She felt Ted watching her, waiting to be told what this visit was about. She had always had to be the one to bring up their issues. He was a baby about physical things and needed them attended to right away—splinters, bruises, sunburns—but he could let resentments lie dormant and unexamined forever. She needed to loosen him up.

“Do you remember that place we dragged our parents to after graduation?” Phoebe asked.

“The one on California Ave?”

“We picked tapas so neither side would have the home court advantage.”

And the strategy had worked. Phoebe’s parents had been too disoriented to be critical of the boyfriend their daughter had been hiding. So, what’d you think? she’d asked afterward as she walked them to their car, and Umma hadn’t waved her hands in exasperation with the mumbly boy or the mother who made too much eye contact. She’d simply said, “He knows a lot of movies—maybe more than you,” a sneaky smile on her face as if she’d just witnessed a miracle.

“My mom loves tapas now,” Ted said.

“My dad still thinks it’s a scam,” Phoebe said. “Ten dollars for a potato! I thought the small plates would appeal to him, like banchan, you know? Except banchan is always free. He still makes appalled faces at me whenever we eat out, holding up the ketchup and sriracha and going, ‘How much?’”

Ted laughed, like she’d wanted him to. She’d be extra sweet to Apa when she saw him this weekend to make up for it.

“How are they?” Ted asked.

“Good.”

“Healthy?”

Phoebe swallowed hard. No, she couldn’t talk about Umma now.

“Yes,” she said brightly, skipping over the lie. “How about Frances?”

“Pretty much. Some blood pressure stuff she takes a pill for, but not a big deal.”

“I’m glad. I saw The Libretto,” Phoebe said.

“Oh yeah?” Ted said, sitting up straighter.

It had been Malcolm’s idea to see it, the only one of Ted’s films he’d been genuinely curious about. He was a fan of the graphic novel, his pick to teach to their ninth graders. Look at the way the text lives on its own plane, he’d said to the kids, within characters and within silhouettes, embedded in the background. See how this boy’s thoughts and dreams are literally fighting for space on the page. Think about the forces the boy’s family is up against, gentrification, the legacy of colonialism. Think about what the artist is doing here, what he wants you to feel.