Needing Adelaide | ✓

33 ~ Your Embrace

Jonathan

"Are you sure you have all your stuff packed, Jojo?" Jaylen jumps and falls onto the bed causing me to bounce and almost loose grip on my phone.

I give her a playful glare and ruffle her hair. "Stop! Mom just braided it for me, you're gonna mess it up!"

She slaps my hand away and I smile at her. Her under eyes are puffy from crying last night, realizing it was my last day here. Her adorable 8 year old brain doesn't understand why I live in the US. She would bring it up all throughout the trip casually, trying to get me to stay.

"Yeah, I have all my stuff packed. Oh! Wait," I look around frantically, pretending I'm missing something important.

She sits up, "What? You missin' something?"

I slowly look back at her, "The present you got for Addy! It's missing!"

Her adorable blue eyes grow wide and she yells, "What! You lost it?"

I lift the cover on the bed to sell the act, "It was just here."

She pouts her little lip, "How's she gonna like me if I don't give her a present? I told her I would!"

Yesterday, before we went to the grocery store I was on the phone with Addy and Jaylen asked to have a serious talk with her.

They became best friends within the first five minutes. Jaylen tried the protective sister act for about ten seconds before Adelaide's bubbly personality and natural affinity with kids won her over. Jaylen told Adelaide she would send me back with a gift for her. So she bought a strawberry plush with her allowance money. She asked Adelaide what she likes and she said gardening. Hence the strawberry.

I hold back a smile and pull the plush from behind a pillow, "Is this it? I can't remember."

Jaylen rolls her eyes in that over the top way eight year olds do. "Yes! You scared me Jojo. I thought you really lost it!"

She has a very good vocabulary for her age but her baby voice makes it hard to take her seriously.

She snatches it out of my hands and hugs it close to her chest. "I'm gonna hold onto it until you leave. Just in case," She pouts and hops off my bed.

"Jay. We leave for the airport in an hour, don't want to forget to pack it do you?"

She stills in the doorway with her back to me. Her head tips down and I notice a slight quiver in her shoulders.

"Oh, Jay jay," I say softly and walk over to her. I crouch next to her and the moment I'm at her height she turns and throws her arms around my neck, the strawberry tumbling to the ground with a muffled bounce.

She starts letting out little sobs, her voice broken up by her cries, "I-I don't w-want you to g-go." I rub her back to try and soothe her, she continues, "Black Vally is t-too far away! Why can't you m-move here, I m-miss you Jojo!"

I always feel a heavy weight on my heart when I hear her cry. But this time it feels even heavier because I miss her too but I also have Adelaide now. If I were to move here to be with Jaylen and mom I'd be leaving Adelaide behind and I can't do that.