Stranger

Nora

I was hanging out in the rec room, minding my own business when a call came over the intercom for me. I walked to the nearest door and pushed the audio button, stating my name. The door buzzed, allowing me walk through the hallway, where I was greeted by an officer. She walked me towards the social worker's office.

"Nora! Come sit down," she said, still overly cheery. I rolled my eyes and took a seat.

"Good news," she said. "We got the DNA test back, and Mr. Miranda is indeed your father."

"Great," I mumbled, scratching my arm.

She cleared her throat. "I've contacted him, and he and his wife have agreed to take you in."

I looked at her suspiciously. "Really?"

She nodded excitedly. "They're both very excited and very nice people," she explained. "They're hoping to come by later today around 3 to meet you. Would you be okay with that?"

"I guess?" I said, though I wasn't sure. All of a sudden I had a father? Where the hell had he been this whole time?

"Wonderful," she said, tapping a stack of papers on her desk to neaten them up. "You can go back to the rec room."

I nervously watched the clock the rest of the day. It was Saturday, so there was no school to distract me or pass the hours. As the clock ticked closer and closer to 3:00, I felt my stomach turn. How was I supposed to react, meeting my father for the first time? Was I supposed to act all grateful, and hug him and cry and we'd live happily ever after? That's not how my life went. Things were up for a while, then my mom would take a downturn and life would be shitty. Once this Mr. Miranda and his wife knew what a horrible person I was, they'd bring me back.

Finally, I was called over. They were going to let me change back into my regular clothes for the visit so I wouldn't look like a felon. I slipped into the bathroom and pulled on my jean shorts, maroon red t-shirt with the star logo, and skateboarding shoes. I then followed the officer down the hall to the 'meeting room'. It was colorfully decorated, unlike the rest of the facility, made to look open and inviting to outsiders. As I walked in, a man and a pretty woman stood, holding hands. They were both dressed nicely and were smiling expectantly but looked nervous.

The social worker lady was there. "Nora? I'd like you to meet your father, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and his wife Vanessa."

I scanned them up and down for a few seconds and they seemed to do the same with me. Hesitantly they stepped forward. Luckily, they didn't try to hug me, because that wasn't going down.

"Why don't you come sit?" The social worker suggested. She sat in the seat next to me, apparently there to facilitate the meeting. She was all smiles, trying to get the interaction to go smoothly.

"So, Nora," she began. "Why don't you tell Lin and Vanessa a little about yourself?"

I cleared my throat a little. "I'm thirteen years old, in eighth grade. I like skateboarding and reading. I live in Queens. Lived in Queens."

"Nice to meet you, Nora," the man told me. "I'm Lin and this is my wife Vanessa. I'm a writer and Vanessa's a lawyer. We have two sons at home. Sebastian is 3 and a half, and Francisco's just a few months old."

I nodded, not really sure what to say. They sounded kind of uppity from their jobs.

"We were very surprised to hear about you," Vanessa said. "But we're very excited. We'd like to get to know you a little more."

I shrugged and picked at a little scab under my elbow. "There's not much to know," I admitted.

"Where do you go to school?" Lin asked.

"Altman," I said. "It's a craphole."

"Do you like school?" Vanessa asked.

"Not really," I said. Teachers and I had never really gotten along. I didn't like being told what to do, and I rarely bothered with school work. My mom never made me do my homework.

"You said you skateboard," Lin said. "Do you know many tricks?"

"Yeah, quite a few," I said. "They took my skateboard away."

"You'll get it back when you leave," the social worker said, then turned to the side table. "Why don't we play a little game?"

I rolled my eyes as she brought out "Sorry". A nice, light-hearted family game. Too bad my most vivid memory was of one of mom's boyfriends getting pissed that he'd lost and knocking the game over in a drunken stupor. I hated this game.

I played along, though, because I knew I couldn't come off as a total spaz. They kept watching me the whole time and I didn't like it. Were they expecting me to sprout something out of my head? As the game wound down, I had a blunt question for this man who was supposedly my father.

"So, where have you been the last 13 years?" I asked, crossing my arms.

He cleared his throat. "Well, I've been living in Washington Heights," he explained. "I've lived there my whole life. And Nora...I didn't know about you. If I did, I would've been in your life. I promise you."

I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering how my life would have been different. He seemed like a normal guy and that he might be a nice dad. How would I be different now if he'd been in my life since I was born?

"How'd you know my mother?" I fired another tough question.

"We dated for about a month," he told me. "Then we just kind of drifted apart. She never told me she was pregnant."

"You slept with her that fast?"

The social worker put her hand on my knee and I pushed it away. "Nora, that's not really an appropriate question. Why don't you tell them some of your favorite places to visit in the city?"

"I don't know," I began, deciding to mess with them. "Crack houses, hookah bars, seedy alleys...."

"Okay, I think we've had enough for today," the social worker tried to wrap things up. I smirked. "Nora, the Mirandas will be back to visit you again tomorrow."

I didn't respond, just walked towards the door, ready to be lead back with the others.