Her gift is one of Noah’s favorites, and one of mine, too.

“Ezra’s Big Shabbat Question.” Noah reads the title of the book once he’s torn off the wrapping paper. The book isn’t that large, but my name leaps out at me immediately, of course. There’s a brown boy on the cover wearing a yarmulke. I go completely still and don’t think I’m even breathing. What a book like this would have meant to me thirty years ago when no one at my synagogue resembled me. A book like this would have reflected me when the only place I saw myself was in a mirror. That she found this book and shared it with my son? It means everything.

“Wow.” Noah’s small face sobers. “This is…it’s great, Kimba. Thank you so much.”

I think he knows this book really means something. For him, maybe for me. His blackness hides deeper in his pores than mine, diluted even further by Aiko’s Vietnamese heritage, but I make sure he knows my history, my father’s history, and his father before him. I make sure he knows about all the influences, cultures and ethnicities that came together to make him who he is. It’s a rich, varied heritage, and I wouldn’t shortchange any part of it.

“I’m glad you like it.” Kimba shrugs, smiles. “I saw it in the bookstore and just thought…”

“It’s perfect,” I say.

She drags her eyes from Noah’s face to mine, and if I could kiss her right now I would. She looks away and chews at the corner of her mouth.

“Noah!” one of his classmates calls. “Trampoline.”

“You go on,” I tell him, taking the book from him. “I’ll hold on to this.”

He runs off, leaving Kimba and me in an electric storm of silence.

“Kimba,” Mona calls from the other side of the yard, looking between us. “Can you come help me with that thing in the kitchen?”

“What thing?” I murmur for Kimba’s ears only.

“That thing that will put me somewhere other than standing beside you.”

“Hey.” I grasp her elbow and bend my head to whisper in her ear. “Don’t forget to stick around.”

“Ezra.”

“Just give me a chance, Tru.”

“A chance for what?” She looks up at me, her smooth face crinkled into a frown. “I don’t think—”

“Hear me out for old time’s sake? If our pact ever meant anything to you, give me a chance to explain.”

“That’s not fair.”

“I know, but this is just like chess. You are the most powerful piece on this board. All the power is in your hands.”

“I don’t feel like I have all the power.”

“How do you feel?”

“Honestly—” She breathes out a short laugh. “A little helpless.”