Upgrades

She looked up at Rodgers and said, "Well, I guess you can be my new daddy."

"Really?" Rodgers said with genuine excitement. "For reals?"

"Yes. For reals," she said as though she was tired of repeating herself.

He hugged and said, "I love you so much, Rain."

"I know," she said matter of factly. After another short burst of laughter she said to him, "Daddy? I'm hungry. Can we eat now?"

More laughter and smiles. "Why, yes we can," he told her as he carried back to her booster seat and set her in it. He kissed Rachel while he was standing next to her again and said, "I'm the happiest man on earth."

She pulled him close and whispered, "You're going to be a lot happier in a few hours."

He smiled but didn't reply knowing it would cause his mom to start asking questions and that's where he drew the line. But true to her word, Rachel made him a very happy man—twice—later that night.

It was a...what else...rainy Spring day in mid-April when they married in a beautiful ceremony in the church where Phillip's mother was baptized as a little girl. Rachel's husband was all too happy to sign over custody in exchange for an undisclosed amount of cash to further his drug habit, and as Rachel became his wife, Rain officially became his daughter.

Rachel had quit working at the cable store just before the Christmas holidays and moved in with Phillip until their wedding.

They talked often about having other children—soon—and the following March, Rachel gave birth to their second child, another girl they named Amy Lynn Rodgers.

Each time either of them passed the little strip mall with the cable store they couldn't help but think back to the day Phillip walked in to turn in his old boxes after having upgraded them. Nor could they fail to think of just amazing the human upgrade had been each time they looked at one another or the children they so dearly loved.