Saturday, June 7, 2014
Brooklyn, New York
Rome had managed to put his gown on wrong before they even reached the entrance.
Maine stood beside him while Niq worked the zipper free, her own gown hanging open over her dress. Families moved around them toward Barclays, parents turning children by the shoulders, somebody calling across the sidewalk for a grandmother who had decided she knew another way in. Rome held his chin up as if that would help.
"Stop moving," Niq said.
"I'm not."
"You're talking with your whole body."
Maine laughed. Rome looked at him over her head.
"You could help."
"I am. I'm documenting."
He held up his phone. Niq turned without letting go of the zipper.
"If you make me fix this twice, neither one of you walking."
Rome immediately stopped reaching for him. Maine lowered the phone, smiling, and moved aside for a woman carrying flowers and a bag full of something that clinked. He could hear Mrs. Neal behind them organizing her family by name. Every time she reached the end, somebody moved and she had to begin again.
Niq got the zipper straight and pressed the front of Rome's gown flat.
"There. Try to stay dressed."
"You act like I ain't been dressing myself."
"We have evidence."
She picked up the box beside her feet and handed it to Maine.
"Yours."
He opened it carefully. He had seen the photograph on Senior Day night, but the finished cap looked different in his hands. The basketball had depth to it now, the lines clean beneath the light, his number worked into the design without taking over the whole thing. The little Naruto headband sat in its corner, small enough that you had to look, exactly where she had put it in the first picture.
"You added to it."
"That was a rough draft."
Rome bent closer. "She had glue on the table for a week."
"And you put your drink in it."
"One time."
Maine ran a thumb along the edge without touching the design. "This is crazy, Niq."
Her face softened a little. "Put it on."
She watched while he settled it over his tied locs, then adjusted one corner herself. Rome stood back to inspect him and nodded.
"Yeah. That's you."
Nasir came up beside them, phone tucked into his jacket. He looked at Maine's cap, then at Niq.
"You did good."
"Thank you."
"Better than the one he would've made himself."
"A marker and thirty-two," Rome said.
"It would've been legible," Maine answered.
Nasir straightened the edge of Maine's collar where it had folded beneath the gown. Maine let him. His father's fingers paused at the button, smoothing a crease that probably didn't need smoothing, before he stepped back.
"You ready?"
Maine looked toward the doors. He could see classmates gathering inside, familiar faces made strange by the matching gowns.
"Yeah."
Nasir nodded, but stayed looking at him. Maine knew that look from school photographs, before somebody made his father move out of the photographer's way.
"Don't start," he said quietly.
"I'm standing here."
"You standing emotional."
His father laughed. It was enough to make Maine laugh too, and for a moment the shirt collar stopped bothering him.
*
Inside, the graduates were directed away from their families. The separation happened in little starts: one more picture, somebody reaching for a tassel, a parent trying to pass over a phone the student had already decided to keep. Rome's mother kissed his cheek, then wiped the place she had kissed because he complained about it.
"You'll survive," she told him.
Niq went ahead to find whoever had been asking for her. Maine followed Rome into the gathering area, where teachers were holding lists and trying to keep conversations from becoming a second Senior Day.
Maine took pictures, handed phones back, and let people inspect Niq's work. Jada Parker waved from beside Lia before a teacher called them into their places. A few of his teammates had found one another near the back; Darnell Brooks was checking everybody's shoes as if Coach might still make them run for wearing the wrong ones.
Rome gave Maine a fist bump before moving toward his own place in the alphabetical line. Niq was farther ahead, Lia somewhere behind Maine. Their gowns made the gaps look stranger than they should have. They had spent most of four years finding ways to sit together.
The line began to move.
*
The sound reached them before they entered fully: families calling names, the scrape and shuffle of people getting up, applause beginning in one section and spreading before anyone onstage had asked for it.
Maine followed the student ahead of him, careful not to step on the back of her gown. The room was larger than it had felt in his head. He had imagined the stage and his father's seat as if they would be the only two places that mattered. Now there were faces everywhere, raised phones, people leaning into the aisles because they were sure they could get a better picture from there.
He found Mrs. Neal first. Then Nasir, looking directly at him. Maine lifted two fingers from his side. His father answered with a nod and a smile that stayed while Maine found his seat.
A few sections over, somebody called Lia's name before the ceremony had even begun. Maine turned toward the answering wave and saw Carmen with her phone up, Abuela beside her, and a whole stretch of people who seemed to know exactly whom they were looking for. Lia had once described a family gathering as small and brought enough relatives to fill a restaurant. Today looked about right.
The principal welcomed them, thanked the families and teachers, and asked everybody to keep the aisles clear. Maine recognized the request as optimistic. He settled back, the diploma line still far enough away that he could listen without counting letters.
Nasir was introduced first. Maine sat straighter as his father approached the microphone, buttoned his jacket, and looked out over the families before turning toward the graduates.
"Good morning. First, congratulations. And to the people who spent this morning looking for somebody's shoes, fixing somebody's collar, or making sure nobody left the house without their cap—this is your day, too."
Maine glanced toward his father, smiling. Nasir let the laughter settle.
"My wife, Elizabeth, would've been somewhere in here with the biggest, loudest air horn this side of the East River."
The families laughed. Nasir smiled down at the lectern, then looked toward the graduates.
"She would've waited until they asked everybody to hold their applause, too. Then let the whole building know which one was her baby."
Maine laughed, the sound catching before he could finish it. He could picture her standing, one hand raised, daring somebody to tell her to sit down. He pressed his lips together and looked at the program, but the words had blurred.
Nasir paused with his hand resting beside his notes.
"She would've been proud of you, Jermaine. I wish I could've sat beside her today and watched her embarrass you."
Maine wiped beneath one eye with the side of his finger, then the other. That made him laugh again, smaller this time. He wanted to hear that air horn so badly his chest hurt.
A classmate beside him leaned closer.
"You good?"
He nodded before he trusted his voice.
"Yeah. Appreciate you."
The classmate touched his shoulder briefly and settled back. Maine folded the program across his knee and wiped his face with his palm. When he looked up, his father was still looking toward his row.
Nasir drew a breath and glanced out at the families.
"I know some of you are wishing somebody could be here with you, too. Thank you for bringing what they gave you into this room."
He let the applause settle, then returned to the graduates.
"When we look at this class, we see young people ready to inherit something. A family business, perhaps. A neighborhood. Responsibilities you didn't ask for. Opportunities somebody worked hard to leave you."
He rested one hand against the lectern.
"We should be asking what thrones our young kings and queens will inherit—and what we've done to make them worth inheriting. You deserve places where your ideas can grow. You deserve people who take you seriously before you've made a name for yourselves. Those of us who helped bring you this far still have work to do."
A few voices answered him from the families. Maine watched his father pause, listening before continuing.
"But you'll have work of your own. The thrones we inherit come with choices. What do we keep? What needs changing? Who gets a place beside us when we move forward?"
Nasir's eyes passed over the rows.
"Don't inherit somebody else's definition of success. Learn enough to make your own decisions. Keep your word. And when something works out for you, think about what you can make possible for somebody else."
Maine looked down at the program, then back up.
"I want to see what you build. I want to see how this next generation moves the needle, and I expect you'll find ways we haven't thought of yet. Congratulations, Class of 2014. Enjoy today. Tomorrow, keep going."
The applause rose around Maine. His father stepped away from the microphone, and for a moment Maine saw the same man who had stood beside his desk asking what he wanted people to understand. He clapped until Nasir reached his place.
Aaliyah James was introduced next as Du Bois Prep's salutatorian.
"LIA!" somebody shouted from the family section.
She stopped at the microphone and looked toward them. The little shake of her head was familiar enough that Maine laughed before she spoke.
"That's my family. They were told the whole class was graduating, but we're still working on it."
The room laughed with her. She rested her hands beside the paper on the lectern.
"I used to think by the time I got here, I'd feel ready. I'd know where I was going, who I was going to be, and how to answer everybody who asked."
She smiled at the families.
"I have some answers. I also have people telling me I'll change them."
Carmen lifted her chin as though she had been speaking on behalf of those people.
"We've spent so much time counting down that I don't think I understood what I was counting away. Knowing who I'd see in the hallway. Having a place to sit without asking. The little things you don't think to miss until you realize they won't happen the same way again."
Maine held the edge of the program between his fingers.
"I don't want to lose those memories. Even the ones I'd do differently if I could. There were good things in days that ended badly. People who mattered to me still matter, even when I don't know what comes next."
Lia looked across the graduates. For a moment her eyes seemed to stop near him. Maine stayed looking at her.
"And some of the people who helped us get here couldn't be here today. We carry what they gave us, too."
Her hand moved against the edge of the paper. She took a breath and continued.
"I'm excited. I'm also scared, and I don't think I'm the only one. We can walk into something we haven't figured out yet with our heads up. We earned that much. I hope we keep learning, keep asking for help, and remember each other kindly while we're becoming whoever comes next. Congratulations, everyone. Thank you."
Carmen was clapping with her phone still in one hand. Abuela stood halfway up before somebody beside her got up too. Maine applauded until Lia reached her seat.
Monique Carter was introduced last among the speakers as Du Bois Prep's valedictorian.
Rome's applause reached Maine from farther back. Niq stepped to the microphone with her shoulders squared and looked over the graduates before unfolding her page.
"I've spent a lot of time trying to get this class to follow instructions. So I'm going to enjoy the next few minutes while you have to listen to me."
The laugh came quickly. Rome leaned back and shook his head.
"Thank you to our families, our teachers, and everyone who kept showing up for us. Especially when we made showing up a little difficult."
Niq glanced toward the families, then returned her attention to the rows.
Maine looked up from the program.
She lowered the page a little.
"Some of your plans are going to take longer than we want. Some will change. Please don't decide that means you're finished. Ask for help. Start again. I've seen this class do both, usually about an hour before something was due."
Maine stopped folding the corner of the program.
"So be ambitious. Take your ideas seriously enough to work on them. Give yourself room to get better. And when you have something worth sharing, make room for someone else. The future is in our hands, and I believe we can leave it better than we found it."
Her eyes moved across the class again. She smiled, though her voice caught slightly on the last line.
"I'm proud I got to be one of you. Congratulations, Du Bois. We made it."
Maine stood with the applause before he thought about standing. Farther back, Rome was already on his feet. Niq saw them, pressed her lips together, and nodded once before leaving the microphone.
Maine watched her return to her seat. He wanted to get back to his notebook. There were things he could start before anybody answered the email.
When the applause settled, the principal announced the presentation of diplomas. Students would be called alphabetically by last name. Teachers moved to the ends of the rows, reminding them where to stand and which way to return.
The first students rose. Maine recognized Andre Alvarez from the team, already trying to look composed while his older brother yelled loud enough to ruin it. Andre shook hands, faced the camera, and came off the stage grinning at his own shoes.
The names worked through the rest of the A's and into the B's. Darnell Brooks went up with his cap tilted the way Coach had spent two seasons asking him not to wear anything. He held his cover up when he came down, and Maine reached into the aisle to tap it as he passed.
Then the C's began moving.
"Monique Carter."
Niq rose with her chin up and her gown falling straight. She walked as if she had finally finished organizing every person in the building and could take this moment for herself. At the handshake she smiled properly, wide enough for Maine to see it from his seat. Rome cupped both hands around his mouth.
"THAT'S MY GIRL!"
Niq turned toward the sound before the photographer could stop her, shook her head once, and faced the camera again. Her smile stayed.
A few more names, and Maine's row was standing. The edge of his gown brushed his shoes while he waited at the steps. He straightened it with one hand.
"Jermaine Connors."
Rome didn't even try to keep it down.
"THAT'S MY BROTHER!"
Maine went across grinning. He shook the offered hand, took the cover, and turned for the photograph. When he looked past the camera, Nasir was standing, his face open in a way Maine hadn't seen all morning. Maine held his eyes before moving on.
Back in his seat, he could watch the rest without worrying about his own turn. The D's went through; Caleb Ellis, who had spent most of the season setting screens no one thanked him for, drew a string of cheers from the team's families. He gave the graduates a small salute with his cover and nearly missed the teacher directing him back to his row.
"Aaliyah James."
The response came from so many places that Maine looked toward the family section before he looked at Lia. Carmen was on her feet. Abuela had both arms up. Cousins leaned around one another, phones raised, somebody calling "Mija!" and somebody else shouting her full name as if the announcer had needed help.
Lia turned toward them and waved with the hand that wasn't holding her gown. She reached the stage still smiling, shook hands, and lifted the diploma cover just enough for her family to see it. The cheering started again.
As she came down, she put a finger briefly to her lips. They ignored it. She laughed and waved anyway.
As the names moved toward Neal, Maine matched unfamiliar full names to faces he had seen every day.
"Rome Neal."
Rome stood and smoothed his gown with both palms like he was checking the fit of a suit. He walked normally until he reached the camera, then turned the cover toward it and held his other hand out beneath it, presenting it like something he was about to sell on television.
Maine folded over laughing. Mrs. Neal's "ROME!" carried cleanly across the room.
Rome looked toward her, straightened immediately, and gave the photographer a respectable smile. The hand beneath the diploma stayed where it was. Niq covered her mouth. Maine could see her shoulders moving.
Rome returned to his row looking pleased with himself.
The O's went up. Then:
"Jada Parker."
Jada held her chin high until somebody shouted her nickname. Her grin broke through, and she pointed toward the sound before taking the handshake. Lia applauded above her own diploma cover.
People began shifting in their seats. Maine stayed with the names. Wesley Sullivan, their teammate who always needed one more shot before leaving practice, crossed during the S's and lifted two fingers toward the team. Maine returned the gesture.
A few names later:
"Michaela Vern."
She crossed with an easy smile, pausing at the camera as if she knew exactly how the picture would come out. Maine applauded with everyone else, then looked down to check how many names remained.
"Elena Zúñiga."
The final student walked up to applause that grew before she reached the handshake. She took her cover, turned for the picture, and made her way down while the principal waited at the microphone.
Only when she had returned to the graduates did he address the whole class again. Maine stood with everyone around him, his diploma tucked against his side. The last name had been called. They had all made it across.
*
Afterward, everybody seemed to need the same patch of sidewalk.
Teachers hugged students while trying to keep the exits clear. Families collected flowers, bags, misplaced caps. Somebody asked Maine for a picture and another person joined before the first had finished, until he was standing in the middle of a group he hadn't planned and didn't want to leave.
He found his father near Mrs. Neal, who was explaining that Rome had always been loud, as if Nasir needed convincing. Nasir looked up when Maine approached.
"There he is."
Maine held the diploma cover out. "Proof."
His father took it, opened it, then closed it carefully. He gave it back and pulled Maine toward him with one hand at the back of his neck.
The hug was firm and lasted longer than the ones they gave each other on an ordinary day. Maine's cap shifted. He held the cover behind Nasir's back and let it.
"Proud of you, son."
"Thanks, Pops."
Nasir stepped back, looked at his face, and fixed the cap. He didn't say anything else immediately. Maine didn't need him to.
Mrs. Neal took her turn before Rome could complain that they were supposed to be taking pictures. She smelled of perfume and the lotion she kept beside the kitchen sink. When she let Maine go, she brushed something off his shoulder that he couldn't see.
"Look at y'all."
Rome put his arm around Maine and held his phone out toward Niq. "Get one."
"I'm in the pictures too."
Nasir took it from him. "Come on."
They stood together, Niq between them at first, then Rome insisting Maine move because the cap needed to show. Mrs. Neal called instructions from beside Nasir. By the fourth photograph, none of them could stop laughing long enough to look respectable.
Maine checked the pictures afterward. One had Rome's eyes shut. One had Niq telling him something through her smile. The last had all three looking toward the phone, shoulders touching, the building behind them and no one halfway out of the frame.
He kept that one open.
"Send me all of them," Niq said.
"Even this?" He showed her the second.
"Especially that."
Rome drifted back toward his family while Niq went to answer someone calling her. Maine looked up from the pictures and found Carmen coming toward him with both hands out.
"Jermaine. Look at you."
He leaned down into her hug. "Hey, Carmen."
"Congratulations, baby." She drew back to inspect him. "And that cap. Monique did that?"
"Yeah."
"Beautiful."
Before he could thank her again, one of Lia's uncles caught his shoulder. Then an aunt he remembered from birthday parties, then a cousin who wanted to know if he was still playing ball. Maine shook hands, bent for kisses on the cheek, and tried to answer two questions at once. Half the people greeting him had watched him come through Carmen's kitchen looking for Lia. A few seemed astonished he had grown since the last time they saw him, though he was fairly sure he had been this tall then too.
Lia stood beside Abuela, watching him get passed around.
"How many of y'all came?" he asked when he finally reached her.
"About forty."
He looked over her shoulder. "You bring the whole family?"
"No. Some couldn't make it."
He laughed. She looked up at his cap.
"I like the Naruto."
"Niq."
"I figured."
Her eyes lowered to his collar, where his mother's guardian angel pendant rested against his shirt. The chain had slipped out when he'd loosened the top button after the ceremony.
"You wore your mom's pendant."
Maine glanced down and touched it with his thumb.
"Yeah."
Lia reached toward it, then stopped short of touching.
"I remember that."
He looked back at her. "Figured she should be here too."
Lia's smile softened. "She would've been proud of you."
He nodded, his thumb still against the pendant. Lia let the quiet sit without trying to fill it. He remembered how easy that used to be with her.
When she moved her diploma cover, the cuff of her gown slipped back. Maine saw the watch on her wrist.
"That your dad's?"
Lia looked down. "Yeah."
She turned her wrist a little so he could see it, her fingers resting against the strap.
"Wanted to wear it today."
Maine nodded. "He would've been loud as hell in there."
A laugh escaped her. "You heard my family. He would've tried to beat all of them."
"He would've won."
"Probably."
She smiled down at the watch before looking back at him. Maine kept his hand near the angel at his chest a moment longer, then let it fall.
He could see the bare place at her collarbone above the dress. She had taken his chain off. He looked back at her face before the thought could become a question.
Carmen returned with her phone already held sideways.
"You two. Let me get a picture."
Lia looked at her mother. "Mami—"
"One picture. You've known each other forever. Come on."
Maine moved beside Lia. For a second he didn't know where to put his arm. Hers brushed his gown, and Carmen told them to move closer because there was still daylight showing between them. Lia laughed under her breath and stepped in. Maine rested his hand lightly behind her shoulder.
"There," Carmen said. "Smile."
They did. She took two pictures, checked them, and asked for another because a cousin had walked into the frame.
Maine could feel Lia laughing beside him. The third time, he stopped waiting for the shutter and looked down at her. Carmen caught that one too.
"Perfect." She went to show Abuela.
Maine let his arm fall and rubbed the edge of his diploma cover with his thumb.
"Well," he said, smiling. "Awkward."
Lia looked at him for a moment.
"It doesn't feel so awkward."
"No?"
"Feels natural." Her eyes moved briefly toward Carmen, then back to him. "Just feels like something's missing."
Maine stopped turning the cover in his hands. He had an answer forming without knowing yet whether he should say it.
An arm settled around Lia's shoulders.
"Wassup, bro? Congrats on the graduation."
Deion stood beside her, smiling at Maine. He held out his free hand. Maine took it, their hands meeting between the two diploma covers.
"Appreciate it."
Deion turned toward Lia.
"Hey, bae, let's go. Your grandmother said she's making empanadas, tamales, quesadillas. I definitely wanna grab those before Tito does."
He pointed toward the stocky young man standing beside Abuela. Tito saw the gesture, looked down at the bag in his hands, and raised his eyebrows as if he had been accused of something entirely reasonable.
Lia laughed, but Maine could still feel the place where her sentence had stopped between them.
"I gotta say bye to Uncle Nasir," she told Deion.
"Aight. I'll be over there." He tipped his chin toward her family, then looked back at Maine. "Enjoy it, bro."
"You too."
Lia touched the edge of her cover with one finger.
"Congratulations again."
"You too, Lia."
She went with Deion toward the rest of her family, his arm still around her. Maine watched them reach Abuela. He counted nothing, but by the time Lia stepped away to find his father, he had been standing there for a few seconds too long.
Hands covered his eyes from behind.
"Guess who?"
Maine stopped smiling. He knew the voice before she finished, and the little laugh beside his ear made him breathe out through his nose. He took her wrists gently and lowered her hands before turning.
"Michaela, I told you already, we are not getting back together."
She stepped around him, her gown brushing his.
"I understood the last time, Connors, thank you. A friend can't wish another friend well on future endeavors?"
"You could've started with congratulations."
"Congratulations." She spread her hands. "Better?"
He nodded once. The diploma cover stayed between them.
"You look good, Maine."
"You too."
"You always say it like somebody made you."
"Nobody made me."
"Then relax."
She reached toward his cap. Maine adjusted it himself before she got there, angling his shoulder toward the teammates gathered a few feet away. Her hand dropped, but she stayed facing him.
"Monique did that?"
"Yeah."
"She got all your little things."
"She knows me."
Michaela smiled. "I know a few things too."
He looked past her long enough to find Rome, then brought his eyes back.
"We're gonna see each other at Sovereign anyway," he said. "Just don't make it a whole thing."
"What thing?"
"Michaela."
She lifted her eyebrows, waiting.
"We're not together. I don't want you making it seem like we are."
"I said congratulations, Jermaine."
"I'm making sure."
She smoothed the edge of her gown. Beyond her shoulder, somebody in Lia's family lifted a hand, and Maine looked before he could stop himself. Lia wasn't where he'd last seen her. His eyes moved past Abuela toward the people around his father.
Michaela turned just enough to follow.
"Knight in shining armor lost his damsel."
She said it lightly, smiling as she looked back at him.
"Don't do that," Maine said.
"What? You were looking."
"She's got a name."
"I know her name, Jermaine."
He shifted his weight. Michaela watched him, her expression almost fond.
"You told me once you could have a good day and still feel bad if somebody you cared about wasn't okay."
Maine's fingers stopped against the edge of the cover.
"That's not what this is," he said.
"I didn't say it was." She glanced toward his father again. "Just saying. You always gotta check."
He shifted the diploma cover between them. She was still waiting for him to explain himself.
"Leave Lia out of it."
Michaela's smile thinned, then settled back into place.
"You still do that."
"Do what?"
"Look somewhere else when you don't wanna answer."
"I answered you."
Her eyes stayed on him. "I remember a lot."
Maine moved the cover into his other hand and stepped toward the team. Michaela had to turn to keep facing him.
"Maine!" Rome called. "Coach wants everybody."
Maine turned toward him with relief he hoped didn't show quite so plainly.
"I gotta go take this picture."
Michaela glanced at Rome, then let the space open between them.
"I'll catch you."
"Congratulations," Maine said, already moving.
Rome waited until they were nearer the others to lean toward him.
"You welcome."
"Don't start."
"I ain't even say nothing."
Maine put his shoulder into Rome's as they joined the teammates. Andre was arguing that he belonged in the middle of the picture. Darnell told him the middle wasn't going to make him taller. Maine laughed and let Rome pull him into the line.
*
Lia had been smiling in pictures for the last twenty minutes, and most of the smiles had been real.
Her grandmother had hugged her hard enough to move the cap, then insisted Carmen fix it before another photograph. Mami had cried during her speech and denied it afterward, although her lashes were still caught together at the corners. For a little while Lia had stood between them and let herself enjoy being the reason both of them looked like that.
Now she could feel the edge of the photograph inside her diploma cover.
Nasir stood a short distance away, speaking to Mrs. Neal. He saw Lia before she reached him and held out a hand.
"Come here, graduate."
He hugged her with the familiar ease that made her remember being smaller, looking for Maine behind his shoulder. Today she closed her eyes briefly and hugged him back.
"Congratulations," he said. "Your mother proud?"
"She says she didn't cry."
"Then she didn't."
Lia laughed. He looked toward Carmen and lifted his hand. Carmen answered from beside Abuela, where Deion and Tito were helping gather the bags.
"You gave a good speech," Lia said.
"Thank you."
"The success part."
"That part's for you, too."
She looked down at the cover. The photograph's corner had slipped out a little, pale against the dark lining. She pushed it back with her thumb, then stopped hiding it.
"Can I show you something?"
"Of course."
She drew it out and held it by the edges. Four young men in sunlight, her father in his Navy sweatshirt, Nasir beside him before his hair had gone gray. The image had become familiar over the last two weeks. Holding it here, with the man from it standing in front of her, made it look new again.
Nasir took it.
His smile stayed for an instant, then became something smaller. His eyes moved from one face to the next. Behind Lia, someone called for a group to move closer together. She heard a camera shutter and waited.
"Where did you find this?"
The question came before he looked up.
"With Papi's things."
His thumb moved away from her father's face. He turned the photograph over and read the handwriting. Lia watched him look at the names, then return to the front.
"That's you," she said, though they both knew it.
"Yeah."
"You all look so young."
He gave a small breath that might have become a laugh another time. "We were."
She wanted to ask about the fourth man. She wanted to ask why her father had put this behind another wall in the dresser. Around them, families kept moving, somebody struggling with the ribbon on a bouquet, a teacher calling goodbye to a student. Nasir held the photograph carefully between both hands.
"Mami seen it?" he asked.
"I haven't shown her yet."
He glanced toward Carmen. Lia followed his eyes, then looked back at him.
"Is something wrong?"
"No." He returned the photograph. "It's been a long time since I've seen that."
She put it back inside the cover, slower than she had taken it out. Nasir asked about her plans for the summer, and she answered. They spoke for another minute, ordinary questions with ordinary answers. When Carmen called her over, he told her to enjoy the day.
Lia started toward her family, then turned to see whether Maine was still nearby.
He was standing with Rome and Niq, looking at something on Rome's phone. Maine laughed, head tipped back, his cap crooked again. She watched him long enough to remember why she had come across in the first place.
Then she looked at Nasir.
He hadn't returned to Mrs. Neal. He stood where she had left him, his phone in his hand, looking toward Carmen.
Lia tightened her fingers around the cover and went to stand beside her mother.
* * *