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32.
With a lot of hot soup from Aunt Nellie, Jimmy Mendez began to regain his strength. He felt a sad sometimes, when it occurred to him maybe suddenly in the middle of running or playing that he had not seen his mom and dad for a while. Maribel always cheered him on and got the other kids to help him forget for the moment, and Jimmy was a pretty strong kid.
Still, if he smelled certain smells or thought of that woman who had taken his mother's place—those flat, black eyes—he felt paralyzed. At moments like that he couldn't move. He'd feel waves of sheer terror rolling up and down his back.
Aunt Nelli was very smart. She went over to the house and got his bicycle for him. She had to explain to a couple of undercover cops sitting in a car on the street that she was Jimmy's aunt. There was no yellow police tape on the house, and they reluctantly let her go because she happened to have the papers from Annette Lewis in her car, and she had a spare key to get into the Mendez house. Like a panzer tank of wrath, Aunt Nellie came out of that house loaded with bike and ball and bat and a few other important kid things, and had an expression that dared anyone to stop her. Nobody did.
The strategy, and Aunt Nellie told Jimmy this, was to get him totally tired out during the day so that he could sleep at night without waking up screaming several times. Even so, Jimmy sometimes had nightmares, and woke up next morning curled up either in Maribel's bed or Aunt Nellie's.
Aunt Nellie came into the kitchen beaming as Jimmy and Maribel sat having hot chocolate and French toast. "He called!"
"Who called?" Jimmy said.
Aunt Nellie put her arm around Maribel, who perked up. "Your daddy called. He's in town, coming home today or tomorrow. Seemed tired or something, but sober, and pleasant."
"Great," Maribel said without total conviction. She glanced at Jimmy, who looked as if he were choking on his French toast (an impossibility, so it must be terror). Jimmy's eyes were bulging as he turned shades of pink and red.
"What's the matter?" Aunt Nellie asked.
"Nothing," Jimmy said, grabbing his remaining French toast in a muddy hand and running out of the room.
"What's the matter with him?" Aunt Nellie asked. She wiped her hands in her apron and looked happy about the phone call.
"I know what he is thinking," Maribel said.
"What?"
Maribel had a way of not answering. She sipped her hot chocolate deliberately and did not meet her mother's gaze. Inwardly, she trembled and hoped Jimmy was wrong. Jimmy had told her about his dad, and then his mom, after his dad had come home from the sea.
"What?" her mom asked in a harsher tone.
Maribel didn't answer or look at her mom, but reached out with one hand and took her mother's hand, and squeezed. Her mother stood with her mouth open.
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