The Color of Family

Nicole and her adopted son Joe are on their way to the store to pick up some groceries for the weekend. “Child!” Nicole started strikingly. “Will you slow down before you get us a ticket?” “We ain’t gettin’ a ticket” Joe assured. “If one-time stops us and sees that my mama is Caucasian and tall they’ll let us go” he joked. “If that’s the case then you should let me drive” Nicole suggested. “Well if I did that we’d never get to the store on time, because you drive like Ms. Daisy” Joe replied sarcastically.

“Joseph, if you keep mouthing off you’re gonna get grounded” Nicole rebutted. As Nicole and Joe pulled into the parking lot they exited Nicole’s car with Joe standing on his tip toes in a mocking manner trying to equate himself to Nicole’s height. “Look I’m your height now” Joe uttered mockingly. “You could be in high heels and wedges and still wouldn’t be close to my height, Mugsy Bogues” Nicole joked. Joe briefly stopped with his jaw dropped empressed with Nicole’s comeback.

As they grabbed their shopping cart and made their way through the Food Lion, Joe continued to annoy Nicole with his antics as other shoppers watched in amusement. “So what we cookin’ later?” Joe asked while putting groceries into the cart. “WE ain’t cookin’ nothin’” Nicole emphasized. “I’m gonna be cookin’ while you sit back with everyone else drinking all the ginger ales in the fridge and snore yourself to death in my favorite chair.”

“Dang mama, you ain’t gotta make it sound so bad” Joe replied sarcastically. From across the isle where they were loading their cart, Nicole quickly caught a glance of a woman staring at her and Joe with what seemed to be a look of both confusion and disgust. Though no words were exchanged the woman quickly walked away while slightly rolling her eyes. Nicole knew what the woman’s look meant.

She had seen it many other times when her and Joe had been in public. It was the ignorant confusion of seeing a young black male referring to a white woman as his mother. Nicole quietly ignored the woman’s looks while shifting her focus back to Joe’s banter. “Are we atleast gonna have banana pudding?” Joe asked hopefully. “Ain’t got not choice” Nicole responded irately. “All you’ve been doing all week is asking me to make you some.”

“And look at how hard you’ve been workin to make it. Ain’t you just the best tallest mama ever.” Nicole gave Joe the longest eye roll ever as they got the rest of the groceries and left the food lion. While Nicole was putting the groceries in the back of her trunk Joe cranked up the car and mischievously turned the heat on full blast without Nicole realizing it.

When she got in the car and buckled up Joe took off on full speed with the car’s heat on full blast. Nicole frantically tried to rolled down the window while screaming at Joe angry and irately. “I hope you get appligated to this heat because this is how it’s gonna feel when you go to hell” Nicole called out as Joe laughed in amusement.

Later that night when Joe made it back home from dinner at Nicole’s. As he was turning in for bed his phone lit up with a notification from his Facebook messenger. It was from an old acquaintance named Chaz who Joe attended college with.

Chaz: Hey wassup Joe.

Joe: Yo what’s good Chaz. It’s been a long time, how you been?

Chaz: Doin pretty good, just school and work. So I wanted to ask you a question

Joe: Oh go head wassup?

Chaz: Who’s that tall white lady in a lot of your photos on the book?

Joe: Oh that’s Nicole, she’s basically like my adoptive mother. I met her at church a few years ago.

Chaz: Ah okay I gotchu. Not to sound judgemental, but do you ever feel out of place in all this?

Joe: What do you mean?

Chaz: I mean, you don’t think it’s strange calling a white woman who didn’t give birth to you your mother?

Joe: Why would her race or mine for that matter be relevant to the bond we have?

Chaz: You’re a young black male in a world that’s not for you and it is for her. In a world like this, could she ever really love you?

Joe: Yes she can. Because the world may not be for me, but SHE is for me and she has proven that everyday that she’s been part of my life.

Chaz: Well if you think she loves you…

Joe: I don’t think she loves me. I know she loves me.

Nicole is getting ready for bed when she reflects on the lady who gave her a disgusted look when she heard Joe call her “Mama”. At first she wanted to be bothered and disturbed, but then her Christianity took over. “My flesh wants to hit that woman in the nose” she thought to herself. “But my heart wants to pray for her because she really needs it.”

The next morning Joe returned to Nicole’s house and sat with her at the kitchen table while the rest of the family sat in the living room eating breakfast and watching tv. “Sup mom-dukes” he said as he sat across from her at the table. “Hey son, did you give your daddy some of that banana pudding I sent you home with?” Nicole asked. “Uh why would I do that?” Joe started sarcastically. “Because Jesus is watching” Nicole rebutted. “Well he knows my heart” Joe joked.

“So last night I got a message from an old classmate and do you know what he asked me?” Joe asked. “What?” Nicole responded. “He asked me why I was calling a white woman my mother who wasn’t and I was just like why does it even matter, it’s silly” Joe said with seriousness. “Yes it is, son” Nicole began. “I saw a woman give us a nasty look yesterday when we were shopping and at first I wanted to be bothered, but do you know what I did instead?” “What did you do?” Joe asked.

“I washed my hands with her and walked away. These people are consumed with ignorance and don’t live with an understanding of unconditional love. No we don’t look alike, we come from different worlds, our skin colors are different, but our hearts match. And though I didn’t birth you and you give me more migraines than I can keep track of, you are still my son. When your mother passed away she asked God to give you someone to watch over you while you were still here and I’m glad they picked me.” Joe looked up at Nicole with a smile while his hands laid on the table. “Love you mama” he said. “Love you more” Nicole replied.

~~Inspired by true events. A Mother’s Day tribute to my adoptive mother Nicole Moore Lee.