in the back door, and he froze, skateboard still in hand. “Mark! Oh, shoot!”
“Sorry?” Joaquin said.
“Oh, not you, honey. No, no, come in. We just thought you’d be home later! Oh, shoot!”
Joaquin stayed in the doorway anyway. Linda was holding a huge red bow in her hands, her glasses pushed up on her head, leaning around the front stairs. “Mark, he’s home! I told you!” Then she turned back to Joaquin. “Honey, come in, come in, it’s fine. You’re fine.” She beckoned him in the door.
Mark came jogging down the stairs, a little out of breath. “What are you doing here, early bird?” he asked Joaquin, but he was smiling. “Linda wanted to do a big presentation. She got the special bow and everything.”
Linda just sighed in exasperation.
Joaquin was still in the doorway. “What?” he finally said. Was he supposed to put that bow on his trash bag? “Is it a surprise going-away party?”
Both Linda and Mark froze in place. “A what?” Mark asked.
“Well, there’s a car?” Joaquin said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. “In the driveway?”
Linda’s face was quickly morphing from exasperated to horrified. “You think we’re sending you away?”
If this was a guessing game, Joaquin was definitely going to lose. “Um.”
Mark and Linda looked at each other, and then Linda walked over and pulled Joaquin into the house, the screen door slamming behind him. “Joaquin,” Linda said, “that car is for you.”
Joaquin just blinked at her. “What?”
She put her hands on his shoulders, holding him in place.
“Sit down, kiddo,” Mark said, pulling out a chair.
Joaquin sat down with a thud, his heart starting to race. It all felt like a trick, like an elaborate stunt that would leave him humiliated and embarrassed, and yet, at the same time, he didn’t think Mark or Linda would do that to him.
“You got a car. For me?” he asked.
“Yes,” Linda said, then put the enormous bow on his lap. “You were supposed to be home fifteen minutes later. We were going to put a bow on it like in the car commercials.”
“We were sort of hoping that we’d make a viral YouTube video,” Mark teased, sitting down across from him. “You’ve just cost us millions of dollars in advertising revenue, early bird.”
Joaquin just touched the bow. It was red and soft in his hands.
“We were going to wait until your eighteenth birthday,” Linda explained, her hand still steady on his shoulder. “But now with Grace and Maya in the picture, we want you to be able to see them whenever you want. You shouldn’t have to depend on us for a ride.”
“We think that it’s really important for you to see your sisters,” Mark added. He spoke softly, like he was talking to a frightened animal. “You okay, buddy? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Joaquin nodded. “I’m fine,” he said. “I just didn’t . . . I thought it was the social worker.”
“Oh, Joaquin,” Linda said, rubbing the back of his neck. She wasn’t a big woman, but her hands always felt so strong, like they could hold things up instead of tearing them apart. “We’re not letting you go anywhere.”
“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