Sam’s house is small and rusty red. Inside, the kitchen is pinewood and all the other walls are gray. The living room has wires in the corners. If you pull them you might electrocute yourself, so watch it. The house is not finished, because Noah’s grandpa and grandma bought it as an investment. Grandma B. is rich. She owns a lot of property, even though she wears old golf shorts. Grandma B. lets them live here because of Noah. That’s why Courtney and the kids can stay for free. Someday they will have to move, but Sam isn’t worried.
For the time being, she climbs the beech tree on the side of the house. It’s too tall; it’s way too dangerous. If she does it again, her mom is going to kill her, but she climbs anyway. The trunk is smooth but wrinkled at the knees.
Stand on the roots and reach the bumpy knob and then pull yourself up with your arms. With one foot on the knob, you can reach the lowest branch. It sinks under you. All the leaves rustle as it dips, but the branch won’t break. It’s way too strong.
Climb from one branch to another. They’re piled thick, and the tree is full of golden leaves so nobody can see you.
Sam watches Noah’s dad arriving in his pickup truck. Jack is moving back because he loves Courtney, and she loves him, even though they always fight. Since he’s between jobs, he is going to live with them and be a family, and work on finishing the house.
Sam can see him unloading. He has a duffel bag and he’s got tools. For one thing, he has an electric drill. He also has a table saw he can set up outside while the weather is still good. Jack’s hair is black and shiny like his truck and he carries a canteen that he calls his flask. He has tattoos all over his arms and shoulders including a bald eagle and GARY, which was the name of his friend in the Gulf War. He’s got Noah on there, but not Sam, because she is not his kid. Also, he doesn’t like Sam.
This is why Jack does not like Sam. She does not listen she talks back she whines she ruins everything. Noah is just little, but Sam should know better.
When Courtney and Noah come out to help Jack carry his stuff, he looks around, like he’s expecting Sam. Courtney even calls, “Sam? Where are you?”
She holds still, hiding in the branches so Jack can’t see her.
“Sam?”
Her mother glances toward the tree.
Sam hardly breathes. A piece of hair slips out from behind her ear and tickles her. She doesn’t even brush it from her face.
She waits and waits until Courtney and Jack and Noah take one last trip into the house and close the door. Then she climbs down backward, hand after foot, branch beneath branch.
When she opens the front door, Jack says, “Where did you come from?”
Sam just looks at him and doesn’t answer.
But this is a family. They are all together! Jack calls Courtney babe. He is going to paint the walls.
After school, Jack lets Sam help him with the drill, and he shows her how to use a paint roller. They are painting the bedroom he and Courtney share. The color is white chocolate, but first you mask all the windows and throw down old sheets and paint with primer.
Sam gets primer in her hair, and this stuff does not dissolve in water. “Oh my God, Sam,” Courtney says. It’s not like poster paint at school. It’s permanent. The only way to wash it out is toothpaste.
Sam sits in the tub, while her mom washes and washes her hair. Eventually, Sam asks, “Are you and Jack getting married?”
“No.”
“Could you marry Dad, then?”
“No! I’m not marrying anyone.”
“Dad’s not anyone.”
“Close your eyes.” Her mom is pouring water over her.
“Why don’t you like him?” Sam asks with her eyes closed.
“I like him.”
“No, you don’t. You never let Dad live here.”
“He doesn’t want to.”
Sam opens her eyes at the wrong time, and she gets a face full of water. “How do you know?” she splutters, because she can’t believe that. He doesn’t live with them because her mom won’t let him.
“Sam.” That means don’t even start.
But why does Courtney let Jack stay? Just because he kisses her and paints the walls and takes Noah outside in the morning so she can sleep?
Jack never takes Sam anywhere. He yells at her because she steps in the paint tray. He swears at Sam, and Courtney snaps at him—but families help one another, so when Sam comes down with strep and stays home from school, Jack watches her. She has strawberry tongue. This is what Pat, the nurse practitioner, says. Sam takes pink bubblegum medicine and sleeps all morning while Jack paints her mom’s bedroom.
When she wakes up, she smells smoke. She knows that smell. It’s like dead flowers and wet socks.
“No smoking in the house,” she tells Jack, because it’s true.
She is standing in footed pajamas in the doorway to the living room. He is drinking from his flask and blowing smoke and watching TV on the couch.
He ignores her, so she stands in front of him. “You can’t do that.”
“Move,” he says, because she is blocking the screen.
“Put it out.”
Now he stares at her.
“You can’t smoke in our house.”
“It’s not your house.”
“We lived here before you did!”
“I said move.” He stands up and he is like a bear on his hind legs.
“You’re gonna get it,” she tells Jack, but he is big. He is way bigger than she is and he picks her up. She tries to squirm away. She can’t. She tries to break his grip. She can’t. She bites his arm, instead.
He gasps. “Get off me!”
She holds on fighting, but he throws her off. The room springs sideways and she lands in a heap on the front steps. When she tries the knob, it’s locked.
The cement is cold. She’s out of breath. If her dad were here, he would break down the door. No, he would pull the key out of his hat. Then he would break Jack.
Her dad hates Jack. Once when he came to pick up Sam, he called Jack a lying piece of shit.
Her mom said, “Watch your language,” because Sam was standing there.
He said, “Sorry, monkey,” but later, Sam heard him ask her mom, “What are you doing?”
Courtney said, “You’re asking me that?”
Sam’s dad would chase Jack all the way to the highway if he were here, but he is not.
She looks up and down the road, but there is not a single car. She is too cold to sit here on the step. It’s too cold to climb the tree.
Sam could go to the neighbors, but they are far, and what if they call the police? They will take her away. Jack will say, Good.
She hugs her knees to her chest and looks up at the sky. She closes her eyes and bows her head and prays, Please help me. Tell me what to do.
Nothing happens. Nobody tells her anything, but she has to get up. Her teeth are chattering. She will walk to the farm stand, all the way at the end of the road. She will ask them to call her mom to come and get her.
As soon as she decides this, the door opens. Jack is letting her back in.
She knows that he is thinking, What will Courtney say?
He starts talking about how he isn’t angry anymore. His voice is quiet, but he is a bear, underneath his skin.
He says, “What if we go out for ice cream later?” but she won’t even look at him, so he gives up. He turns around and leaves the door open, just a crack.
She stays out on the steps until she can’t feel her feet. Finally, she runs to her room and shuts herself in. She drags Noah’s mattress over to the door and piles all his toys on top. Then she finds markers and draws on the back of her math worksheet.
In her picture, Jack throws her out the open door. Sam’s mouth is open in an O. Her arms are wide with surprise. Jack’s hair is thick and angry like fur. Gray clouds are puffing from his mouth.
When Courtney comes home with Noah, she sees the picture. “Okay, what’s going on?”
Sam is afraid to tell her.
Jack does instead.
Courtney turns to Sam. “You bit him?”
Sam says, “He smoked in the house and I wouldn’t move so he picked me up and I bit him, and then he threw me out!”
Now Courtney turns on Jack. “You what?”
Fight, fight, fight all night.
He says, Look at my arm. She bit me like a fucking dog.
Courtney says, You locked her out?
Sam and Noah hide in their room. They pretend that they’re in outer space. Mostly Sam pretends, while Noah falls asleep. Sam stays awake, because she is afraid Jack will barge in the door. She sits up until she hears Jack’s truck and then she holds still listening to him drive away.