– I'll make them all in different styles. What kind of material?

– The usual stuff, like everyone else's. I'd be most grateful» I smiled.

We said goodbye to Aunt Mel and went home. On the way Mary suggested we go to the supermarket and buy some groceries, and I was a bit scared, because I'd never been to a supermarket before – I just didn't need to go there, so I politely declined.

– Then , let's go to the park and go rollerblading» Mary suggested, grabbing my arm again.

– I'm afraid I don't know how to skate» I said honestly.

– I'll teach you. It's not very hard; you just have to keep your balance. By the way, about the bike: you can use it whenever you want, but I'll still walk to work.

– Good, I'll know. Where do you work? – I asked.

– At a shelter for homeless children» she said. – Of course, the pay won't be much, but that doesn't matter: I've always felt sorry for those poor, unwanted kids, because… If it weren't for the Smiths, I'd be one of them. – Mary smiled sadly.

– Why do you say that? – I wondered, but I knew what she meant.

From the first time I'd met Mary, when she'd nearly slammed the door in my face, I'd never seen her as having anything in common with Harry, they were completely different, but I hadn't thought about the fact that she might not be his own sister.

– They adopted me when I was two, from this very orphanage. Of course, they hide it from me and treat me like family, and I've never felt any difference in the way they treat me and Harry. They love us equally. I know the Smiths are not my birth parents, but it makes no difference to me: they took me in, brought me up, raised me, and never made any distinction between me and their own son.

– How did you know? – I asked quietly, penetrated by her words and sadness.

It all seemed like some Hollywood film to me, but Mary, the living, real Mary, was walking with me and holding my hand. I felt sorry for this girl, and after her words about the sincere parental love and care of the Smiths, I felt great respect for them, because not every family would agree to take someone else's child into their home and devote their lives to it.

«They are wonderful people! Mary got into a very good family. But it's so terrible: her birth parents abandoned her, abandoned her… How inhuman and low it is! How lucky I am to be born into my family! How much my family loves me!» – involuntarily ran through my mind.

– I was a troubled teenager, and when I was fifteen I was especially so: rude, rude, smoked, skipped school, got that stupid piercing because I thought it was cool. Once, when no one was home, I went through my mum's papers: she hides them from me on purpose, but one day I peeked where she hid them, and when everyone was gone, I took them out. And then I found out that I wasn't their real daughter, and they weren't my real parents, and that Harry wasn't my brother… You know, I didn't feel anything: no bitterness, no disappointment. It was just an emptiness. I couldn't get used to this new truth, and then I felt so sorry for my fate! But I put the documents back and didn't say anything to my parents. I remember locking myself in the loo and crying all day. And as I sat there, I realised that I couldn't and shouldn't resent the Smiths. I thought how lucky I was that they adopted me! What right had I to be angry with them? – Mary squeezed my hand hard, apparently agitated by her own story. – Since then , I've been eternally grateful to them, and I've never stopped loving them. On the contrary. For their sake I stopped truancy, smoking, rudeness, in general, I became a good girl and got in school quite a good certificate. By the way, I didn't go to college on purpose. I purposely didn't take off my earring from my nose to get rejected. I just didn't want them to pay that much money for me. I did it on purpose to be able to work.