It was a beautiful, warm summer day when Anna Simms finally picked Angelo up, in the early afternoon on Friday.

There were no tearful goodbyes from his aunt or Tony and Maria. No, more than anything, they were ready to see him go, although Maria did whisper into Angelo's ear that she would miss him.

"I'll miss you too, Maria," he said. "We had fun. I'm gonna miss it."

Maria laughed, "I'll miss how you and I used to run to the park and play hide and seek. Remember that one time when you couldn't find me and got scared and went home to get Tony."

Angelo reddened. He remembered all too well how, when he couldn't find her, he had gotten scared. He had thought maybe somebody had kidnapped her, and he had run excitedly around the park, his arms flailing about like a girl, getting the whole family looking for Maria, who was perched in the crotch of a tree, hidden by leaves, laughing the whole time.

Despite the things she had occasionally done to him, he still liked Maria, though she was only 12 and he was 14. Their fun was innocent and easy going, with Angelo seemingly fitting in with her in the world of 12-year-old girls.

Angelo placed his stuff in the trunk then got into the front seat of Anna Simms car and they began their trip to his new home. Anna was mostly quiet on the trip over, saying only, "I hope this works for you, Angelo. If you're not comfortable, I want to know right away, okay?"

"Oh Miss Anna, I think this will be okay. Mary, err... I mean, Mrs. Dayton seems to want me, even though I'm not a girl like she originally wanted. And, I really think I'll like her very much. I mean, just from our meeting I already do. I love the house, too. It's bigger and nicer than anything I could have ever imagined."

Anna placed a comforting hand gently on Angelo's arm as she drove on, saying, "Well, you're a really sweet boy. I want you to truly be happy there."

Angelo looked towards Anna and smiled. He was convinced he'd be happy there, particularly in the girlish atmosphere of his new room. He knew he would, he'd been dreaming about it every night since he had seen it.

When they arrived, Mary Elizabeth Dayton met them out front. She greeted them, saying hello to Angelo first. She then talked to Anna while Angelo got his things out of the trunk of the car.

"You can take your stuff right to the bedroom, Angelo," Mrs. Dayton said after Anna Simms had completed the details of the placement and was preparing to leave.

"Okay, . . . Mom," he tried out hesitantly as he picked up his one suitcase and a bag of his few art materials and books.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't cleaned out all the girl stuff yet. We'll get to that later, I promise," Mary apologized.

"Oh, that's okay. The room is fine," he replied quietly, as he entered the house.

"We can take down all the frilly decorations and put up a few soccer posters or something that's better for a boy once you get settled in. And next payday we can get a more suitable color and repaint the walls."

"Oh," Angelo exclaimed, gasping, as he stopped just inside the room, looking around in amazement.

The room was even more girly and in his opinion, perfect, than what he had seen days ago. He could see that not only had she not done anything to get rid of any of the girliness in the room, she had actually added more girly flourishes.

There were teddy bears on the bed that wasn't there the other day. A pair of ballet slippers now hung off the corner of the dresser mirror. A pair of black and white Mary-Janes peeked out from under the edge of the bed, a black and white polka-dotted dress hung from a hook on the back of the closet door, and a large dark-pink rug was now positioned in the middle of the hardwood floor.

Several flowery hair bows were neatly lined up on one side of an antique looking vanity; a vanity that wasn't there before either. Angelo couldn't help but grin from ear-to-ear.

"Th-this is fine. The room is okay just the way it is."

Mary Elizabeth smiled to herself as Angelo spoke again, "Mom? We can just leave it the way it is, for now."

He wanted to ask if they could keep it this way forever. He also wanted to just blurt out that he desperately wanted to become that daughter that she had wanted but he got scared and didn't, although, he comforted himself with the knowledge that he would, at some point.

Mary told Angelo to place his bags in the corner of the room. Once he had, he began to open them so that he could put his stuff away. Mary stopped him, telling him that there would be time for that later. She then directed him to a door that he assumed would be another closet, but instead opened to reveal his very own bathroom.

He had never had his own bathroom before. He was used to having to share with other people. At his last house, Tony and Maria always bullied him and made sure they got the bathroom before him. Half the time they wouldn't even leave him enough time to take a shower, causing him to have to go to school without one.

"Everything you need to take a shower is in here," Mary began. "Wash up and when you are done, get dressed and head to the kitchen. By the time you're done, dinner will be ready."

"What are we having," Angelo asked.

"Well, what did you tell me the other day when I asked you what your favorite meal was?"

"Spaghetti tacos???" Angelo yelled.

"I've never had them, so I hope I'm making them right," Mary replied with a smile as she turned to leave.

"Mom?" Angelo called out to her as she exited the bathroom.

Mary stopped just outside the door and turned around to see what he wanted.

"Thank you, . . . for everything." Angelo then took the few steps towards her and wrapped his arms around her in a big hug.

*****