“That’s high school. Her punk phase. See the Motörhead T-shirt?” Lana pointed out. “I told you. None of these are in chronological order. It’s like whoever did them was trying to be confusing.”
“It was Mom,” said Anne, who had a white book with a yellowed cover that saidOUR WEDDINGin her own lap. “She threw a bunch of these together for Grandmother when she went into assisted living. Before, they were all in shoeboxes.Thatwas confusing.”
“Maybe this is your dad?” Ben asked me.
I looked: again, no. Instead, it was a tall boy in a football jersey, my mom beside him holding a bouquet of flowers.HOMECOMING COURT, said the sash she was wearing. “They met in college,” I told him. “I haven’t seen a picture of him yet, to be honest.”
“Might not be one,” Lana mused, flipping a page. “Once she left, she didn’t come back. Right, Anne?”
My cousin looked up at me. A beat. “Pretty much. I mean, from what I’ve heard.”
It was so weird. No matter how many pieces of my mom’s puzzle I was handed—rebel years, adolescent royalty—there was still that one big gap in her history.
Clark nodded at the album in Anne’s lap. “Crazy that you’re going to have one of those soon.”
“I know!” She smiled, looking down at it. “This wedding is going to be very well documented. Hopefully our pictures will live up to our how-we-met story.”
“It’s a good one?” I asked.
Lana sighed. “Here we go. She loves to tell it.”
“We met right down the street!” Anne told me. “Jonathan was staying at the Tides with his family and they came to the Station to ride the go-karts. I took his ticket.”
“And his heart,” Lana added dramatically.
“It’s true! Then we got engaged two summers later. He slipped the ring in a ticket. ‘Let’s be all in on this ride,’ he said. Isn’t that just the sweetest?”
“It’s pretty cute,” I agreed.
“My original plan was to get married on the porch. LikeGrandmother and the Judge, and my mom and dad. And Kasey to do the flowers.” She paused, looking down at the album. “But it didn’t work out, unfortunately.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“The driveway. And no AC. Jonathan has a lot of fragile, older relatives,” she explained. “And as far as the flowers, his grandmother does them for every family wedding. It’s their tradition.”
Uh-oh. Just the moonakis plant had been emotional. But an entire event?
“Where are you in all this, though?” Lana had clearly been thinking the same thing. “What doyouget to pick?”
“Not the dresses, apparently,” Clark muttered under his breath.
“Dude,” Ben said.
“What? It’s true.”
“Well, wearegetting married at the lake. Usually Jonathan’s family does weddings at his grandmother’s house in Memphis. And it’s as close to the Fourth of July as possible, which is when we met.” Her smile looked a bit forced. “So it is kind of full circle, in the end.”
We were all quiet for a moment. Lana turned an album page, which crackled. I leaned toward the dollhouse, the open side of which was facing me, and scanned the reproduction there of the room where we were now sitting. Windows, archway to kitchen. I slid my hand down the hallway to the front door, poking it open. Ben was on the other side, squinting at the salt-and-pepper shakers, and we both jumped.
“Sorry,” he said as I laughed. He smiled before closing it.
As they all began talking again, I looked at the box of furniture, still by my elbow. Toward the top I saw a couple of wooden beds, a heart carved into each headboard. A pile of crocheted blankets, clearly handmade, were under some nearby bookshelves.
There was nothing in the house except the piano and table I’d put in earlier, plus the tiny pastries. I picked up the beds, putting one into the reproduction of the room with the Bone Breaking window, which also had a bit of a drop. The other went behind the tiny door of Juvie, where there was just enough room for it to fit. Next, a blanket to cover each. It was just a playhouse, all make-believe. Still, better than nothing at all.
For dinner, it was decided we’d get pizza. There was just one problem.
“She’s not?” I heard Liz say from the kitchen, where she’d called in the order. “When will she be back?”
