‘Well, besides the eyebrows and coloring, we didn’t look that much alike. His nose is much larger than mine and his face is wider,’ I said, pulling my hands up by my face to show how much larger his was than mine. ‘But my aunt showed me a photo of my mother and I could see some resemblance in our faces which was pretty wild. My nose, the shape of my face, the same dark chocolate brown eyes. And she had these eyebrows too, of course, but not quite as extreme. Obviously, it’s a dominant trait in the family. But she had this beautiful thick curly hair that I sadly didn’t get. Mine looks like it tried to be curly and then got tired and gave up half-way.’ Andie laughed and nodded her head in agreement. ‘My uncle said my mother was on the short side, maybe 5′2″ or 5′3″. Since I’m 5′6″, I wonder if my dad was taller. No one seems to know anything about him.’

Andie stopped chewing and narrowed her eyes at me. ‘Man, you’ll take any opportunity to throw those three inches you have on me in my face, won’t you,’ she said shaking her head.

I smirked at her while chomping on the fried rice, thinking about the photo of my mother holding a melting ice cream cone. That one glimpse had made her more real than anything else had, like all of a sudden, she was a part of me.

‘It was a little strange seeing her, even though she was quite young in the photo. She was … I don’t know, familiar?’ I said, scrunching my face up. ‘Like I’d known her my whole life, but at the same time, I didn’t know her at all.’ I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, rubbing them vigorously for a second before looking back up. ‘Sorry, I’m not making much sense, am I?’

I felt confused and drained from trying to keep up with the extreme pendulum swings of emotion. I felt grateful to have been saved from the fate of my mother’s life, but at the same time, I wondered if I could have changed her life for the better. Maybe keeping me would have sobered her up, made her realize she needed to change to take care of me. I guess I’d never know.

Andie reached over, placing a hand on my shoulder. ‘It’s natural that this would be a confusing time for you. Your whole life just cracked open.’

I was about to answer her when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, so I rejected the call. Probably a telemarketer or political call. Ever since I’d donated to a local politician’s campaign, the calls came constantly.