Mick
Dalma looks across the table at me and mouths the word sorry. Mrs. Zagar really did serve intestines, but that’s not what I’m worried about.
“This is delicious,” I say. Dalma’s little sister, Flora, whispers to her mother in Croatian. Her mother looks at me and says, “Thank you.”
The whole evening pretty much goes like that. Her parents say something to me. One of the kids translates. I say something else. They translate again.
While they’re doing that, my mind keeps slipping back to Jade. I still can’t believe what happened tonight. All I did was mention Dalma, and she went ballistic.
What was she thinking? She’s seen us together for weeks. It’s not like we’ve been hiding anything. I don’t think this is just exhaustion. I’m starting to worry there’s something really the matter with her.
“You like more?” Mrs. Zagar says without any help.
“Sure,” I say and hand her my plate.
“Sure—or yeah, sure? There is difference,” says Dalma. She and her sister laugh while her parents try to figure out what’s going on.
Flora’s laughing makes me think of Gavin. That’s who I’m worried about the most. We had a great time at the park this afternoon. He was just like a regular four-year-old, running, jumping, playing with that stuffed kangaroo of his.
Maybe I’m listening to Quinn too much, but I found myself wondering if Gavin really did have a migraine. I asked him about it when we were over by the sandbox. He started filling a little bucket up with sand. He wouldn’t look at me. He kept saying he doesn’t like magic sprinkles.
I asked him what they were. He put down the bucket, then looked around to see if anyone was there.
He whispered, “I can’t tell you.”
“C’mon! Give me a hint,” I said.
I wasn’t sure if this was a game or not. He held Kanga up and whispered in her ear as if she was going to tell him what to say.
“I get them all the time,” he said.
“From who?”
He shook his head. He looked scared.
“Gimme another hint?” I gave him a little poke in the belly. “C’mon. Just one more.” He talked to Kanga again, then picked up a stick and drew something in the sand.
“M,” I said, “for Mick.” I taught him how to spell my name.
He drew an S.
“And a snake for Staynor!” It’s an old joke of ours.
He nodded.
“I gave you magic sprinkles?” I said. He really laughed at that. I figured he was playing a trick on me.
That’s all he’d say about it until we stopped in the grocery store a little later. We were walking down the spice aisle, and I was talking about buying him a treat, and he got all agitated about magic sprinkles again.
I didn’t know what brought that on. It took me forever to calm him down. I had to buy both him and Kanga a banana.
I finish my second helping of intestines and do my best to answer the Zagars’ questions. Yes, I have a brother and a sister. Yes, I enjoy hockey and basketball. Yes, my father is an accountant, and my mother stays home. Yes, I want to be an accountant too. (I make that up. I have no idea what I want to be.)
Dalma rushes me out the door as soon as dinner’s over. She apologizes for the interrogation, but I didn’t mind it. I like her family. They’re like her. They don’t have all the words yet, but you can tell they’re having fun by the look in their eyes.
We walk outside. I can’t kiss her because Flora’s watching from her bedroom window.
I reach out to shake her hand, and she cracks up. We arrange where we’re going to meet tomorrow, then I get in my car and go. It’s time I talk to my parents about Jade.