“This is ridiculous,” Norma finally said. “If Vero was on the phone with her lawyer, she’d be done by now. I’m going to see what’s taking her so long.” She wiped her hands on her dishrag and walked out of the kitchen.
I darted after her. “You don’t have to do that, Norma! I’ll handle it! That way you and Gloria can finish cooking!”
“No! This nonsense has gone on long enough,” she said, stomping up the stairs. “You came all this way to visit with her. There’s no excuse for my daughter’s rude behavior.” Norma crested the top step like a tiny tsunami. She stormed down the hall just as Vero’s door swung open.
Vero looked like she’d just rolled out of bed. Her clothes were rumpled, her ponytail had come loose, and her cheeks were flushed, probably from Javi’s stubble. Her eyes went wide at the sight of her mother.
Norma studied her daughter with a scowl. “Where have you been?”
Vero sputtered. “I… wasn’t feeling well?” she said, glancing at me uncertainly. I nodded, and Vero faked a cough.
“How could you be sick? You hardly leave the house.” Concerned, Norma touched her daughter’s forehead. “You’re freezing!” She stepped back to get a look at her. “Why is there dirt on your clothes? And what’s that on your neck?”
Vero clapped a hand over the start of a hickey.
A crash came from outside, like a trash can toppling over. Weall tipped our heads toward the window as someone shouted down the street, “When I’m done with you, you’re gonna wish you never came back!”
“It’s Ramón!” Norma said, hurrying down the stairs. “The cameras must have worked! He must have caught the vandal!” Vero and I ran down after her. Gloria heard the commotion and burst out of the kitchen. All four of us charged out of the house into the dark. We could just make out Ramón grappling with someone down the street. The two men were rolling around in the neighbor’s front yard. Ramón held the other man down by the back of his head, smushing his face into the ground. The man’s shouts of protest were muffled in the grass.
As we ran toward them, Ramón grabbed a fistful of the man’s jacket and rolled him over. Javi scowled up at him.
“What in god’s name is going on out here?” Norma snapped.
Vero slunk silently backward toward the house.
Her mother whirled and pointed a finger at her. “Not one more step, young lady! You’re not going anywhere until I get an explanation. And you two,” she said, rounding on Ramón and Javi. “I want answers, and I want them right now!”
Ramón hauled Javi to his feet. Javi wiped his bleeding mouth with the back of his hand.
“I thought I saw someassholesneaking around in the dark,” Ramón said, giving Javi a shove.
One by one, the neighbors’ doors began to open. Lenore poked her head out of her house. Her bright yellow tracksuit practically glowed in the dark. “Norma? Is that you? Is everything all right?”
Across the street, Eugene stumbled out of his front door, pushing a walker. “I heard a commotion. Did someone fall?”
Joan wheezed as she shuffled toward the others in her pajamas and robe. “It sounded like a fight! Want me to call the cops?”
“No!” we all said in unison.
“Everything is fine,” Gloria said. “It was only Ramón and Javi.”
Lenore’s face broke into a wide grin. “Look, everyone! Javier is back!” Javi waved sheepishly at the neighbors as they all began buzzing with chatter.
Norma shooed them off. “This is a family matter. You can all go back home.”
Javi rubbed the back of his head and winced as they ambled slowly back to their homes.
“You have no business here,” Norma said to him in a low voice. “My daughter is in enough trouble as it is. She doesn’t need any more.”
“Javi came with me,” I confessed. “He didn’t think he would be welcome in the house, so I told him he could wait for me in the van. He was concerned about Vero. He wanted to see her.”
Norma scoffed. “For three years, he had no problem leaving her alone. Why should he care about her now?”
Javi looked stricken. Even Ramón and Gloria winced.
A car door shut. A woman’s voice carried from the street. “Javi? Is that you?”
Javi’s back stiffened a second before the woman stepped under the streetlight. She crossed her rail-thin arms over her chest, hugging herself against the cool night air. It blew a strand of long, dark hair over her eyes, and she raked it back the same way Javi always did. “I didn’t know you were in town. You didn’t call. You look good, mijo.”
