Chapter 15 - The Family Tree
Preschool sent home a family-tree assignment in January.
Anna found the paper in Eli's backpack between a crumpled drawing and half a granola bar. At the top, a smiling cartoon tree waited for photographs of parents, grandparents, siblings, and "special family members."
She stared at it far too long.
Eli climbed into his booster seat.
"We need pictures."
"I see."
"I need you and Daddy and Aunt Nora and Rina."
"What about grandparents?"
Eli shrugged. Vincent's mother lived in Chicago and had met him only twice under carefully planned circumstances. Anna's parents were dead. Family trees, she thought, were excellent at pretending relationships grew in symmetrical branches.
"Can we draw people instead of pictures?"
"Teacher says yes."
That solved the immediate problem.
It did not solve Anna.
At the studio that afternoon, she asked Mae whether family-tree assignments were designed specifically to torment divorced parents.
Mae looked over her glasses.
"They torment everyone. Adoption, death, estrangement, two moms, no dads, six grandparents. Teachers keep using trees because nobody has invented a better plant."
Anna laughed.
That evening Vincent called for the Wednesday video visit. Eli showed him the paper.
"We need your face."
"I can send a photograph."
"No, I want to draw you."
Vincent submitted to an artistic process that gave him purple hair and arms longer than his body.
"Accurate," Anna said from off camera.
Vincent smiled.
"Mommy has orange hair," Eli explained.
Anna did not have orange hair.
Vincent said, "Your mother's hair is brown."
Eli frowned. "Not in my picture."
"Then orange is correct."
The finished tree placed Anna on one side, Vincent on the other, Aunt Nora below, Rina beside a branch, and Green Rex in a position of unexplained importance near the trunk.
"Where do I put Sophia?" Eli asked suddenly.
Anna froze.
Vincent had mentioned Sophia only when necessary. Eli knew her name because an old article had surfaced at preschool and because the adults had explained that she had been on the plane.
"Why would you put Sophia?" Anna asked.
"She was Daddy's friend."
Anna looked at the screen.
Vincent answered carefully.
"She is someone I knew for a long time. But she isn't part of your family tree unless she is part of your life, and she isn't."
Eli accepted that.
Anna was surprised by her own relief.
After the call, she told Rebecca about the assignment during a separate conversation on school forms. Parentage had now been fully recognized. Eli's birth record would be updated to include Vincent as his father. They had chosen not to change Eli's surname for now. He was still Eli Bennett.
Vincent had not challenged it.
"He may ask later," Rebecca said. "Children often become interested in names when they understand what they signify."
Anna touched the edge of the family-tree paper.
"I don't want him to think keeping my name means I kept him from his father."
"Then tell him that when he asks."
The simplicity irritated Anna.
"Do lawyers practice sounding obvious?"
"Years of training."
The final divorce financial settlement was also nearing completion. Vincent had agreed to establish an education account for Eli under neutral management, with terms preventing either parent from using it as leverage over the other. Anna contributed a smaller amount each month.
At first she had resisted the imbalance.
Then Rebecca asked whether Anna intended to limit her son's opportunities so the numbers would feel emotionally fair.
"No."
"Then let the agreement solve the problem it is meant to solve."
Anna signed.
Vincent did not celebrate.
The family-tree project went to school on Friday.
Eli returned upset.
A boy named Carter had told him dads were supposed to live with moms.
"What did you say?" Anna asked.
"I said my daddy lives on the train."
Anna bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.
"He lives in an apartment in Madison and has a home in Chicago."
"Train is easier."
"Fair."
Eli kicked off his shoes.
"Why don't you live together?"
There it was.
Anna sat beside him on the floor.
"Because Daddy and I were married, and we decided not to stay married."
"Did you fight?"
"Yes. Sometimes."
"Did he do bad choices?"
"Yes."
"Did you?"
Anna felt the question land.
"Yes."
Eli looked surprised.
"What?"
"After the plane accident, I was scared. Daddy thought I was dead. When I got better, I didn't tell him I was alive for a long time. That was a choice I made because I was afraid. It also meant he didn't know you."
Eli's face became very still.
"You didn't tell Daddy me?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I thought keeping us away would keep us safe. I understand now that I should have found a safe way to tell him earlier."
"Was Daddy mad?"
"Very."
"Is he still mad?"
"Sometimes adults still have feelings about old things. But he loves you, and I love you, and none of it was your fault."
Eli climbed into her lap.
"I don't like when you do bad choices."
Anna held him.
"Neither do I."
Five minutes later he wanted crackers.
The conversation stayed with Anna for days.
She told Vincent what she had said.
"Thank you," he replied.
"You don't have to thank me for admitting my part."
"I know. I'm glad he won't grow up with a story where one of us was perfect."
Anna looked through the window at snow falling on the yard.
"That story would be easier."
"For us."
"Not for him."
The next Saturday, Vincent brought the family-tree paper back from school because Eli had insisted on showing him the teacher's gold star.
Vincent studied the orange-haired Anna and purple-haired version of himself.
"Why is Rina taller than everyone?"
"She is powerful," Eli said.
Rina, standing in the studio doorway, bowed.
Eli pointed to the trunk.
"Green Rex is family."
"Obviously."
Then he pointed between Anna and Vincent.
"You used to be married."
"Yes," Vincent said.
"But now you are both mine."
Anna felt the sentence catch under her ribs.
Vincent looked at her, then back at Eli.
"Yes," he said. "We're both yours."
Anna corrected gently.
"We're both your parents. But people don't belong to other people."
Eli sighed at this unnecessary complication.
"You know what I mean."
May you like
She smiled.
"I do."
