I sigh. “Please, just tell me whatever you all want to tell me so I can get back to what I was doing.”
Sage snatches my phone out of my hands. “Which is…” She pauses. “Asking for life advice from Reddit.”
I push myself up to a sitting position. “Hey! Give that back!”
She holds the phone out of my reach—to be honest, I’m not trying all that hard. I just don’t have the motivation. Her thumb slides as she scrolls back, her face one of disbelief. “You’ve been asking Reddit for advice for the lasttwelve years?”
“Stop scrolling through my shit.” I cross my arms and close my eyes as I lean back against my pillow mountain. “It’s none of your business.”
“Itisour business,” Sage says, her voice getting loud with tears. “Teal, you lock away all of your problems. You never tell us anything, you go to strangers on the internet instead. How are we supposed to help you when you keep everything inside?”
I open my eyes and stare at each of them. They’re all looking at me with a little bit of anxiety and a lot of worry. Even Amá Sonya, through her expression of general disgust. “I’m guessing they told you we saw Mama.” I’m talking to her and Nadia.
“I heard she’s just as I remember.” Nadia sighs. She looks right at me. “Teal, I’ve failed you in a thousand ways. And I’m not going to fail you right now. We’re all here because you’re in love with that boy, and you’vebeenin love with him. Your sisters filled me in on what’s happened.” She points at me as she continues. “I don’t want to anger you, but you’re experiencing an overreaction, dear. I’ve seen the way that boy looks at you. He isn’t going to let you go. Not in a million years.”
“So we’re here to bring you to him.” Sky smiles at me, andthen she makes a face. “But you need to shower first. And wear something cute.”
“You’re here to take me to him?” I sit up and look at Amá Sonya. “Even you?”
Amá Sonya shrugs. “He makes good money, no? All that inheritance.”
I slump my shoulders. “But…” My voice chokes. Even though Nadia just said the words I wanted to hear, I can’t help but let go of this awful insecurity. “What if he doesn’t want me anymore?”
Sage sits on the side of the bed and grabs my hand. “Do you love him?”
I shake my head. “It’s not about that. It’s—”
“Do you love him or not?” Sky repeats the question.
I close my eyes briefly and think of Carter. The way his eyes, his smile, his whole face brightens when I laugh. How nerdy he is, making sure I’m fed and my pain is managed. The way he carried me to the car when I got hurt. How he searched on eBay for the exact copy ofMutant League Footballwe used to play…or had us read poetry to one another on the porch, under the cool, blue moonlight. The way he made love to me for the first time, like I was the only thing that existed besides him in this whole universe, with its wild winds and blue lightning and trees made mostly of singing water. “Of course I love him.”
“Good. It’s settled. Shower, get dressed.” Sky announces this, then promptly leaves the room, and everyone follows her. Everyone except for Sage, who lingers, handing me my phone.
“I shouldn’t have left you when Sky fell,” she says. “I’m sorry, Teal. I should’ve stayed.”
I blink and am dismayed to feel even more tears fall. Now who’s the Llorona? “Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried, I just wanted you to know. How sorry I am.” She sits and wipes away my tears, just like she did when I was little, after Mama left. “I’m going to tell you something you’re probably not in the mood to hear—don’t give me that look, it’s nothing bad, I swear.”
“Okay…”
“I was reading this essay by Ursula K. Le Guin.”
“I know her.” It’s a moot point. We all know her. We grew up with Nadia, surrounded by books written only by women. There was bound to be a Le Guin novel in our childhood a time or two.
Sage nods. “Have you ever heard ofA Space Odyssey? The film?”
I scrunch my nose. “The one with the gorillas?”
Sage raises a fist. “Yes. Yes! So do you remember what the pivotal moment for those gorillas was? When they used a bone for a weapon—”
“And committed a violent murder? Sure.” I stifle a yawn. “I don’t know what this has to do with Ursula, though.”
“In this essay, she was talking about what complete bullshit that scene was.” Sage’s eyes are always bright whenever she talks about something that excites her, whether that’s bacteria, mycelium, or gemstones. “That our ancestral primates made this great leap in intelligence through the use of a tool to harm. Like it was the first tool of consequence. It’s such a—” Sage scrunches her nose. “Such a toxic manly thing to assume.”
I blink. “Okay.”
“Okay, so you know what she said was likely the first tool of consequence? What tool we needed the most, that it’s been found throughout every ancient archaeological site, like, all over the world?”
