Tigers, Not Daughters - Samantha Mabry Page 0,43

her eyes, and John was now staring back. The side of his mouth quirked up. Jessica took a step forward. She then pressed herself flat against John’s chest and took hold of both sides of his face. From the other room, Evalin could see what was going on. She shouted out, enraged, as Jessica stood on the tips of her toes and crushed her lips against John’s.

She was the one who then pressed John back against the wall of the entryway, and she was the one who put her hand up his shirt. Their lips and tongues slid and smacked against each other.

“What the hell?” Hector whispered.

Jessica and John have been together ever since.

Jessica

(Saturday, June 15th)

A screechy laugh from across the street made Jessica flinch. That laugh, so piercing and distinct as to rise above a big crowd, belonged to Norma Galván, Rafe’s date to the block party. As Rafe flipped burgers at a portable grill set up in the Garcias’ front yard, Norma laughed at every single thing he said. And, as Norma laughed, she had to fight to keep her balance because the high heels of her strappy sandals kept sinking into the lawn. In between bursts of laughter and trying to stay upright, Norma took sips from a can of Tecate and picked at her flower-printed blouse in an attempt to separate the fabric from her moist skin. Jessica watched as Rafe leaned down toward Norma and nuzzled his nose at her temple. Norma gazed up, smiling all loopy.

Jessica was standing next to John in the shade of an oak tree, wondering if she’d ever looked at him all loopy like that. She also wondered why her father was hanging out with Norma Galván again. Possibly, it had to do with money, given that Rafe had asked Jessica the other day to “borrow” two hundred dollars. Norma was known to keep rolls of cash stashed all over her house, in places like coffee cans and hollow porcelain statues. Rafe had said he needed the money for a truck payment, but Jessica was pretty sure his truck had been paid off for years.

Jessica then heard a different laugh—gentle like skipping stones—and she knew exactly who that laugh belonged to because she’d heard it dozens of times from across the store, from aisles away. There, behind a couple of folding tables covered with foil-wrapped dishes, was Peter. He was helping Mrs. Garcia pour tea into red plastic cups and was grinning at a little boy who was not-so-sneakily trying to steal three cookies off a plate.

Next to Peter was Calvin Ortiz’s mom, who was fussing over things, making sure everything was all set, that there were enough paper plates, napkins, forks, and spoons. She smacked the boy’s hand away from the cookies, but laughed while she did it. In a nearby yard, Kitty Bolander and her friends were having a Hula-Hoop contest. The girls were laughing so loud, they sounded like they were screaming, like their joy took up so much space in their bodies it was physically painful.

It was a bright, beautiful, non-rainy day, and there was laughter everywhere. No one knew that the ghost of Ana Torres had caused Iridian to freeze in place on the downstairs couch, or that Jessica hadn’t slept any more than eight hours combined over the course of the last three days. Jessica was surprised no one could see how badly she was starting to warp. Everything—her vision, her attention span, her ability to sort change into the register—felt like pencil marks that had been half-heartedly rubbed out with an eraser. Like everything was as blurry as the letters on old, slumped tombstones or like the shadow outline of a hand against a shower curtain.

No one in the neighborhood knew anything about this—about Jessica, about the things happening in Jessica’s house. Jessica didn’t really want anyone to know. She cringed. She felt like she was under assault.

Teddy Arenas’s new dog, a sand-colored, big-pawed puppy, bounded up to John and started pulling on the end of his shoelace with his tiny, determined teeth. John smiled and crouched down. He made cooing sounds and let the dog lick him on his hands and his nose, even on his lips. Eventually, the puppy rolled onto his back and gazed