“Don’t worry.” I patted his shoulder over the seat. “It’s a girl thing. Isn’t it, Rose?”

“Absolutely. Oh look, Maddy! A deer. Two of them!” Their big, unlikely bodies loped across the median strip and plunged into the woods on the other side.

“Whoa!” said Grandpa. “They cause a lot of accidents, you know.”

“Can you imagine wanting to shoot them?” said Grandma. “I’ll never understand wanting to shoot a beautiful animal.”

“What if you’re starving?” I asked.

“That’s different.”

Cars were backed up near the Metro station and we didn’t move for ages. The first chance he had, Grandpa came off the highway.

“I need another coffee. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s sitting in traffic.”

“HashtagFirstWorldProblems,” I said.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

He pulled up to the curb a few blocks later and got out and leaned into my window, speaking behind his hand in a stage whisper. “Your grandmother makes terrible coffee. It’ll rot your socks.”

“Why don’t you make it yourself?”

He pulled a face and pretended to take off my nose. I watched him stride toward the coffee place, hands in his pockets, whistling. The hair on top of his head looked as though it could easily blow off. It gave me a queasy feeling, seeing him from the back. I trained my eyes instead on the dim sum restaurant on the corner, where Mom and I liked to go for Sunday brunch. The line was already down the sidewalk and around the block. I counted the people so as not to think about the back of my grandfather’s head, or my grandmother humming in the front seat, fingering the strap of her purse, loving beautiful animals. It should be a law of nature that all family members disappear at the exact same time. Then no one would be left behind.

I had counted up to twenty-six, almost to the corner, when one person pulled apart into two. They had been kissing. Robin had his arm across Mom’s shoulders. What a surprise! How funny to see them there. Her neck was bent, her shoulders shaking. As her head came up, I saw that she was laughing, not crying.

Go and have a day out with your grandparents! I have work to do. Unfortunately! That wistful wave from the porch!