Chapter 11

"What are we doing today?"

"I thought we'd give science a miss and do something a little different." He handed me a piece of paper with a list of numbers on it. "Do you know what this is?"

I shook my head. Was it meant to be some sort of calculation? If it was I had no idea what it was meant to be doing and I was a bit confused at it coming from Sean as it was usually Elliana who taught me maths.

"Give me your best guess. Tell me what you see."

"There's twelve numbers and none of them go past twenty-six."

"That's right. Can you think of the significance of that?"

What was he talking about? Did those numbers mean something special?

"What else has twenty-six figures?" he prompted.

"The Reagen alphabet? So it's like a number code?"

"That's right."

"What does it say?" I asked him.

"You tell me."

I wrote out the alphabet below his message and after ten minutes I had "My name is Ezra."

"That's right. That was the simplest code out there, usually there would be a series of numbers or a word that works as a key to decipher it, and you'd have to know that key to know what it says."

I wondered why he taught me this, it seemed like a bit of fun on the surface, but I was sure there was some other meaning behind it.

After that, our lessons resumed as normal, but occasionally, he would spring a new one on me out of the blue. Alex joined in, but a lot of the time he lost patience and did something else instead. Sometimes I would go days without solving one but when I finally figured out the code it would be something like- 24.9.2.20_24.15.22.13.5_26.15.22_13.10.12.6_7.15.19_13.22.15.4.9? Aka "what would you like for lunch?" and I would post a reply to his office written in the same code.

But other times he used it for things that couldn't be considered trivial at all. Especially when it was something that would change the course of our lives: 22.24.21.15.6_26.17.2_13.16.11.8_23.19_22.22_2.11.15.19.22_26.17.2. The key was the date we came to live with them.

I held the translations in my hands, having completed it just before breakfast, when I didn't come down Elliana came looking for me.

"Ezra! Its breakfast time…" she trailed off when she saw the note in my hands.

"I translated it." I handed it to her, and she took it curiously.

"When Sean said he was going to speak to you I didn't think that quite what he meant."

"You want to adopt us?" I wondered if I'd translated it wrong, but I knew I hadn't. I remembered the conversation I overheard.

"If that's what you want."

"You don't have to. It doesn't matter what happens to me if you don't. I don't want you to do it, it's okay."

"What do you mean 'whatever happens to you'? Nothing is going to happen to you."

"I heard you talking with Sean the other week after he came back late from work. When Luke pulled him in. I knew they weren't going to let you have me, I've done bad things and I need to pay for them. I don't want you to do this just to protect me."

"Ezra you heard something out of context. You shouldn't have been listening into a private conversation."

"But is it true? You're making the adoption before they can take me away."

"When we took you, it wasn't through official channels, they hadn't decided what they were going to do with you. They still haven't, Luke it is stalling them long enough to get the adoption done because then the decision is made for them. We'll have custody of you and there's nothing they can do about it.

Alex needs this too. I'm not sure he'll stay if you don't, and he has some family on his mother side in Paela that have taken some interest, but they're bad people. Unless we officially adopt him, we'll have no power to go against them even if it isn't what Alex wants. For both of you, we need to make this official. We do really want you as our family."

"How does it work?"

"Don't you worry about how it's going to work, it's a lot of legal stuff. But if you agree to it, you'll be Ezra Anderson. Our son, and there's nothing anyone can say about it."

I can have a family name. I can have a family. Six months ago, I couldn't even imagine something like this happening. I couldn't imagine anyone taking me in and treating me like their son. Having a family. It felt like it was too good to be true. How could I deserve something like this? How could someone want me in their family after the things I'd done?

"I'm a bad person. Why do you want me as family?"

"You're not a bad person, but you have done bad things. Luke told me about his rules he gave you, to listen to adults but come to your own conclusions, no violence, get on with other kids and… Not to draw on tables," she scoffed at the last one, "but as potentially your new mum, I would like to add another one. Learn to forgive yourself. No one is blaming you for the way you acted. Not even Alex."

"But I think he should."

"You want to be punished to get out of your feelings of guilt and shame. But no punishment is going to undo what you've done, so instead, why don't you think about how you can be a better person, now you don't have to do those things?"

Being punished would make it easier, but it wouldn't undo anything. "I'll try."

"Now, moving on from that, pancakes?"

"What's pancakes?"

"Only the best breakfast even invented." She commented with a smile of relief spreading over her face. Downstairs, Sean and Alex had already half devoured their breakfast and were happily discussing what they were going to do that day since I had lessons with Elliana.

"Sean, I decoded your note." I interrupted.

He grinned like a madman, "Took you long enough, I almost gave up waiting and just told you!"

"Which is what I thought you were going to do!" Elliana complained while stacking some creaming looking disks on the plate in front of me.

"And what do you think?" he asked excitedly.

"What's happening? What are you talking about?" Alex complained.

"I'll do it… Thank you."

He practically beamed and leapt up, almost pulling me off the chair to force me into a hug. It was so uncharacteristic that I couldn't help but laugh.

"What's going on?" Alex pushed his plate aside and regarded us as if we'd all gone mad.

"We want to adopt you Alex." Elliana finally explained.

"Like we'd be in your family for real?"

"Yeah."

A few days after the conversation both me and Alex agreed that we would like to be adopted by the Andersons. It turned out Alex was aware of his Great Aunt living in Paela but would rather stay in Reagen. I became Ezra Anderson, son to Sean and Elliana Anderson and little brother to Alex Roe-Anderson.