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Karen poked her head out from behind the hoist. She wasn’t actually supposed to be working on boats, but it turned out she had a knack for the electrical panels. “Wait, can you film something for me?”
“Sure. Where’s your phone?” I walked over to her.
“I don’t have one.”
I turned around and grabbed mine off the desk. “Ready?” Hope the battery lasted.
Karen cleared her throat, ran her hand over her fading green buzz cut, and sat on the edge of the hoist. “Ready.”
Devon turned a light on to spotlight her and stood next to me as I pressed the button. “Rolling.”
For the first time since I’d met her, she wasn’t smiling wide. She looked happy and confident, but like she wasn’t joking around.
“Hi, Dad,” she started, and my heart cinched up tight. “I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and that I’m okay. I spent a few months in juvie, and now I’m living in a youth home for another month. I’m telling you this because, although it was my mistake, I’m in this situation because you let me fend for you. I’ll always love you, and you’ll always be my dad, butmylife is important, too. So when I get out of the home and move back with Mom, I’m going to change some things.”
She looked at us, and I pressed my lips together to keep the sob at bay. Devon groaned, choking his back down his throat.
“Karens are self-entitled and well off. But I’m neither of those things. I’m poor, have made a bad name for myself, and have struggled a lot this past year. So, I’m changing the narrative. I’m going to be selfish, but I’m going to do it for self-preservation reasons. I come first from now on. No one else is going to watch my back, not you or Mom, so I’m going to watch my own. And now I have an awesome family of four idiots to watch it, too. And when I come visit you, you’ll get to meet them all. Xavi, Nate, Devon, and Maddox have agreed to come with me whenever I want to see you so that I can put myself first and do better. I think you’ll love them as much as I do.” She smiled. “So, I can’t wait to see you, Dad. But this time, I’ll have my new family with me, too. Talk soon! Love you!”
She wiped a tear from her eye, and I busted up, unable to hold back the sob any longer.
“Kare-bear! Get over here!” I wrapped her up in a hug and hated that Xavi missed this. “Fucking love the Karen Movement! We love ya too, sunshine child.”
“I know!” she said confidently, hugging me back. “Xavi gave me the idea for the video and how to put myself first. Did it turn out okay?”
I pulled my phone up and… “Oh, shit. I forgot to press record.”
“Dumbass.” Devon shoved me.
“Oop! Here it is. Phew!” I replayed it. Halfway through, Devon gave Karen a hug.
“Here’s my dad’s number. I’m hoping you can send it to him for me,” Karen said. “And yes, I’d love a burger.” She beamed and grabbed her sweater on the way out like she hadn’t just filmed a life-changing speech.
“I will never understand how she can smile so much.” Devon looked at me. “She really is family.”
“You’re damn right she is.” I sent the video to her dad. And Xavi. And Maddox. And my friend Keith because I was proud. Then Andrea. Then Naomi so she could see how parents affected kids. Then Seth. Then Mary. Fuck it, I sent it to Gina, too. And maybe by accident, I sent it to Bethany/Brittany just because she was near the top of my list. “I want a burger, too.” Fuck it. I sent it to Kaylee as a ‘look, bitch, we can be a family and we’re awesome fake-dads’ slap to her face. Fuck her for laughing in Xavi’s face for mentioning a kid.
The three of us stood by Devon’s truck, staring at the sign that still named the place as O’Malley’s.
Sawyer Brothers. Yes.
We were all changing the legacy of the name. It felt right. In a few years, when people heard the name Sawyer, they’d think of our shop instead of our maniac dad, Maddox’s jail time, our mom’s loving act of murder, and the cuts and bruises all over Devon.
* * *
The June bugsliked to hang around as long as they could. It wasn’t even June anymore, but I swore they stayed just to fuck with Xavi. I hip-checked the truck door and walked up the front steps, drawn to the bug zapper glowing vibrant blue next to the door. No idea why he put it there when all it did was attract the things right where we needed to walk, but whatever. It gave him peace of mind.
“Xav,” I called, opening the door. “You still feel like an honorary Sawyer? Because we might name the—”
He ran to the door, slamming it shut and putting his back against it. “One got in. A three-pound Juner. It was so big it wouldn’t fit in the bug zapper and decided to come inside. I’ve been hunting it for an hour. Manly hunting. No crying.”
Sure.
“There.” He nodded to a Tupperware container on the kitchen counter. “Juner jail.” The hard-shelled bug knocked off the inside walls of its cell.
“You didn’t kill it?”
“And suffer through the crunch? Hard no. Plus, I’m a lover, not a killer.”
