! She got to go to school every day except the weekends and play with her friends there. Sometimes her mommy would pick her up from school and sometimes her daddy would pick her up from school. When it was her daddy’s turn to pick her up, he always seemed a little nervous until they were both in the car and driving home. Hannah didn’t know why.
One day at school, Hannah was playing with her friend Melanie. They became best friends on the first day because they both had long curly blond hair and blue eyes. They liked to say they were twins. While they were playing, Melanie asked Hannah a question. “Where’s your real daddy?” she asked as she added a block to the tower they were building.
“He’s at work,” Hannah answered, “but he’s going to pick me up later like usual.” She also added a block to the tower.
“No,” said Melanie, “your real daddy.”
“He is my real daddy,” Hannah answered, feeling confused.
Melanie shook her head. “He can’t be your real daddy,” she said. “He’s black. My mommy said so.”
Hannah was mad. Of course he was her real daddy. He had been ever since she was born. “He is too my real daddy, and he always has been!” she snapped at Melanie. Then she knocked down their tower because she was so mad.
That night, she was quiet during dinner. She didn’t feel very hungry, so she was just pushing her food around her plate instead of eating it. What Melanie said was still making her mad, but she was also feeling confused and a little scared. What if Melanie was right? What if her daddy wasn’t her real one? She knew she had been adopted because her mommy and daddy had told her that their friend grew her in her tummy because mommy couldn’t. But her mommy and daddy had always been there since she was born. Surely there couldn’t be another daddy out there that was supposed to be her real one.
“Is something wrong, Hannah? You usually have a lot to tell us about your day,” said Mommy.
Hannah thought about it for a minute and then said, “I don’t love Daddy because he’s black.” Both Mommy and Daddy stopped talking and stopped moving, and they just looked at Hannah instead. Hannah felt shy being looked at like that and squirmed in her chair.
“Why would you say that?” Mommy asked. She didn’t look mad, but she didn’t look happy either.
Hannah felt really small all of the sudden. Even her voice was small when she said, “Because Melanie said he’s not my real daddy.” Mommy and Daddy looked at each other for a moment, then turned back to Hannah.
“You remember how we told you that Melissa grew you in her tummy?” Daddy asked. Hannah nodded, but she didn’t say anything. “But we took you home from the hospital, and you’ve been here ever since?” Daddy asked again. Hannah nodded, not sure where he was going with this. “And Mommy is your real mommy, right?” Hannah nodded a third time. “Then it makes sense I’m your real daddy, too. Doesn’t it?”
Hannah thought about that for a minute. “Yes,” she said slowly. “That does make sense. But then why did Melanie say you weren’t?” she asked.
Daddy gave a big sigh. “Because Melanie doesn’t know any better. Her mommy and daddy both look like her, so she doesn’t understand that that’s not always how it works,” he said. “But no matter what she or anyone else says, you know I’m your real daddy, and so do I. And Mommy does, too. That’s what’s important.”
Hannah nodded eagerly this time. “Yeah, it is.” Then she remembered what she said before, and immediately she felt guilty. “I’m sorry for what I said before, Daddy. About not loving you. I love you a lot.”
Daddy smiled his biggest smile and said, “I love you a lot, too.”
Something was still bothering Hannah, though. “Why did Melanie’s mom tell her that you’re not my real daddy?” she asked.
Daddy gave another big sigh. “You know how I said that Melanie didn’t understand because her life is different? That can be true for grownups, too. Her mommy doesn’t understand because Melanie’s daddy looks like her. But that’s not the only way for families to be.” He looked tired, but he smiled at Hannah as he said, “You know that, though.”
Hannah nodded. “It was still mean for Melanie to say that, and I got really mad and knocked down our tower,” she confessed.
“It’s okay to get mad when someone says something mean, but you don’t need to do something mean back,” Mommy said. “Two means are worse than one mean, don’t you think?”
“I guess that’s true,” said Hannah. She decided she would say sorry for knocking down the tower when she saw Melanie at school tomorrow. For now, though, she was going to eat her dinner. Now that she no longer felt mad about when Melanie said, she was really hungry.
