“I don’t want to go,” Wunder replied.

“Okay,” his father said. “Okay. Fine. Maybe we can do something else. Together, I mean. The two of us.” He glanced at the corner of the room. “There are a lot of things we need to do.”

Wunder didn’t answer.

At school that day, he didn’t want to talk to anyone, but he especially didn’t want to talk to Faye or Davy. They both kept trying to catch his eye, but he wouldn’t look at them. He went to each class late and left each one early. He ate lunch in the stairwell.

Finally, in science class, Faye got up in the middle of the lesson and walked right over to him. “Wundie, we need to talk,” she said.

“Faye,” Ms. Shunem said. “You know I usually don’t mind social interaction during this class, but not while I’m teaching. Please sit down.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Shunem,” Faye said without moving. “I’m just trying to make sure that Wundie heard me.”

“I heard you, Faye,” Wunder said. But five minutes before the bell rang, even though Ms. Shunem was still talking, he grabbed his backpack and left the class.

He hurried down the halls, toward the front door. He didn’t stop at his locker. He wanted to leave as fast as he could. He wanted to run out the school door and back to the safety of his room, where no one would talk to him about anything. He thought about locking the door too. Maybe his father wouldn’t bother him if the door was locked. He didn’t seem to bother Wunder’s mother.

“Hey, Wunder, wait up!” It was Tomás’s voice.

Wunder stopped and turned before he really thought about it. Tomás was jogging toward him. He must have left science class early too.

“My dad told me about—about what happened,” Tomás said. “He wanted to know if I had anything to do with it.”

“Did you tell him that we’re not even friends anymore?”

Tomás looked hurt. “We’re friends,” he said. “We are. But with everything that happened—and you haven’t been, I don’t know, yourself—and I’ve been busy with soccer and everything.” He paused and flipped his hair, a gesture that suddenly looked self-conscious. “I mean, what were you doing with that tree anyway?”

Wunder searched for an answer, but his insides were a checkerboard again, and all his words had been blacked out, especially those words, words about this most recent, most raw loss.

He realized that he had been silent for a long time. Tomás was staring at him, craning his neck forward, brow furrowed, like he was trying to see if Wunder had gone comatose.

“It was for Milagros,” was what he finally said.

“Milagros?”

“My sister,” Wunder said. “It was for my sister. It was a mistake though.”

The bell rang. Wunder left the school and headed back home to his room.

Chapter 39

Wednesday night was Halloween. Wunder stayed in his room, listening to the doorbell rings and knocks as children came for their tricks and treats. His father had asked him if he wanted to help pass out candy, but he had said no.