“And this is the last space I have,” the slim but beginning to develop a rounded middle man says walking me through the three room store.

I carefully look over every room calculating the number of pieces I can get in here.

“It’s possible,” I mutter to myself.

“I see that you’re in deep thought. Are there any questions I can answer for you?” he asks invading my personal space.

“No, not really. Just visualizing the set up if I do take this one,” I smile taking a step back.

He returns it and walks away.

“Mom, if you buy this place, what happens with home?”Darnell asks standing behind me.

Like me she is touring the space.

“Would you want to move . . . here?” I ask facing her.

“Anya?”

” ‘Where you go, I go,’ her words,” I answer.

“Oh.”

Not the response I’m looking for. Anya has been apart of our life for the past four years; living with us, too.

“Do you not want Anya to be with us?” I ask using the term ‘be with us’ because Darnell and I are a package deal.

“I love Anya,” she begins.

“As she does you,”I counter.

“I want her with us,” she says in her little girl voice.

“We are a family. And we stay together, okay.” I place my arm around her shoulder.

“Okay.”

“Okay,” I repeat, ” So what do you think about this place?”

“It’s the only place I like.”

“Me, too,” I laugh.

Taking laughter as a sign of being able to approach me, the realtor interrupts us.

“So, Ms. Finley, the verdict?”

“We’ll take it,” Both Darnell and I answer.

*****

After filling out much of the paperwork, What Mr. Smythe had with him, Darnell dragged me to a computer store.

“See, Mom, this one has the chip and it goes so much faster than the one at home. And I’ve been so good in school lately. Good grades and less trouble and everything so I don’t see why I can’t have it. I mean do you?” she speeds though with a huge smile on her face.

My child, the computer geek, eyes dance with the mere mention of electronics. She certainly didn’t inherit the interest from me or Tina.