In the morning, Jesse made waffles with butter and syrup. Sonia was happy, laughing at Dad’s dumbest jokes. Nobody noticed that I barely talked, or reminded me to get ready for school. I had to remind myself.

When it was time for me to leave, they were all in the living room. Dad saw me in my coat and backpack, glanced at his watch, and jumped up. “Oops, almost time to go!”

Sonia came over and said, “I’ll be gone when you get home.” And again, she sounded happy.

“I won’t be here, either,” I told her. “I’m going to my mom’s.”

“Oh, right.” Then she smiled.

Maybe it was just because of how much I wanted us to be real sisters, but when Sonia smiled right then, I saw something. It was like her smile said, “We know each other.”

—

My mom has a funny story about when I was really little. I loved finding the moon in the sky. (The moon has always looked nice to me. Not the “pretty” kind of nice. The moon looks nice like a person is nice.)

My bedroom at Mom’s has two windows, side by side. She says when I was little, I would point through one window and say, “Moon!” And then I would run to the other window, point again, and say, “Utta moon!”

Other moon. Because I thought that every window had its own moon.

When I said, “I’ll be at my mom’s,” and Sonia smiled at me, I thought how my life with Mom and Dad was like a room with two big windows and two different moons. And now so was hers.

I hugged her goodbye, me in my coat, Jesse’s radio playing, our sticky plates still on the table with Rocco underneath hoping it wasn’t too late for something delicious to fall on the floor. When we pulled apart, Sonia’s eyes were shiny. She wasn’t crying, but they looked wet, maybe. When I said, “I’ll miss you,” and she didn’t say anything back, I almost truly didn’t mind.

The January Spelling Party

Dear Sonia,

How was the plane ride home? I hope no one made you eat a hot dog.

Today is the January spelling party in my classroom. Now it’s just me, Carolyn Shattuck, and four other kids at our table in the lunchroom. My mom couldn’t find a special dessert for my lunch, but I had the idea to put some chocolate chips in a plastic bag, so we did that. The chips are kind of old, but okay.

I think Rocco misses you. Sometimes he goes over to the orange couch and rests his head on it. He never used to do that before.

I found one of your hair bands on the rug. It’s a green one. I put it in my jewelry box for when you come back.

Your future sister,

Bea