Since the day my daughter was born, it was my hope that she and my son would get along and be lifelong friends through adulthood. There were plenty of times I thought it wasn’t going to happen. Like most siblings, they were at each other’s throats constantly. With every battle over a toy, my dreams of their future friendship died a little. I watched them fight as teenagers and worried that they would never speak again as adults. My hope dwindled with every scream and door slam.

As a mother, I implored them to recognize that, should anything happen to me and their dad, they would only have each other. They didn’t give a rat’s ass and continued their simmering dislike for each other much to my dismay.

My son is now 23 and lives in England where he works. My daughter is 21 and lives DC while attending university. They now text each other every day. They don’t really talk but it makes me happy to know that they communicate by memes and chats; sometimes only to say goodnight.

Recently, I found out that they regularly team up to play a game online. That the game requires that they cooperate together to kill 98 other people doesn’t bother me one bit. It bothers me not in the least that they are talking while they hunt down and kill the other players. The teamwork they use to track and kill players hunting them makes my maternal heart swell. True to their personalities, my son will give the person a chance after they have been knocked down. My daughter; however, will step past her brother for the kill shot.

They are a lethal team and their communication and cooperation has won them many games. As long as they are friends, even as blood-thirsty homicidal assassins, I’m cool with that. I’ll take what I can get!