Far from the Tree(75)

“You want to go see it?” Mark said, standing up. “It’s got seat warmers.”

Joaquin smiled at that. “Yeah,” he said, nodding to himself. “Let’s go.”

It was used, the color of nickels, and there was a small stain on the passenger seat that Linda guessed was melted lipstick. (“Been there,” she said grimly.)

Joaquin thought it was the most perfect car he’d ever seen.

“We figured we’d help you out with registration and insurance, at least for the first year, and then with your job at the arts center, you’ve got gas covered,” Mark said after he showed Joaquin the emergency jack, the wool blanket, and the first aid kit in the trunk.

Joaquin pressed the car keys into his palm, pushing so hard that he thought they would pierce his hand, go straight through to the bone. “Okay,” he said. He had no idea how much gas cost, but he had money saved.

“And if you ever text and drive, you’ll never drive any car again for the rest of your natural life,” Linda told him. “At least, not while I’m alive.”

“Got it,” Joaquin said. “You want to still put the bow on?”

“Yes!” Linda cried.

“No, you need to take the car for a spin,” Mark said, reeling Linda back in. “We can put the bow on something else. Like the neighbor’s cat.”

“Oh, Mark,” Linda muttered. Mark hated the neighbor’s cat because it peed all over his vegetable garden. Joaquin had heard some epic tirades about that cat in his two years in their home.

“Go, go,” Mark said, opening up the driver’s-side door. “Drive around. You don’t want to hang out with your par— with us.” Mark cleared his throat. “Go be a teenager for a while.”

Joaquin wasn’t sure how to do that, but he would try. For them.

“Seat belt on!” Linda said. “Check your mirrors! The side ones, too! Those are important. Remember your blind spot!”

Mark pretended to put her in a headlock, pulling her away from the car. “Go,” he said to Joaquin. “Maybe I’ll put the bow on Linda instead.”

“I heard that!” she said, her voice muffled against his shirt.

Joaquin put on his seat belt, checked his mirrors (the side ones, too), and carefully backed the car out of the driveway. He had driven Mark and Linda’s cars before, but this was entirely, incredibly different.

After several minutes, Joaquin pulled the car over to the side of the road.

His hands were shaking too hard to hold on to the wheel.





GRACE


It had been Grace’s idea to meet at Maya’s house two weeks later.

She didn’t have to say much to talk Maya and Joaquin into it. After the Adam incident, she was pretty sure that none of them would be going back to the mall anytime soon.

“They gave you a car?” Maya said, breaking through Grace’s thoughts. “Are you serious, Joaquin? And you’re just telling us now?”

Joaquin looked both confused and embarrassed by the whole situation as he nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “I thought they were sending me away at first. I thought the car was the social worker’s.”

Grace felt her heart sink into her shoes. She hoped Peach never felt like that, never looked as lost as Joaquin sometimes did. She hoped Peach would never be surprised by the kindness of other people.

She hoped, she hoped, she hoped.

“Do you think Mark and Linda would adopt me?” Maya asked. She was sitting with her feet in the pool again. Grace was glad that Maya never suggested she go swimming. She was still trying to figure out her post-baby body, and a bathing suit wasn’t at the top of her list. It wasn’t even on her list. She had tried Googling, but everything online was for grown women, actual moms. There wasn’t anything about what to do with pregnancy stretch marks when you were sixteen, nothing about trying to make your body feel like yours again when someone else had taken up residence in it for nine months and you still hadn’t even finished high school.

“Probably,” Joaquin said. He had his feet in the water, too, but he was at the opposite end of the pool, sitting in the shade. “They’ve got an extra bedroom.”

“Score.” Maya adjusted her sunglasses a little bit.

“But I told them that I didn’t want to go through with the adoption.”

Grace saw Maya’s head spin in Joaquin’s direction almost as fast as her own. “What?” Grace said. “Why? Did they—”

“No, I just thought it’d be a bad idea. You know, because of last time and all.” Joaquin shrugged a little. “Things are good now, like they are. I don’t want to ruin it.”

“Joaquin,” Grace started to say.

“Can everyone please stop saying my name like I don’t know it?” he interrupted her. “Please? Can we talk about something else?”

“Good idea,” Maya said, pulling her legs out of the water and getting to her feet. “Let’s talk about snacks. More specifically, cheese and crackers. Most specifically, cheese and crackers in my mouth.”

Joaquin got up and followed her inside, Grace a step behind them. The heat was on but Grace felt a little chilled. When she had been pregnant, she had felt like everything was twenty degrees hotter than it was, but now she just always felt cold.