if Grace had slapped it away. “No,” she said. “Melissa passed away a long time ago. I’m her sister, Jessica.”
Grace didn’t even realize she had swayed on her feet until Joaquin was stepping forward to prop her up. She fumbled for what to say next, her head a clanging rush of noise and pain and shock, when the woman suddenly gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, and then she was crying. “You’re her kids. You’re Melissa’s kids.” And then she was stepping forward, pulling the three of them into her arms.
That’s when Grace started to cry, as well.
MAYA
The inside of Jessica’s home was as neat as the outside.
Maya sat between Grace and Joaquin at the kitchen table as Jessica fluttered around them, getting sodas out of the refrigerator, setting them down along with paper napkins. “We would have called,” Grace said, her voice still thick and papery-sounding from crying, “but we didn’t have a number.”
“Oh, it’s okay,” Jessica said. She was smiling even though there were still tear tracks on her cheeks, her mascara pooling under her eyes. Every so often, Maya would see Joaquin in her features, and then Grace, and sometimes herself. It was like looking at a funhouse mirror, the image in it constantly shifting, and Maya was fascinated. “I got rid of the landline a few years ago,” Jessica added as she sat down across from them. “Didn’t make sense to have one when I’m always using my cell. They keep calling me and offering me a great deal if I get a landline, but I told them why would I—” Melissa suddenly stopped and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I babble when I’m nervous.”
“Me, too,” Maya told her.
Joaquin was very, very quiet as he sat next to Maya, but she could see his head following each of Jessica’s movements.
“So,” Jessica said, giving them all a watery smile. “I bet you have some questions for me.”
“How did she die?” Maya whispered. It felt like she had both lost and gained something huge. Melissa was gone, but Jessica was still here. A door had been closed, but another had been opened.
Jessica nodded to herself as she looked down at her untouched glass of water. “It was a truck accident,” she murmured. “She was twenty-one, crossing the street, and she got hit by a trucker who ran a red light. He said he didn’t even see her. She died instantly, they said. She didn’t suffer. I worried about that, but that’s what they told us.”
“Did you know our dads?” Grace asked.
“Maybe I should just start at the beginning,” Jessica said, looking at each of them in turn as her eyes overflowed again. “Oh, I am so sorry,” she whispered. “I just haven’t seen Melissa’s face in so long, and now I’m looking at three versions of it and it’s so . . .” She fumbled for words. “All three of you are just so beautiful. You look just like her.”
Maya felt Grace’s hand press against her own, and she wrapped her fingers around Grace’s and squeezed tight. She was afraid she would start crying if she didn’t hang on to something, and Maya wanted to remember every single word of this conversation. She wanted to breathe in each memory of her mother until it filled her up and made her fly across a pink-streaked sky, warm with fading light.
“Do you,” Joaquin started to say, then cleared his throat. “Do you, um, have any pictures? Of Melissa?”
Jessica shook her head, her lower lip trembling. “Your grandfather, our dad, he disowned her when she got pregnant with you, Joaquin. She was seventeen, and our parents were just beside themselves. They kicked her out. Our dad, I think it just broke his heart. He burned all of the pictures of her.”
Maya thought of her own home, her parents, her bedroom, the photos on the stairs. She couldn’t imagine leaving any of them without having somewhere else to go.
Joaquin leaned forward, and Maya felt herself reach up and put her hand on his arm, anchoring him to her and Grace. “Did you know my dad?” he asked.
Jessica nodded, her eyes lighting up. “You should know, your parents were in love. They were high school sweethearts, they were so head over heels with each other. It was a little disgusting, actually.” Jessica chuckled to herself, wiping at her eyes. “She used to plan their wedding during study hall. He was so good to her, he just adored her.