“He’s been banging stuff since he got home,” Mercedes told her mom. Even though they had tried to keep the hopelessness of Callie’s condition from Lincoln, he’d found out and was angry. “Maybe it will make him think twice about getting into trouble, traveling that road, and—”
“He’s not going to do that,” her mom snapped. They sat at the kitchen table. Mercedes’s father had exhausted all his vacation time and returned to work. Her mom would need to return to her job after the new year, just like Mercedes would go back to school every day, not just game days. Mercedes forced down the thought of Callie alone, surrounded not by family, but by machines.
“You don’t know what it is like to—” Mercedes started, but her mom cut her off again.
“That’s why we moved here, to get you away from those influences,” her mom said.
“Mom, there are corners everywhere!” Mercedes thought about the corner where Callie was shot. Mercedes knew she could never “let it be” like Coach said until she visited the scene.
“Not at Auburn,” her mom said. The scout had invited Mercedes and her parents to dinner. “I’m not letting them buy you or this family. If she wants to meet us, she can do it here.”
Mercedes glanced into the living room at the family photos with Callie in the picture. What if the recruiter asked about Callie? What if she knew? “I want Jade to be here. And Coach too.”
Her mom sighed. “Well, I guess I have a lot of cooking to do!” Mercedes laughed.
“You need any help?” Mercedes asked.
“I do, so get your brother down here. We won’t let this thing break us.”
Mercedes said nothing. Thing. It. Her parents always used impersonal words like they were afraid to speak the truth, although she knew they were right. It would not destroy them. Like falling behind in a game, challenges brought people together, made them strong like a rock. Because a rock didn’t bleed, it didn’t cry; it smashed the scissors that would cut a life in half.