“No, no . . . Mom, it’s fine. I’m sorry, I just . . . things have been difficult here. Can I come up? I want to stay with you for a few days.”

“Of course, hun! I’m always happy to have you. You know that. I know there was a time when it seemed, well . . . Anyways, I thought you said it was going well. Why come over?”

“Weird might be a better word? Like really weird.”

“Like what? Like some of the people in the program?”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Well, if work itself is going well that’s really good. And it helps that you had that article thing that was really important?”

“Yes. The article I published in Nature.”

“That’s the journal right?”

“Yes. Nature. The scientific journal.”

“Well, I have it, honey. It’s on the fridge.” Carmen hears the sound of rustling pages, like her mom is holding the phone near it and playing with the pages.

“That’s great. Did you read it?”

“Of course I read it.”

“It’s just like, a really big deal.”

“I read it! You know . . . I mean, it’s very interesting. Some of it, you know, whooooosh. To be honest, honey, I stopped trying to understand everything you did in high school. You would come home with some project or something. I used to brag so much about the books you would read. I couldn’t shut up. Your aunt would be like, just be quiet and stop noticing what the girl is doing. Because if you get all weird about it it’s going to change how she feels about it. And we would have debates about this. All the time. You never knew. But we did. Because different kids have different styles. Different needs, you know, to be ignored or encouraged. But you’ll learn that. You’ll find out all about that. You’re going to be so surprised. Because it never turns out how you think it will with kids. You used to be such a little princess when you were really young. You were always running around? Do you remember that? Always wearing pretty dresses you would pick out yourself. You could be so stubborn about them. Already stylish. Do you remember that?”

Carmen can’t help it—“Those were for the pageants, and it’s not like I was the one out there with a platinum credit card buying them.”