“I’m okay, Dad. I went because I wanted to and I saw what I needed to see and now I’m home.” She wiped her hands on a napkin. “Bea’s experience was bigger. She’s going to tell Anna everything tomorrow.”
“She should. Anna needs to hear it.”
Tyler’s phone buzzed on the counter. He looked at it.
“Margo,” he said. “She needs help installing something at her house.”
“Installing what?”
“She didn’t say. She just said bring you and come by.”
The walk to Margo’s took twelve minutes, past the houses they’d been passing since Stella had moved here—the yellow Craftsman with the bougainvillea, the Spanish on the corner, the empty lot. The late afternoon light was warm and gold and nothing like the desert. Stella walked with her hands in her pockets and let Laguna settle back into her.
“Thank you for coming,” Margo said, holding the door open. “I bought something and I need it put up.”
The something was on the kitchen table, still in the box. A soundbar. Margo had bought a soundbar.
Tyler looked at it. Looked at Margo. Looked at Stella.
“You bought a soundbar,” he said.
“The man at the store said it was the right one for the size of the room.”
“Which room?”
“The living room. Where the television is.” Margo crossed her arms. “Bernie and I have been watching college basketball and the sound is terrible. You can barely hear the crowd.”
Tyler opened his mouth and closed it. Stella looked at both of them.
“What’s college basketball?” Stella asked.
Margo and Tyler both turned to her.
“It’s—universities play each other,” Tyler said. “There’s a tournament this time of year. Brackets. Bernie has pools.”
“I know about the pools. I don’t know about the sport.” Stella looked at the TV in the living room. “Is it the one where they run back and forth on a wooden floor?”
“That’s the one,” Tyler said.
“For how long?”
“Forty minutes. Two halves.”
“In footy they tackle each other and it goes for two hours. This sounds polite.”
“It’s not polite,” Margo said. “There’s a lot of yelling.”
“You watch it now?” Stella looked at her grandmother. “You, Margo? You watch sports?”
“Bernie has a team. His roommate went to Michigan and apparently this is very important. There’s hot fudge involved.” Margo picked up her tea and put it down without drinking. “I’m still deciding on a team. I don’t see why you have to pick one.”
“You don’t,” Tyler said. “You can just watch.”
“That’s what I said. Bernie says that’s not how it works.”
Tyler was pressing his lips together. Stella caught it.
“You watch too?” Stella asked him.
