Complex Family
By Lucky O.

Cicilia and May had anxiously awaited this letter. May had applied to many of the theater agencies in Minneapolis and was waiting to see which one she would be working for. At the same time Cicilia had applied to accounting firms because she didn’t want to live miles away from her best friend and main support system. Cicilia held her breath and opened the letter. “I GOT IT!” she squealed with joy. May and Cicilia celebrated with excited hugging, jumping and squealing. “Oh Cici, this will be great! Not only will you be able to keep being neighbors but this firm will pay you loads more than this one! How long till you start?” May inquired. Cicilia looked over the letter again. “Next Saturday… Wait, did I read that right? You’ve gotta be kidding me! They’re only giving us 2 weeks to move 500 miles?!” May patted Cicilia on the back. “Better get packing, and break the news to your kids.”
The year was 1994, and Cicilia was a single mother of 2 kids she adopted. Adoption was unusual for a single mother in the mid 1990s. Chelsea was her 7 year old and Anna (Annabel) was her youngest at 4 years. She got her and her kids packed up, on the train, and off to the big city in one week. The next step would involve making their new apartment feel like a home, and part of that was getting to know their neighbors. Cicilia made a dozen cookies for each door on their floor, and it was time for her to introduce herself and her family. She gave a few baskets of cookies to Chelsea and they went out.
“Stay close to Chelsea” Cicilia instructed Anna. Cicilia knocked on the first door, number 53. It opened to a relatively fit middle aged man with a cigarette in his mouth. He had an annoyed expression on his face. Cicilia thought to herself, “Oh great… No, be open minded…” She exhaled, “Hello I’m Cicilia and these are my children. We just moved in three days ago and thought we would introduce ourselves. We have cookies for you!” Cicilia smiled nervously. “Oh awesome! I love cookies, man! I’m Reggie, feel free to come knockin’ if you ever have mechanical issues. I’m really good at that stuff.” The man exclaimed. Cicilia was pleasantly surprised by how nice he was.
She moved on to the next door, 54. This time there were 2 people at the door, a married couple. She introduced herself once again. “Hello! I’m Cicilia, and these are my children Chelsea and Anna. We just moved in across the hall and thought it would be nice to meet the neighbors. We brought some cookies!” A little boy peeked out from behind the woman in the doorway. The woman said “Oh my! This is lovely!” The man chimed in, “It’s nice to meet you Cicilia, I’m Elijah! This is my wife Amelia, and our son Karter.” He stuck his hand out for a handshake.
After a few doors they came to door 58. A nervous young man opened this door. “Uh.. Hello?” he inquired. “Sorry to bother you. I’m Cicilia and this is my family. We just moved in and thought we would introduce ourselves. We brought cookies.” Cicilia felt a little awkward at this door. “Oh, well then hello! I’m Mathew, well Matt, I recently moved here too! A- About a month ago. I just got done with college and… Well yeah, that's it.” He uttered nervously. “Well it's nice to not be the only new ones around.” Cicilia said, a little and awkwardly.
They visited all the doors except the last one, number 60. Cicilia knocked, and waited a minute. No one seemed to be there so she was going to put the cookies by the door with a note. As she bent down to put the cookies on the floor, the door opened. “What are you doing?!” An old lady was standing at the door, and she did not look happy. “Oh! I… Uh… Have cookies!” Cicilia attempted to compose herself. “I’m Cicilia and-” The lady interrupted, “I don’t want whatever you're selling.” Cicilia replied “Oh no, we're not selling! These are a gift. We just moved in, these are my ki-” Cicilia was interrupted again, “Well that's great.” Before Cicilia could say anything else the door was closed. “That lady was rude!” Chelsea said, holding her sleeping sister. “No, she was probably just… tired.” Cicilia didn’t want to make any quick judgments about people. They went back to their apartment.
At the end of the week Cicilia gets ready for work, walks her kids to school, and they go about their day. Cilcila at work has a fast paced first day, and feels overwhelmed. Cicilia picks up her kids at the end of the work day and runs into the couple that live on the apartment floor. They walk home together and make lunch plans.
The morning before the lunch plans they are getting their mail and the old lady is there too. Anna starts talking to the old lady, and asking her silly questions because she is 4. Cicilia tries to get Anna to come back and stop bothering the lady. When she goes to grab Anna,Cicilia asks the old lady if she wants to join her for lunch. She just grunts, closes her mail box and walks away.
Cecilia tells her kids that Elijah will watch them as they have a play date with Karter. Chelsea is wary of this because she saw Karter chewing on legos at school. Cicilia tells her to suck it up and be more open. She goes out to lunch. When she comes back, she takes her kids home, and they talk about their fun day.
About a month goes by and she gets a letter from May saying she will be in Minneapolis in a month and half. Cicilia has become well established in her apartment community and wants to have an apartment floor party. She invites all her neighbors including the old lady, hopeful that she will show. When the day comes she does not show, but Matt asks Cicilia to help him and a friend with a project.
She meets Matt and his friend Penny. Penny lives on the top floor and wants to start a community roof garden and is asking for help. Cicilia loves the idea and says she will help, but is only available on weekends. Once the garden is going, they invite the neighbors to visit and use the veggies. Cicilia notices this draws the old lady out. Cicilia finally finds out her name, Harper, Ms. Harper.
Cicilia takes her kids over to Ms. Harpers and they spend the day making soup. Ms. Harper even cracked a smile a few times while cooking with the children. While there Cicilia sees that while Harper's kitchen seems full, the rest of her apartment is rather empty. She offers to help her decorate, and suggests Amelia as a master at decorating. Ms. Harper is hesitant, but agrees to some small decor.
About a week later Amelia and Cicilia start the decorating project. While they decorated, Ms. Harper got to teach more recipes to Chlesea, Anna, and now Karter. When Cicilia and Amelia finished their light decorating, Ms. Harper allowed the kids to take some homemade bread with them.
It was time for May to finally move out to Minneapolis. She wasn't able to get an apartment in the same complex as Cicilia, but she got one nearby. Cicilia was glad to have her best friend nearby again, and the kids were happy to see their (basically) aunt. May was able to get Cicilia and her kids discounted tickets to the play she was assisting in, West Side Story.
Cicilia invited Ms. Harper to come along, and Matt, as he was surprisingly a theater connoisseur. Cicilia left Anna with Elijah and Amelia, as she would probably not understand most of it. As they were watching the play Ms. Harper began to cry. She got up and left the theater. Cicilia followed after. Cicilia sat outside with her, comforting Ms. Harper. As she wiped her tears, Ms. Harper began to explain how she never got a love story of her own. She always longed for a family, and a grand romance of some kind. As she got older she became bitter and shut the world out. Ms. Harper was convinced she would die alone, with no family to ever call her own.
A few nights after the play, Cicilia heard a knock at her door. When she opened it Ms. Harper was standing outside. Her fridge had stopped working, and she wanted some help. Cicilia went right next door to Reggie. He was happy to help. Ms. Harper was starting to have a realization that there may be people out there that would care for her. Maybe she should’ve kept trying to form connections.
A week or so goes by and Cicilia notices that Ms. Harper hasn’t been out doing her normal activities. She knocks on her door but there is no answer. Cicilia asks around and finds out Ms. Harper went to the hospital as she was having some medical complications. Cicilia gets everyone on their floor available, calls up May, and takes her kids off to the hospital to go visit. They all arrive and wish her well with flowers and cards. Anna and Chelsea bring her homemade cards. Ms. Harper is shocked that they all care so much. She smiles so bright, and realizes she does have a family of her own.

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