One thing: Maybe Berk was only coming to school for one day.

Mom would figure something else out.

Find a day care.

Let Berk stay with a friend or Melody or Delilah.

And I could meet Bart at the lunchroom.

~

When we got home I helped Berk get into her old leotard which yes, she needed a new one, so she and Sadie and Jane could practice their circus acts outside.

I did my homework.

I cleaned up from breakfast and did the dishes and made Mom’s bed.

I cooked meat for tacos and grated the cheese and cut up some old tomatoes and set the table.

Then I went outside and waited.

Berk and Sadie and Jane were making up a dance in the street. They’d all crunch down and then Berk would count 1 2 3 and they’d jump up, with their arms in the air and yell, “HOORAY!”

I laughed.

“That’s what we’re going to do at the beginning of the dance for the opening part,” Berk said.

“I thought you were doing tightrope,” I said.

“I’m doing tons of things.”

“I’m doing three acts,” said Sadie.

“I think I’m just doing this,” said Jane.

I nodded. “It looks very professional.”

They practiced so long the sun started to go down and Sadie and Jane’s mom came to pick them up.

And then it was just Berkeley.

She came and sat by me on the steps. “Where’s Mom?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

She nodded. “I told Grant that he should be in the circus.”

I looked over at his trailer. “When was he out?”

“Earlier,” she said. “You were inside. He was jogging and he was really really sweaty.”

This was the second time Grant exercised. Bart would want to know.

“He asked what we were doing and I told him about the circus and he said he might do an act.”

I sighed. Berk was telling everyone. Like it was real. Like it was going to happen.

“What can he do?” I asked.

She shrugged. “He said maybe belly dancing.”

I giggled. I couldn’t help it.

She said, “What? He said he was really good.”

I giggled harder.

“What?”

“I think he would be good,” I said, still giggling.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Do you know what belly dancing is?”

“No.”

I didn’t really know either but I went out on the road and tied my shirt up to show my stomach. Then as the day turned to night, I belly danced, circling around like I was some exotic lady from Bali or Egypt.

Berk squealed and came and belly danced with me, both of us laughing and laughing and laughing and for the first time, in a long time, I thought maybe, somehow, things would be okay.

~

That night Berk and I watched the Shanghai Circus and they maybe were the best in the entire world.

We ate tacos.

We cleaned up.

We brushed our teeth.

I combed her hair.

I entered a contest for a family vacation to Orlando and one for a two-hundred-dollar Amex card which were both new contests.

Then we went to bed.

At eleven p.m. I heard Mom’s car pull up.

I watched her get out thinking maybe she’d be in her shiny new blouse and sexy jeans and lipstick with Tandi but really she was wearing a gray work shirt, which meant she’d taken a night shift at an office building.

She had bags of groceries and she looked tired.

But this meant, I hoped, that she had enough money now to pay for day care.

Things really were going to be okay.