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  chapter thirty-one

  The next day, my phone rang at six in the morning. It was Mom. This is what I heard (in no particular order) in her very loud mother voice: “Katherine Lambert, I cannot believe this whole Jimmy Savage thing. You are all over the newspapers and the TV. Are you all right? Where are you staying? How could you lie to me? Come home now! You and I have to talk.”

  It was 8:00 a.m. in St. Louis, and she had just picked up the morning paper. We were on the front page. The St. Louis Post showed a picture of the three of us on stage with Jimmy when he brought us all out for a bow at the end of the show. My mom, of course, called Sasha’s immediately and Sasha broke under pressure and confessed everything. I couldn’t blame her. She had her folks and my mom all coming down hard on her, and there was no way out of it.

  “I’m okay, Mom. I’m in Malibu, California, at Jimmy’s house. I’m sorry about the lie. We’ll be on a plane soon, and I’ll be back and in our kitchen by the time you get home from work,” I told her. “Please don’t be mad. I can explain everything.”

  “As long as you’re okay,” she sighed. “But prepare to be grounded for the rest of your life.”

  I staggered into the living room and Jesse, Gabe, Dylan, and Jimmy were already there. Gabe’s folks were still at sea, but Jesse had gotten a phone call similar to mine. Variety was laying on the kitchen counter, and the headline read “Rocker Shocker Show Stopper.” We were the hot story of the day. Chris was fielding phone calls from all the morning shows and wanted to know what he should do. It was an easy call. We decided right then and there that we weren’t going to make any cheesy appearances or give any interviews to anybody. This all belonged to us and Jimmy and our families, and if we were to ever have our fifteen minutes, we wanted it to be about who we were, not who we were born to.

  “Don’t forget, your flight leaves in three hours,” Jimmy told us. “I knew we’d blow our cover, but it was worth it. Now if you’re all packed and ready, there’s one more surprise before you leave.”

  When we had all gathered at the front door, Jimmy circled around us, herding us like a mother duck.

  “Everybody ready? Everybody got their stuff? Close your eyes.”

  We heard the door open. “Now open them,” he ordered.

  We all gasped at what was parked in front of the house. Our ugly duckling clunker had turned into a swan. It was totally pimped out with a fresh silver paint job, black flames running up the side, off-road tires, new upholstery, touch screen GPS, and a hot sound system. To top it off, the custom license plate said SAVG KDS. Gabe was so blissed, I thought he was gonna pass out.

  “It’s for all the birthdays I missed,” said Jimmy. “I’m driving you to the airport, and then I’m having someone drive it back to St. Louis for you.”

  There was nothing more to say, just lots of hugs to give. We had turned into a very touchy-feely family. I never, ever dreamed that could happen to me and my sibs.

  Jimmy had a car waiting at the airport in St. Louis to drop each of us off at our houses. I was making a smoothie in the new blender I found on the kitchen counter when my mom got home from work. She tried to look tough and angry, but she was so happy to see me she just threw her arms around me and cried, and I hugged her with all my might.

  “I’m not a rock star, but I love you very much,” she whispered.

  “I love you, too. I always did.” I told her. “It just took me a while to find out how much.”

  “Who are you and what have you done with my daughter, KT?”

  “I’ve decided I’m going back to Katie, Mom.”

  Mom hugged me even tighter. “Welcome home, Katie,” she said.

  “Being both parents is an impossible job,” I whispered. “But you did it. Thanks for the birth.”

  “That was the easy part,” Mom said, looking deep into my eyes. “It was my pleasure. You know, I’ve done a lot of thinking while you were gone, and you were right. Ken wasn’t ‘the one.’ Neither were any of the others. When it is ‘the one,’ I won’t be the person with all the feelings. He’s going to feel as much as I do. It’ll be something magical.”

  “You deserve that, Mom,” I said.

  “And I deserve an explanation from you, right now,” she said. Her voice was serious, but her eyes were smiling.

  I pulled out two glasses and split the smoothie.

  “You’re going to get every single detail. Hey, you got a new blender.”

  “I went out and bought it myself. It felt really good. Now, let me hear.”

  “I think you better sit down first,” I said, pulling up a barstool. I started from the beginning, and she listened and sometimes she held her breath. And I know sometimes she was mad and sometimes she was scared, but sometimes she laughed and sometimes her eyes welled up. And by the time the story was over, we were hugging so hard that our arms ached.

  “I’m incredibly proud of you, Katie,” she said. “You’ve come a long way.”

  “So have you, Mom,” I said. “I’m proud of us.”

  chapter thirty-two

  A few weeks later, my brother Jesse invited all of us to a 908 family reunion at his house. I was so excited that I emailed Jimmy, telling him what was happening, all because of him.

  Gabe, Jesse, and I had been talking on the phone, texting and emailing every day, but Gabe and I had the feeling that Jess had been keeping something from us. He told us that his moms had forgiven him for taking off without telling them, but there was something else he wasn’t telling us.

  Gabe had filled us both in on Joe’s and Donna’s reaction. He was scared that Joe would get all insecure because Jimmy was a celeb and all that, but Gabe underestimated his dad. Joe was what Sasha’s parents called a mensch, a stand-up, unselfish guy. He was just plain happy for Gabe. Joe said he was the lucky one because he’d been able to be Gabe’s day-in and day-out dad. And when the car was delivered, he was over the moon because he had planned to overhaul it, spiff it up, and give it to his son. Gabe thought he’d be bugged that Jimmy did it first, but Joe told him it was a first-rate job, and you can’t argue with good work.

  Donna just kept saying, “Thank god you weren’t killed in that old heap,” and hugging him every other minute.

  When my mom and I got to Jesse’s house for the reunion, we found that his moms had set up the backyard with a buffet and tables and chairs. They were chatting with Joe and Donna and greeted my mom and me with hugs and little spinach pies on a tray.

  After a while, Gabe signaled to me and Jess that he wanted to talk to us alone. We sat down at a table, and he pulled a letter out of his pocket. The notepaper was imprinted with a small, yellow daisy at the top.

  “Listen to this,” he said. He sneezed into a napkin and began reading. “Dear Gabe, I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble, but I really needed that money to get started. I hope that you can forgive me for leaving the way I did, but I was beginning to like you so much that I was afraid I might cop out on my Hollywood career just to be with you. So I had to cut and run. Please understand, you are very special, and I will never forget you. Love, Daisy.”

  “I still hate her, just not so much,” I told him.

  “Hang on, there’s more,” he told us. “P.S. I hope you believe in your dreams. Mine came true.”

  He handed me the envelope, and Jesse looked over my shoulder as I pulled out three one-hundred dollar bills and a photo.

  “The money is for you guys,” Gabe said. “Check out the picture.”

  We did. It was a snapshot of Daisy and Miley Cyrus, smiling, their arms around each other . . . pals.

  “Actually, we won it with her tip money. She didn’t have to return it,” I told Gabe. “She did that for you. To show you she really cared about you.”

  “She’s right about dreams coming true,” Jesse said. He nodded toward Liz and Tina who were overseeing the buffet table like a loving couple.

  “They got back together in Barbados. They say it was because they heard the wedding vows. I say it
was because they listened to them. I wanted to tell you about it in person,” he said, beaming.

  Just then, Dylan slipped his hand into mine. I hadn’t seen him come in, but I felt his presence before he even touched me.

  “You never know what amazing things can happen,” he said as I leaned into him and put my head on his shoulder.

  “He speaks the truth,” Jesse added. “Get this . . . Jimmy is so into those hemp sandals that he set Willard up in the sandal business. Willard’s got Horvard students weaving them by hand. They’re called ‘Soul Sandals’ and Gabe, he wants you and me to help set up a website to sell them and donate half of everything to green causes.”

  “That is beyond cool,” I told him. “It’s so good to be with you guys. It wasn’t until we connected that I realized I’d been kind of lonely my whole life, and now I’m not.”

  “Me, too,” Jesse confided. “I never even knew it until I wasn’t lonely anymore.”

  “I still don’t have a girlfriend, but I’m not lonesome the way I was. It’s because of both of you and Jimmy. I know it is,” Gabe revealed softly.

  We were all hanging out and having such a good time, we didn’t even see Jimmy enter through the back gate, loaded down with flowers. The three of us spotted him, screamed, and threw our arms around him.

  “I decided against the tattoo,” I whispered in his ear. “Trying to make up for me?” he asked.

  “No,” I told him, “I think I’m being more of an individualist by not getting one.”

  We were still hugging and laughing when the parents lined up to be introduced. Jimmy presented Tina and Liz with a huge bunch of flowers, then another for Joe and Donna. And then he turned to see my mom standing a few yards away. He walked over to her with the last bouquet.

  “I hope you’re Kim,” he said.

  She smiled and nodded.

  “Thanks for my girl child,” he said, taking her hand.

  “Thank you,” she answered. “We did good.”

  He was still holding her hand.

  “I don’t want to let go,” he told her.

  “You don’t have to,” she answered.

  It was a moment no one could miss. It was a real connection. It was magic.

  Someone put Jimmy’s CD in a boom box, and I spent that lazy summer afternoon laughing and talking and just hanging out with my brothers, my mom, my dad, and my extended family. I felt amazingly happy, and I knew I was going to use that feeling to write a song about the crazy, wonderful journey that had brought me to this place in my life.

  That’s my whole story, Donor Sibling Registry. I’ve never told it to anyone else. I’m officially giving you the okay to post the parts that you think will help other donor kids. And tell them all to remember what Dylan always says, because I really believe it now: “You never know what amazing things can happen.”

  THE END

  about the author

  Cynthia Weil is an internationally known lyricist with songs from “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” the most played song of the twentieth century, to the Oscar-nominated and double Grammy-winning “Somewhere Out There” from the animated film An American Tail. Her lyrics have been sung by the legendary voices of Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, and Kanye West. She has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in addition to receiving multiple Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards. It is only fitting, then, that 806: A Novel has a teen songwriter as its main character. Cynthia’s previous teen fiction, I’m Glad I Did, was published in 2015 to critical acclaim.

  Currently featured as a character in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Cynthia resides in Los Angeles with her husband and songwriting partner, Barry Mann, and their dog, Callie. When not writing lyrics, you can find Cynthia fighting for animal rights, supporting young artists, or crafting her next book filled with music, dynamic relationships, and discovery.