I should’ve brought up the detention right then. Instead, I whispered, “What’s up with Grandma?”

“What do you mean?

“I mean, you’re my mom, but Grandma Dotty doesn’t seem to think we should act alike or look alike. Is she… okay?” I was starting to worry about Grandma’s mind. It was like her brain was taking longer and longer vacations from her body. I didn’t blame it—I wouldn’t want to be stuck in her head all the time either.

“Tell her, Jules,” Grandma said from behind the closet door. “She’s smart—she’ll figure it out. Tell her, or I will.”

“Mother, would you just—leave! Please!”

Mom had never yelled at Grandma before—not in front of me. This was getting seriously weird. But I heard Grandma Dotty’s footsteps leaving the room, and then Mom sighed.

“Georgia, I’ve got something I need to tell you,” she said, looking down at the funky sixth-grade photo of herself. “But I don’t know how to say it.” She sounded so freaked out that I thought she was getting ready to tell me all about the birds and the bees. To which I can only say:

YUCK.

“Um—don’t worry, Mom. I learned all about that stuff in health class last year,” I said.

Mom chewed her lip. “No, Georgia…” She took my hand and pressed my fingers really gently. “Sweetheart, I don’t know how to say this, so I’m just going to say it….”

Sorry. That transcript may not be entirely right. My brain sort of short-circuited after the word “adopted.”

But it made sense. It explained everything. Why I didn’t look like Mom. Why I didn’t act like Rafe.

Grandma Dotty’s brain wasn’t being eaten by worms.

My life was.

Jules Explains It All

When Rafe and Leo were born, I was so happy. But Leo got sick. And then he died,” Mom went on.

“It’s still really, really hard for me to talk about. I didn’t want to leave the house—ever. I didn’t want Rafe to leave the house. I wouldn’t let him play with anything hard, or touch anything that had been on the floor, or even sit on the couch, because he might fall off. I was going crazy, and I was making us both miserable. And that was when I realized that I needed more to think about, not less. I needed another outlet. I had all this extra love to give, and you needed someone to love you. So I adopted you.”

Mom stopped. She stared at me like she was trying to read my mind. I could tell she really wanted me to understand….

But I wasn’t sure that I did understand.

“You adopted me to replace Leo?”

“No,” Mom said, but her strange, shaky voice made it sound like “maybe” to me.