I sat back, trying to register what the adoption form had spewed out at me.

If Léá was my mother…that meant that ‘Mama’, was in all actuality, my aunt.

It was horrifying. My mind drew a blank slate. I didn’t know what to think.

Even my grief over ‘Papa’ had temporarily disappeared.

Why hadn’t anyone told me? Why had I been kept in the dark?

All my memories seemed to dry up, like a well under a searing drought. I didn’t want to remember anything. I didn’t even want to be in the house.

Hurriedly, I folded the certificate and the form, and placed it in my coat’s pocket, my palms pale and sweating as I struggled to get a grip in general.

When I got up to walk jerkily towards the door, my cellphone rang. I snatched it out of my pocket, and frantically searched for the number that would tell me who was calling.

I recognized the number, and feeling quite senile, I flipped the mobile open and wailed into the receiver loud enough to be heard all the way to the top of Everest.

“Emma!“