Stolen Good

Yes, when they gave her to me, she had all the right traits. Small nose and dimples and eyes full of something. I found a checklist online to make sure, and she was all there. But I felt very strongly that I should give her back. Something with its own set of hands shouldn’t belong to someone else. They made me take her home anyway and I put her in that crib we built. I sent them an email every day for the first month: take her back, she’s not mine, I stole her. And they said check the birth certificate, that’s your receipt, she’s yours. And I said please, and they said no. She grew up well, put on a head full of scary thoughts. I left them there, mostly. Forced some others in too when I was feeling brave. She’d say liberal and I’d say conservative. She’d say Aunt Lynn was getting fat and I’d say no she’s getting back at her husband. I don’t think I gave her a name—it didn’t seem like my place. Somewhere along the way she became Grace and I became Dad, except for that one summer when she was at camp and I forgot to send her a care package. She became a lot, all the time. She became a jokester and a stellar lacrosse player and a part-time lifeguard. She became an attorney and a wife and a jogger and a mother and a drinker for a time, but then a survivor. She stayed a daughter, too. One Christmas I heard her talking to her little boy as she laid him in his crib. I’m your mommy, she said. The boy was small and said nothing, but it was then that I remembered who she belonged to, who I stole her from. I saw you pulling the crib from the box, watched you fall asleep on your side as I finished it. I saw you again for the first time since the delivery room. I heard you whisper in your baby’s ear, I’m your mommy. She was yours. But she became mine. I sent them another email: I’ll keep her. And they said who is this? And I said please, and they said okay.

Dan Marcantuono is a senior at USC studying Creative Writing. He loves writing in all its forms and aspires to write many, many books. He loves reading too, and his favorite book is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.