Are you okay? What’s it like there? I’ve never even heard you mention having another grandmother.
Even though Mimi was on the other couch, a fair distance away, I tilted the screen to be sure she couldn’t see it. The desire not to hurt her was that strong, even as I knew that I, too, could have claimed injured feelings, considering. Where had she been all this time? It was one thing if my mom had kept her at arm’s length—notoriously private, she got even more so when she was using—but five years had passed since her death. Had my dad run interference, thinking Mimi and all the rest of the Calvanders would be too much for me to handle?
Plus, my mom had never talked much about her family. It was Nana—my grandfather died young in his forties—who was consistently there for holidays and birthdays. Other than the funeral, which was a blur, the only trip I’d ever taken to my mother’s home was so long ago I didn’t even remember it. Yes, I had the Lake Stories, but they were never about people as much as a place.
“Arch!” Mimi said, pointing at the TV. “What did I tell you?”
Sure enough, on the screen, Paula was gesturing at a small, cramped living room as a computer graphic showed what it would look like with that shape as an entryway. “You told me,” I said.
She cackled, and I looked back down at my screen at Ryan’s question. Whatwasit like here?
Unclear,I told her.Stay tuned.
I heard thumping, then footsteps crossing the kitchen. A moment later, a tall, thin guy with red hair, a baseball hat, shorts, and a faded NORTH LAKE T-shirt passed by in the hallway, his phone to his ear.
“Jacky,” Mimi called out, and he stopped, turning to peer in at her. “Didn’t you hear me calling you before?”
“I was taking a shower,” he said, sliding his phone into a back pocket.
“Well, say hello to your cousin Saylor.” She nodded at me. “She’s staying awhile.”
It was a testament to the dimness of the room, and the dark blue couch I was on, that Jacky hadn’t even seen me until she said this. He looked surprised as he lifted a hand. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I said. “It’s Emma, actually.”
“Oh, sorry,” Mimi told me, her eyes on the TV, where I saw someone was now carrying a sledgehammer. “I keep forgetting you changed it.”
But I didn’t, I wanted to say. I’d always introduced myselfas Emma, even as a kid: my mom was the only one who called me Saylor. Could you literally be a different person to different people? I was pretty sure I was going to find out.
“I’m going out to the raft,” Jacky told Mimi. “Back for dinner.”
“We’re having burgers,” she replied. “I made the patties already.”
“All right,” he said, then started toward the door again, drawing his phone from his pocket.
“Jacky.”
He stopped, exhaling visibly. “Yes?”
Mimi shifted in her seat. “Why don’t you take her with you?”
“What?” he said.
“Saylor,” she replied, nodding at me. “I mean, Emma. She’s just got here, doesn’t know anyone. You can introduce her around.”
“Oh,” I said quickly, mortified, “he doesn’t have to—”
“They’re all out at the raft this time of day,” she explained, cutting me off. “Figuring out what kind of trouble to get into later.”
“It’s okay,” I said. I had no sense of the rules here, but I did know enough to not want to be someone’s burden. “I’m fine.”
The TV went back to3 Flip Sisters. “Demo,” Mimi said, nodding at the screen. “You can tell, because everyone’s in goggles.”
“Right,” I said.
Jacky hesitated a moment more in the non-arch hallway opening, then started out the door. “Be back to grill,” he called over his shoulder.
“Okay,” Mimi said, taking a sip of her drink.
