His blond hair shines in the dark. It hangs over his eyes so he has to keep pushing it away, but of course it just falls right back. Even Sylvie’s beautiful hair isn’t that bright and shiny, like a star burning itself up.
In the passenger seat, Flor puts as much distance as she can between her and him. She surreptitiously sniffs the air, trying to detect the smell of beer or drugs, though who knows what drugs smell like. Perry drives with one hand, practically one finger, which is precisely how someone who nearly killed himself in an accident should not drive.
He smells like soap, that’s all. He’s tried to wash away all the badness. He can’t fool her, though.
“What are you doing out all alone?” he demands. Like he has any right.
“Visiting a friend.”
“A friend?” He turns to look at her. “You made a new friend?”
Flor stares straight ahead. “Would that be so amazing?” she wants to say. “Keep your eyes on the road,” she should say. “Shape up and do not even think about running away,” she promised Sylvie to say.
But her tongue is in a knot. From the corner of her eye, she watches him push his blond, blazing hair out of his eyes. Last year, Lauren Long tried to bribe Sylvie to steal one of his T-shirts for her. His hair flops back in his eyes.
“You miss my sister, don’t you.”
Not a question, she notices. Flor hugs her backpack tight against her chest. Being alone with Perry feels aloner than with other people. He’s driving way too fast.
“But it’s good she went away,” he says next.
“It’s good for her.”
“No. No, I don’t think so. It’d be way better if she stayed here. You and I both need her.”
She didn’t mean to say that! Lumping herself together with him. Dark trees rush by the windows.
“You’re right,” he says. “But what I said is, it’s good for her.”
What is this? Is he trying to make Flor feel bad? Like he knows what Sylvie needs. Like he even cares!
“We’ll see about that,” she says. Thomas’s stupid phrase! What is wrong with her mouth? It’s done nothing but cause trouble and blurt stupid things all day long. The truck slows down. Moments ago it seemed like she’d never get home, but look, here they are already, the gravel driveway crunching beneath the truck’s tires.
Perry leans to open her door, and she breathes in the smell of soap and something else she has no name for. A spark races upward and sets her cheeks on fire. She jumps out.
“Thanks for the ride.” Mama will have a falling-down fit over her taking a ride with him. Mama! She’s already in so much trouble with Mama. She’ll have to lie about how she got here.
“Don’t let me catch you out alone after dark again.”
Like he’s her big brother! Flor’s cheeks burn. Long long ago, he actually played with her and Sylvie. He’d ride them piggyback, buy them candy at Two Sisters. Sometimes at night, while they watched TV, he even let them play beauty parlor on him. They’d twist his beautiful hair into tiny braids and clip it with barrettes. Flor still remembers how soft his hair felt. Soft as milkweed down.
Does Perry still remember that? A sudden smile lights up his face, like something buried rising into the light. A rare pleated shell, poking through the surface of a rock.
This is why Sylvie loves him so. For a heartbeat, Flor loves him too.
What!
“You better call your sister right away,” she says, her knees wobbling. “Like yesterday, you hear me? She really wants to talk to you.”
“Got it, chief.” He nods, then juts his chin toward the house. “Hey. Sorry about what’s going on.”
The door slams, the pickup roars away. Why does he have to drive so fast?
Going on?
Flor streaks across the grass. The second she steps inside, her whole family boils up around her, hugging and scolding.
Wait. Not her whole family.
“Where’s Mama?”
“Did someone drop you off?” Cecilia parts the curtain. “Did I hear a pickup?”
“I drove all over creation looking for you,” says Dad. “I didn’t even get to clean my gun.”
“We can’t find the phone.” Cecilia turns from the window. “I used my cell to call everyone, but nobody had seen you.”
“Everything happened so fast,” says Dad.
“What happened? Where’s Mama?”
“You ran away.” Thomas is sucking Snowball’s ear. “I said don’t go, but you still did.”
“I’d never run away! I . . .”
“All of a sudden, it’s an emergency,” says Dad. He runs his hand through his hair. “Just like that, everything’s changed.”
“Somebody better tell me where Mama is!” Flor shouts. “Right now!”
Quiet.
“Lita’s sick.” Dad puts his big arm around her. His voice turns gentle. “That cold of hers got worse and the aunts finally made her go to the doctor. It’s bronchitis. She’ll be all right, don’t worry.”
“But where’s Mama?”
Dad’s arm slides off her shoulder. He runs his hand across his head again. His hair stands up, petrified.
“She’d be beside herself staying here, Flor. She needs to be with her family.”
The three of them stand around him in a little circle, like they’re about to join hands and play a game. We’re her family. Flor can’t be the only one thinking that.
“It’s just for a little while,” Dad goes on. “A few days, tops. We’ll all pitch in. It’ll be an adventure!” He picks up Thomas and spins him around. “You ready for an adventure, old buddy?”
One of you should go. Should go. Go.
Cecilia pries Flor’s backpack out of her arms.
“She really wanted to say good-bye to you. She said to tell you she’ll call tomorrow.”
Without the backpack, Flor’s arms feel unbearably empty. They flop around. Cecilia tucks Flor’s hair behind her ear. She smells like soap and something else.
“Hey,” Cecilia says. “You know what? It might be good she went.”
What Perry just said about Sylvie! Something inside Flor gives a hard, painful twist.
“Maybe,” Flor says. “If Lita gets better and she comes right back.”
But Cecilia means something else. She hangs the backpack on a hook and turns to Flor. Her eye makeup is smudged. It makes her look even older and more beautiful, like in a movie when the star just gets out of bed.
“You were right. What you said this afternoon? Maybe Mama going—it’s the right thing. Maybe it’s the only way things can change around here.”
“I never said that. What’s that supposed to mean?”
But Cecilia’s black hair swings across her face as she turns away. So much for her changing. So much for her behaving like she and Flor actually have something in common besides the same name and parents and living in the same house!
Later, Flor’s in bed, not falling asleep, when she sits up so quickly she goes light-headed. When Perry told her “sorry about what’s going on”? He must have already known Mama was gone. Word travels fast on Moonpenny, but still. It’s wrong that he knew before she did. He’s the last person she’d pick to know her business, the last person she wants feeling sorry for her.
Getting out of bed, she picks up Sylvie’s fossil. Jasper Fife would spout its scientific name, but a name is not the point, not with this fossil. Can you make four wishes on the very same fossil? Flor closes her eyes. Hopes so. Hopes.