Stepchild

         Mama got a new baby last week.

         They sit in the front parlor. The fire was lit by Daddy Rolfe, just before he left and told me to mind my manners.

         So I peek in and see Mama rocking the baby and smoothing her hair. It's a sister.

         I'm a boy I don't know nothing about girls, but she looks all squinched up and straggly to me. Mama calls her Sugar, but her name is Annabelle Lee Wentworth. She got a different last name 'cause she got a different Daddy. My name is Adam Delmar LaCrosse, Mama calls me Addie. But she hasn’t called me anything since Annabelle got here.

         Her Granny came for two days and always shooed me out of the room. But now she's gone and I stand at the door wishing Mama would call me in to her.

         I wonder why Mama wanted a new baby, but I suppose it’s ‘cause she wanted a girl. Daddy Rolfe wanted a boy though. He said he was sure his son could throw a ball better than me. He only tried once, with me, that first week when Mama brought him to the house. After that he asked me to not get under foot. Mama would pat me with her gentle hands, but agree and say run along and play.

         I stand in the doorway longing for Mama’s gentle hand to smooth my brow, to smile at me with that happy glow. The same one she gives to “her”. I want it so badly I can feel an ache inside, but boys don’t cry. Do they?