“¿Qué?” I look from him to my mother on my phone and back. But of course, she does not look shocked at the news. They’ve talked about this already, before telling me. This is the start of my school break, and I assumed we’d be driving down soon. I packed accordingly before I came from school.

“¿Por que?” I ask. “And why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”

“We wanted to tell you earlier,” my mom says. “But we kept hoping we could work something out.”

“Work’s been slow,” my father says. “They’ve been cutting down on how many shifts we can take a week, to get rid of overtime. I’ve been calling every day to see if I can pick up an extra one, but haven’t been very successful. But, of course, they need people to work the holidays. And they made it clear that if you do, you are more likely to make it through the next round of layoffs.” His eyes are sad, apologetic.

My head falls. Of course my dad is the first one to try to figure out a way to keep his job, even with his company downsizing. He’s the hardest-working person I know. While I’ve been tinkering away with a dumb app, he does real work, every single day.

“Is there anything I can do?” I say. “Maybe I could get a job at school, at the library or something, and that way things will be less stressful?” But even as I say it, I know it’s no use. No part-time work I do could make up for my dad working every day.

“Thank you, mijo,” he says. “But you shouldn’t have to worry about this. ¡Concentrate en tus estudios! We will make it to Mexico soon—Christmas just isn’t possible this year.”

I shake my head and look at my food, suddenly losing my appetite. This is such bullshit. It shouldn’t take an expensive, international trip just to see my mom.

“And this way,” she says, “we can put money toward a lawyer. The quicker we are able to save up for that, the sooner I can apply. Hopefully as soon as the bar is lifted I will be ready to go,” she says.

“And if I lose my job,” my dad adds, “who knows how long it would take to save that.”

“We just have to wait a little longer, mijo,” my mom says.