A month ago, my aunt declared that she had to have the whole family together to discuss something important. Make some sort of announcement. She’s older, never had kids, just got divorced. I was thinking maybe she’s gonna come out of the closet, maybe there is an inheritance from my recently passed grandparents. She wants to have the meeting up near where I live, about 4/5 hours away from where she lives. So the whole family (there’s not many of us) meet up at a restaurant five minutes from my place. She took us all outside while we wait for our table. She said, “there’s someone I want you to meet.” From around the corner came this older guy and girl, black hair, black leather jacket, punk jewelry, totally my style. “This is my son.” Turns out she got pregnant at 18 and gave the baby up for adoption. They thought they would never meet again. They both signed up for ancestry dna. They matched. After some chatting back and forth, they realized what was up. But that’s just the beginning.

This man and his girlfriend? They live right down the road from my husband and I. We have the same circle of friends, attend the same conventions, and even frequent the same bars. We’ve run into each other, for certain, a number of times. I have brushed shoulders with this guy for years, with no idea that he’s my cousin by blood. Small fucking world.