Chapter 6 Forever a David #3
Eva covered her mouth as tears spilled down her cheeks.
The judge blinked several times herself.
"I think that's the best explanation I've heard all week."
She looked down at the papers.
"There's one more matter."
Terrence glanced toward Anna.
The judge continued.
"Your parents have requested that you retain your birth name, Tan Lee, while legally adding David as your family surname."
Tan looked confused.
Terrence leaned toward him.
"You don't have to lose Lee to become ours."
Tan touched his pendant.
"You mean I keep it?"
"Always."
The boy's face brightened.
The judge smiled.
"Then, if you agree, your legal name will be Tan Lee David."
Tan repeated it slowly.
"Tan Lee David."
Terrence smiled.
"Sounds good to me."
Tan grinned.
"Me too."
The judge signed the final order.
"Then it is my honor to declare that, effective today, Tan Lee David is the legal son of Terrence and Eva David."
Eva burst into tears.
Gloria shouted,
"Thank You, Jesus!"
The entire courtroom laughed.
Harold wiped his eyes while pretending he had something in them.
Travis threw an arm around Tan.
"Now you're officially stuck with us."
Ella hugged him from the other side.
"Forever!"
Tan laughed.
Then he turned.
Terrence stood several feet away.
For a moment, father and son simply looked at each other.
Terrence opened his arms.
Tan ran.
Terrence caught him and lifted him from the floor.
Tan wrapped his arms around his father's neck.
"I love you, Dad."
There it was again.
Dad.
Terrence closed his eyes.
"I love you too, son."
He held him tighter.
The little boy he'd once pulled from the path of an oncoming truck was no longer a stranger he'd rescued.
He was his child.
His responsibility.
His joy.
His son.
That evening, the David backyard became a celebration.
Neighbors filled the lawn.
Music played.
Children ran through sprinklers.
Gloria had enough food to feed half of Los Angeles.
A banner stretched across the patio:
WELCOME FOREVER, TAN!
Tan stood beneath it staring.
Eva walked beside him.
"You like it?"
He nodded.
"But..."
"What?"
He looked at her.
"I was already home."
Eva's eyes filled with tears.
She kissed his forehead.
"Yes, you were."
Across the yard, Terrence stood beside Harold at the grill.
Harold watched his grandson race toward Travis and Ella.
"You know something?"
Terrence flipped a burger.
"What's that?"
"You didn't rescue that boy."
Terrence looked at him.
Harold smiled.
"God put both of you in the same intersection."
Terrence glanced across the yard.
Tan was laughing.
Happy.
Safe.
Loved.
"I've thought about that."
"And?"
Terrence smiled.
"I think you're right."
Later, after the guests left and the children were asleep, Terrence found Tan sitting alone on the front porch.
He still wore his adoption-day clothes, though his tie was long gone.
Terrence sat beside him.
"You okay?"
Tan nodded.
"Happy."
"Me too."
Tan looked toward the night sky.
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"If my first mama come back..."
Terrence waited.
"...you still my dad?"
The question pierced him.
Terrence turned fully toward his son.
"Tan, listen to me."
The boy looked at him.
"Nothing that happens from this day forward will ever change the fact that I'm your father."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing."
"If someday we find your biological family, I'll stand beside you when you meet them."
"If you want to learn where you came from, I'll help you."
"If you want to know your culture, we'll learn."
"If you have questions I can't answer, I'll help you find someone who can."
He gently touched the jade pendant.
"You never have to choose between being a Lee and being a David."
Tan stared at him.
"You can be both."
The little boy smiled.
Then he leaned against Terrence.
"Okay."
They sat together beneath the porch light.
After a while, Tan's head became heavy against his father's arm.
Terrence looked down.
"Ready for bed?"
Tan yawned.
"Carry me."
Terrence laughed.
"You're getting too big for that."
"I'm seven."
"Exactly."
"That's little."
"Convenient."
Tan raised both arms.
Terrence shook his head, smiling as he lifted him.
Tan rested his cheek against his father's shoulder.
Halfway through the house, he whispered sleepily,
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"God did tell you where I was."
Terrence stopped walking.
He remembered the nightmare.
The frightened little boy called for him.
The feeling that had driven him and Eva to the CPS office.
The chance encounter outside the Henderson home.
The bruise.
The phone call.
The night Tan arrived.
Maybe coincidence explained all of it.
Terrence didn't believe that.
He kissed his son's temple.
"Maybe he did."
Tan closed his eyes.
Terrence carried him down the hallway past the photographs that documented the David family's life.
Tomorrow, Eva would add another one.
A courthouse photograph.
Terrence and Eva stood in the center.
Travis and Ella crowded around them.
Harold and Gloria smiled proudly behind them.
And right in front, wearing a navy suit with a jade pendant around his neck, stood the newest David.
Tan Lee David.
A boy with two histories.
Two names.
And one future that was only beginning.