Melissa and Mom were singing. Lizette and her grandmother were singing. Then it was everyone. The whole garden was singing. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.

I felt frozen. But then Dad took my hand, and I saw that Jesse had Sonia’s hand, and Dad had Jesse’s, and the four of us were connected.

The song started again: You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

Mission turned away and started to walk out of the garden, toward the restaurant, the same way Dad and Jesse had just walked in. We followed with our eyes, and the singing stayed strong.

At the steps, he turned around, and we could see his face again. We all saw the moment his eyes landed on the cake.

It was on a round table, which Sheila had covered with a tablecloth. Mission walked over to the table and stared. Lizette’s grandmother had made the cake so beautiful. Tiny flowers all over it. The two tiny grooms standing on top in their suits. Sheila had even painted their ties to match what Jesse and Dad were wearing.

Dad squeezed my hand. “It’s only a cake,” he said. At first, I thought he was talking to me, but I realized he was talking to Jesse, whose face was like stone.

We waited. And waited. Mission was still looking at that cake and the love that had been poured all over it. And then he pushed the cake off the table. It fell on the ground. He looked at it for another couple of seconds, like he wasn’t sure it was really down there.

Everyone stopped singing.

Uncle Frank stood up, fast, and walked back to where Mission was standing. I wondered if he was going to hit Mission. Dad let go of my hand and started up the aisle toward them, but Jesse said, “Daniel. Don’t.” And Dad stopped halfway there.

Uncle Frank didn’t hit Mission. He put his face right next to Mission’s and said, “It’s time to go now.”

I held my breath.

And then Mission ran up the steps, out of the garden, into the restaurant. From where I stood, I could see all the way through the dining room to the rectangle of sunlight that was the glass door to the sidewalk. I was afraid that Mission would start breaking things in there, but he didn’t. He just kept walking away from us until he stood in the doorway—a man-shaped hole in the light that lasted a few seconds, and then disappeared.