Chapter 16: Leave

"Which plates?" I said.

"Your grandmother's." Another crash. "The blue ones from Monterrey."

"Dad. Go stop her."

"I tried, mija. She threw a saucer at the wall by my head."

"Then go in your room and lock the door."

There was a long pause.

"I'm in the courtyard," he said. "I've been sitting on the fountain for twenty minutes. Where did he go?"

"I don't know."

"He took his truck. He said a motel on the highway." My father's voice dropped. "Did something happen? Between you two? At work?"

I closed my eyes.

"He stopped my pour once," I said. "That's all."

"Okay." He breathed out. "Okay, mija. Good night."

The crashing stopped before he hung up.

I don't know what that meant.

On Wednesday the crane was flying steel.

Lupe was up in her cab a hundred feet over the slab, setting the roof joists one by one.

The ironworkers caught each one and bolted it, and the warehouse grew a skeleton against the white sky.

At ten a white Lexus pulled through the gate.

My father's truck pulled in behind it.

Pilar got out in a cream pantsuit and sunglasses.

She was holding a folder.

My father got out slower.

He was holding nothing, and he didn't look at me.

The crew noticed. The crew noticed everything.

A few of them stopped and leaned on their tools.

"Cassandra," Pilar called across the gravel, bright and sweet. "Do you have a minute? Your father has something to tell you."

I walked over in my hard hat.

I didn't take it off.

"Dad?"

My father cleared his throat.

"Mija. We've talked it over. Pilar and me." He looked at the folder instead of me.

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