One other bright ball stood out. I pointed to it. “What’s that star?”
“It’s actually not a star at all. It’s a planet. Venus.”
“So planets glow too?”
“No, we’re seeing a reflection of our sun’s light on its atmosphere.”
“You’re speaking Greek.”
“The atmosphere is made of the gases surrounding a planet.”
I sighed. “I don’t even know what I don’t know.”
Tucker turned to me, his eyes reflecting the shifting colors of the neon bar attached to the wheel. “You don’t have to know everything to enjoy the stars.”
I wiggled down in the seat to make it easier to stare up. The Ferris wheel moved another slot, and now we were one position past the top. “I don’t feel anything when I look at the stars, so maybe I never learned much about them.”
“I can’t imagine your mother pointing them out.”
“You met her?”
“Sure. In the hospital. She tried to get me kicked out. Then the night she had me arrested.”
“Oh, right. She definitely doesn’t loveyou.”
“Now that’s an understatement.”
I pulled the bear closer to me. “Do you know anything else about my dad? I didn’t read about the bear in any of my notes. Not even in yours.”
“I’m sorry I left it out. But you used to have a note about him. His name was Marcus, I think.”
“Yes, Marcus Anthony Roberts. He’s on my birth certificate.”
“You only mentioned the bear. Sometimes when you’d hear a sad song, you’d say that maybe you sensed how it felt when he left.”
I squeezed the bear more tightly. “Do you think he sent other things that Mother kept from me?”
“Probably. That was the only thing you caught, or at least the only one you wrote a note to yourself about.”
“Or at least a note she didn’t destroy.”
“That, too.” He shook his head. “She’s a piece of work.”
“She doesn’t have a job. How does she get money to rent the house or buy food?”
“Sounds like your dad paid child support.”
I sat up suddenly, causing the chair to rock. “You mean my dad has been involved all along?”
“Unless your mom was independently wealthy. Did she ever go to the bank?”
“No. We passed one on the way to the store, but we never stopped.”
“Did you see where her money came from?”
I thought for a moment. “We sometimes went to thecounter at the grocery store and she passed the man a piece of paper. He gave her cash. I guess that was a check. It wasn’t a paycheck, like I get now, with typed numbers. It was handwritten. So I guess it was a check from Dad?”
“Sounds like it.”
