“It’s a long story. Let’s get this food inside first.”
We set down the tinfoil-wrapped bread loaves and tubs of muffins on the dining table.
“Where’s Amir?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe the orchard? I was just going to bring him a sandwich.”
“Why bother? He’ll be here any second. That boy can smell fresh-baked bread from two miles away.”
She poured us each a mug of tea from the thermos she’d brought, and I pulled a blueberry muffin from one of the tubs. We sat on the back porch. I told her that a dog had bitten my leg and that the dog’s owners had turned out to be visiting the area from San Francisco. Thankfully, Rei seemed more concerned about the dog bite than why I’d been bitten. I told her that Doctor Clark had given me antibiotics and that I was feeling better.
“Doctor Clark saw you? Why didn’t he tell me?”
“You saw him this week?”
“He came to my house.” She caught my worried look and waved me away. “It was nothing serious.” She looked over her shoulder toward the house. “Bear should have driven over to let me know you’d been injured.”
I bit into the blueberry muffin. It was no surprise to me that Bear hadn’t let Rei know what had happened. He only left Horseshoe Cliff to drive to the co-op, and when he returned, he inevitably brought with him only half the things on the list I gave him and a truck cab full of the cheapest beer that the co-op stocked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I told Rei. “I’m fine now. And,” I said,leaning toward her, “the most amazing thing happened! Rosalie Langford—that’s the woman whose dog bit me—wants to help me go to college.” I was glad that Bear’s television was so loud that there was no way he would hear me—I was too excited to speak softly.
When Rei set her mug of tea in her lap, her thin fingers shook slightly. “What do you mean?”
“She wants to help pay for everything. She’ll even help me file for emancipation if I need to. She did it herself when she was my age.”
“Well!” Rei leaned so far back in her chair that she seemed to grow smaller by the moment. Then she released a wide smile. “Isn’t that wonderful?”
I wasn’t sure I had ever seen her look so tiny. I certainly hadn’t seen her look so happy since my father was alive. She used to smile like that when she saw him, as though just the sight of him amazed her, making her little corner of the world brighter. It occurred to me suddenly what a burden we had been on her over the many years that she had worried about us, supporting us. We were Jacob’s children, and she would never have let any of us down, but I thought I saw now the price she had paid for taking us on. Released for a moment from the stoic burden of worrying about my future, she looked frail.
“You’re leaving,” she said, her eyes shining.
“But I’ll write to you all the time. I’ll write you letters from all over the world...”
“The world!” Rei’s face crinkled with delight.
“Why not? I want to see everything! Maybe I’ll be able tostudy abroad.” I was excited, and carried away, but for the first time my most extravagant fantasies felt possible.You’re allowed to have big plans,Rosalie had said. I wanted to hold on to the moment, and Rei’s shared excitement, for as long as I could. “I’ll send you something from Japan!”
Rei laughed. There was a sound then, as loud as a person walking through dry grass, at the side of the house. My heart jumped. I worried that it was Bear, eavesdropping, but immediately dismissed the thought; it would have taken too much work for him to have walked out the front door and crept around the side of the house when he could have just stood in the kitchen and listened.
Rei and I had both turned our heads toward the noise. For a moment, all was quiet, and then a red bird landed on the railing. It was smaller than a cardinal, as bright as a ripe strawberry.
“Oh!” I should have remained still, but instead I sprang to my feet.
The bird flew away.
I felt exultant. It was a sign. I was right to embrace Rosalie’s offer. It was time to leave Horseshoe Cliff. I looked back at Rei. “My father always said that a red bird represents a visiting spirit.”
Rei gave me a puzzled look.
“The red bird! Didn’t you see it? It landed right there on the railing.”
She sighed. “My eyesight has never been as sharp as my mind. The gap seems to be widening.”
“But it was right there!”
“If you saw it, it was there, Merrow, and it was there for you.” As I sat down again, her expression narrowed into the worried look I knew best. “What about Amir?”
“Rosalie said she would help him, too.”
