hot and cold on me, Petra. You came to me for help, and I helped you. Now you’re leaving me high and dry. Maybe you don’t want to become tougher. But you do need to become more thoughtful, more responsible.”
She nodded solemnly but didn’t even bother to answer me. I went home that night close to tears. Not because Petra was quitting—she was too impulsive to be an asset to my business—but I couldn’t help feeling demoralized by her take on my personality.
When I reached my building, I thought I really might break down. Clara Guaman was sitting on the single front step with her brother Ernie. On this cold February night, after hearing my cousin’s take on my character, I didn’t think I could cope with any more Guaman crises, but I held the lobby door open for Clara and Ernie and forced myself to smile.
“How are things?” My voice must have been harsher than I’d intended because Clara cast me a nervous glance.
“This isn’t a good time, is it?” she said.
“No, no, it’s fine. I’m just tired . . . Your dad okay? Have they arrested him?”
“He’s a wreck, he wants to confess. Ma wants him to run away—to Cuba, even. And everybody’s fighting—it’s like it was when Nadia and Ma were fighting all the time. I thought it would all be better now, but it’s not. And tonight, Papi said if he had to hear Ernie’s laugh one more time he wouldn’t be responsible for what he did next. I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t take Ernie to any of my girlfriends, so I brought him here.”
The dogs heard us and began barking and whining. Mr. Contreras opened his door, and Mitch and Peppy bounced into the hallway.
“Peppy!” Clara’s face lit up. “I hoped she’d be here.”
“Well, Clara, look at you. That black eye all gone, you’re pretty as a picture. Ain’t she?” Mr. Contreras beamed at her, and she blushed.
I worried what would happen when Ernie encountered the dogs—if he tried to hug or squeeze Mitch, it could end in disaster. However, the animals seemed to understand his disability. While Clara knelt and crooned over Peppy, Mitch jumped, paws on Ernie’s shoulders, and licked his face.
“She likes me, she likes me! Did you see, Clara? She kissed me. The Allie dog kissed me.”
Ernie’s shrieks of delight echoed up and down the stairwell. I didn’t try to tell him that Mitch was a male.
I took all five of them, young people, old man, dogs, upstairs with me while I changed from corporate to exercise clothes. I showed Ernie how to hold Mitch’s leash when we went back outside for a run. He needed reminding at each intersection that we stopped at, the dogs sat down, and they waited for the command to heel before moving again. But, in the park, I let Ernie tear up and down the lake path until he and Mitch were both exhausted. Clara played more quietly with Peppy. Both Guamans came back to the house happier than when we’d left.
I had bought a salmon fillet to share with Mr. Contreras for dinner. We stretched it into a meal for four by adding pasta and a head of broccoli, but Ernie was too excited to eat much.
“My Allie dog, my Allie dog,” he kept crying, jumping out of his chair to hug Mitch.
“Ernie should get a dog,” Clara said. “He hasn’t been this together since before his motorcycle wreck.”
I nodded. “I know someone who trains dogs for hospital visits. We’ll go see her on Monday and get her help in finding the right dog and the right training for Ernie. I’m also going to give you Deb Steppe’s contact information. She’s a crackerjack defense lawyer. We’ll call her, you and I; I think if you can bring your father in to see her, he’ll feel better, and then things will calm down at home.”
Clara played with the feathers in Peppy’s tail. “Did my dad—did he really shoot Prince Rainier?”
“Sweetie, I can’t answer that. I didn’t see him fire the gun, and if I say more than that, you may be forced to repeat it under oath.”
“But—half of me wishes he did, to avenge Allie and Nadia. Half of me wishes he didn’t, because it’s terrifying to think my own father could shoot someone.”
I took her hand. “What you and your family endured for the last three years, no one should have to live through. There are so many casualties of