“But I liked Landon!” Laleh said.
“Me too,” I said. “But... well, sometimes things don’t work out.”
“Who’s going to be your boyfriend, then?”
“No one, I guess. I’m going to finish off the soccer season. Hopefully by then I’ll have a new job. And I’ll be able to work more hours, to help out.”
“Just for a little while,” Dad said. “And then you’re going to save for your future. Whether that’s college or something else. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Laleh told everyone about her constellations project. She’d gotten a gold star on it—the highest ranking Miss Shah awarded—and made a new friend too.
“Avan’s grandpa is from India,” she explained. “That’s almost like Iran’s neighbor. He visits there every summer.”
I was glad Laleh was making friends.
I loved my sister’s smile.
Grandma and Oma announced they were going to head back home.
“We’ve been in your hair long enough,” Grandma said.
And Mom said, “We’ve loved having you,” which was a high-level taarof if there ever was one.
There was a strange energy, a vibration humming through the entire Kellner house.
A new future was being born.
I helped Grandma with her and Oma’s laundry, folding pants and sweatshirts and matching socks, while she dealt with their “unmentionables.”
Seriously.
She said, “I’ll take care of our unmentionables,” like that was a thing people really called their underwear and bras.
Maybe Grandma called them “brassieres.”
I grinned.
“Glad to see us go?” Grandma asked.
“No. Just thinking something funny.”
She studied me, her eyebrow arched.
“I think it’s for the best, you know. I think your dad is better off when he doesn’t see us so much.”
“Why do you say that?”
Grandma did this weird flip-fold thing that got her underwear into a tiny triangle. “He won’t say it, but I think being around us depresses him.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” I said, even though I was pretty sure it was.
“You don’t have to lie, Darius.” Grandma grimaced. “I think it was hard for him, going through Oma’s transition. Having to rearrange his whole life.”
“I think sometimes he’s just depressed because that’s how the disease works. It doesn’t need a reason. Least of all Oma’s transition. Isn’t she happier now?”
“So much happier.”
