“I don’t know,” Darcy said. Memories flooded back like scenes from an old movie. Darcy remembered the days before her mother was forced to work long hours to keep a roof over their heads, before they moved into the smaller apartment to save money, before Grandma’s crippling stroke. She recalled the barbecues in the backyard when the family lived in National City, and the trips to Tijuana when Daddy would buy the girls giant paper flowers, and they would eat rolled tacos from street vendors. Most of all, she remembered the hiking trips into the mountains. They would find tadpoles in the spring streams, and Daddy would explain how they turned into frogs. And he would put the girls on his shoulders and march along with everybody chanting “ribbit-ribbit-ribbit. ” And then there were the visits to the giant cedar tree where he dubbed Jamee a princess. And, just so Darcy would not feel neglected, Daddy would put his hand on her shoulder and declare, “You’re a princess, too. ”

Unable to shake the images from her mind, Darcy looked at Jamee and asked, “Do you remember the hiking trips we used to take?”

“Yeah,” Jamee said. “I think being there in the mountains was the last time I was really happy. ” She shook herself, as if to chase away the memories. “Why’d he have to come back like that—like a stranger in the night?”

Darcy shrugged. The heavy man in the Toyota seemed to have nothing to do with those good memories. He seemed no part of them. In a way, he just made things worse.

“What’s Mom gonna say?” Jamee asked.

“I don’t know,” Darcy replied, “but we’ll have to tell her. ”

“Maybe she’ll want him back,” Jamee said. “She never dated anybody. Plenty guys have liked her. You remember Chuck, the nurse from Jamaica? He really liked Mom. He sent her flowers and everything. But she never did go out with him. Maybe she still loves Dad. ”

“I don’t think so,” Darcy said.

“I don’t ever want to see him in my entire life,” Jamee asserted with sudden, unexpected passion. “I hate him. I wish he was dead. I wish we had gotten his death notice. ”

Darcy made hot cocoa and waited with Jamee for Mom to come home. Going to bed and trying to sleep after what had happened was out of the question.

“We’re telling her tonight, huh?” Jamee asked.

“Yeah. I can’t sleep on it tonight,” Darcy said.

“Mom’s gonna be shocked,” Jamee added.

Right after midnight, Mom came home. She spotted Jamee’s face as soon as she walked in the door. “Baby! What happened to you?” she cried, throwing down her purse and rushing to Jamee.

“Nothing, Mom. I fell at cheerleader practice,” Jamee lied, “but something else has happened. ”

“Mama?!” Mom gasped, thinking something had happened to Grandma.