Chapter 88

10:30 p.m., Saturday

Joy put down the phone and turned to the rest of group clustered around her kitchen table.

Noel was the only one of the group from the fair to depart for home. Joy wasn't sure if the young woman had decided that sitting at home and staring at a TV screen was more fun or if her parents had tugged on the leash. She decided it didn't matter either way. Everyone - even the girl's brothers - was happy that she was somewhere else.

Chuck Pena had been amazingly pleasant throughout the afternoon - going so far as to let Lupe scramble up on his shoulders in order to take an overhead shot of one of the poses the group formulated at the park. Chuck's height had left Lupe's face almost eight feet in the air - far above the milling crowd - so she'd taken pictures of everything while she had Chuck turn in a circle.

"I finally found a use for you!" Lupe joked when her feet were back on the ground.

"Other than a used appliance store," Chuck rejoined while he messed up Lupe's hair.

"I'm looking forward to when you get tired of that cool downstairs bedroom," Lupe shot back. "That's one hand-me-down I won't complain about."

Joy and Ruth had spent a little more time at the newspaper booth before rejoining the siblings (and adopted sibling) for supper at the Korean restaurant.

Alex Pak's parents had seemed like the prototypical Asian mother and father, pushing their son to succeed not only academically but in any worthwhile pursuit he tried. They didn't count sketching "cartoons" to be an endeavor worthy of their son.

"I've heard it's not a stereotype if it's always true," Ruth said after they had been seated. Alex had introduced the group as future Stanford students he had met at the fair but had left out how he'd met them. The parents had been polite but it was obvious that they expected their son to focus on his studies and that they viewed friendships as a possible deterrent to academic achievement.

But at least the food had been good. Ruth and Joy promised they would return to eat there again with their families later in the week.

After Noel had been delivered home, they retired to Joy's house - because her parents were both out for the evening - where they called Chris to see if he was free (he wasn't) and started to peruse the hundreds of photos from a half dozen phones.

"Look at your face!" Lupe chided as she pointed to the laptop where Joy had stored all the files.

John blushed furiously but couldn't help but study the people in the photo.

He was seated on the back of a bench - the same perch Regan and Andy had found earlier in the day. The two girls in shorts - Joy and Elizabeth - stood beside him with a foot on the seat and bent forward. The two in skirts - Regan and Ruth - were right behind him, also bent forward. The four girls' faces were close to John's and they were all making exaggerated kissing motions. John was doing his best to look cool but it was pretty clear he found the situation more exciting than commonplace.

"Definite keeper," Elizabeth declared. Joy and Ruth nodded their agreement and glanced at Lupe. The guys got no vote.

"You're going to corrupt me if you're not careful," Lupe joked. "That's the best angle I've seen of that one so I think you should keep it."

Joy slid the file into a separate folder before moving to the next shot.

"That's pretty cool," Chuck opined. It was the Manley family together. Paul sat on the bench with John and Noel behind him. They both put a hand on their older brother's shoulder - and Noel even appeared to be enjoying the experience.

The Penas had tried to duplicate the pose but it hadn't worked. There had been too much disparity in height between Chuck (at 6-feet-6) and Lupe (at 5-feet-5) to stand behind Elizabeth. They finally had moved to a low garden wall where Lupe and Elizabeth stood while Chuck slumped in front of it.

"Mom and Dad's anniversary is coming up in July," Paul said. "I thought that would make a good present from the three of us. They've been married for 20 years."

"I thought the same thing about our parents," Elizabeth agreed. "Their 20th anniversary is in August."

"You should have taken one with just you and Chuck," Lupe pointed out.

"Nope," Chuck said quickly. "If anything, it should be you and Elizabeth. They'd claim you as their kid long before they admitted they spawned me. If I'm in it, I want both my sisters there, too."

Lupe felt tears in her eyes and John reached over to put his hand on hers. Noel had mimicked puking when she saw the two eighth graders holding hands as they walked along but no one else had said anything.

"I still think we need something better than us standing there looking like we're waiting for the firing squad," Chuck said to draw the attention away from Lupe.

"We should have just sat you down on the bench like Paul was sitting," Elizabeth noted.

"You're the oldest," Chuck countered. "You should get the center."

"That doesn't really matter," Elizabeth told him. "We want the best picture. Where we're placed isn't important."

"I was thinking about the barstools over there," John said. The discussion over the Pena family portrait had raged throughout dinner - with Joy even drawing Alex into the fray. The newcomer had explained that he knew a good picture when he saw one but he didn't know anything about setting one up.

His parents had hustled him away shortly thereafter and kept him busy until the large group had finished their meal and been preparing to leave.

"What about it?" Lupe asked.

"It's pretty high," John answered.

"John Manley, master of the obvious," Lupe said, shaking her head.

"Let me finish, will ya?" John retorted, laughing.

"If Chuck sat on it and Elizabeth and you stood at his shoulders, your heads should be close to the same heights," John continued. "The picture could be a close-up, you know. Sort of taken from the waist upward. It might hide the height difference. That's the one thing I didn't really like about our picture. The Princess and I are tall enough that it had to be taken from a mile away because our heads were so much higher than Paul's."

"Would it kill you to call her Noel once in a while?" Paul asked with a sigh.

"It might," John said firmly. "Look, if she stops acting like a princess, I'll stop calling her one. Deal?"

"We might need to take the first step," Paul countered. "The reason I asked for her to be allowed to go today was so I could show her that - even though she's a pain in the ass - she's still my sister and I still love her. Just like I still love you when you're a pain in my ass - like now. Tomorrow, I'm going to tell her how glad I was that she came with us and that I hoped she had fun. Maybe you could say something similar - you know, like how nice it was to hang out with her for a little while."

"I didn't find it particularly nice," John pointed out.

Paul tilted his head backward and looked to the ceiling - forgetting for the moment that he had once been 14 years old and thick-headed.

"He's asking you to be the bigger person," Lupe clarified. "He's saying that if you're willing to step forward, it might make a big difference to your parents. At least I think that's what he's saying."

"It is," Paul said, nodding. "She's a brat. OK, we agree on that. In 10 years, she's still going to be a brat. I get it. But we don't have to act like jerks around her. If we show Mom and Dad - no, that's a lie. If we show Dad that we're going to be mature and respectful, regardless of how she behaves, he's going to start giving us a little leeway about doing things without her tagging along."

"She's off to Grandma's in a couple of weeks and I'm off to Bryson Hills when she gets back," John replied. "I'm not going to need her permission to do anything ever again!"

"Until next summer," Paul came back. "Next summer, we're going to be right where we are today. When we all come over for Thanksgiving dinner in 20 years, we're going to be right where we are today - unless we, you and me, step up. Tell me, honestly, do you even care how she treats you?"

John pondered the question for a moment.

"No," he answered.

"I don't either," Paul confirmed. "It doesn't bother me when she calls me an asshole. It doesn't faze me when she starts to cry or pout. I have to fight to keep from laughing when she starts one of her tantrums. I just don't care."

"So why should we bother being nice to her?" John asked, irritated at the concept.

"Because it matters to Mom and Dad," Paul replied. "And, I'd like for it to matter to me someday. I'd like to be able to joke around with her the same way Chuck is learning to joke around with Lupe. I'd like to be able to talk to someone who knows her without feeling embarrassed at something she's done or said or whatever. I'd like to be able to feel about her how I feel about you. John, buddy, I'm glad you're my brother. I like you. I enjoy going out and doing things with you. I'm proud of how you're growing up and I'm going to be prouder of you the more you grow. I know that."

He sighed heavily.

"I don't know that about Noel," he continued. "In fact, I believe the exact opposite. I believe that she's going to get worse as she gets older - not better."

"Again, I'll ask," John said, embarrassed slightly by his brother's words. "Why should I bother then?"

"Because she might be smart enough to understand that she gets treated better when she treats people better," Chuck chimed in. "I'm learning that. Man, it really bothered me when I found out how everybody looked at me. I ... I never bothered to stop and wonder about it until it was thrust in my face. Then I couldn't help but look. I saw a sister that despised me; her boyfriend who wouldn't pee on me if I caught fire; her friends that would rather get hit by a car than walk on the sidewalk with me.

"When it was decided that Lupe was going to live us, they brought in the goon squad to scare me straight. I mean, your brother came over; Andy came over with a pair of gangbangers for the sole purpose of letting me know that I had better toe the line or I was going to get hurt."

"They scared you into being nice to me!" Lupe asked, aghast.

"No!" Chuck said quickly. "No. I was nice to you because ... I don't know why I was nice to you. Maybe it was because I think you're nice. Maybe it was because I thought you deserved to have someone treat you nice. They came over for that purpose but it worked out differently. I guess it's the first time that I understood how everyone viewed some of the things I'd done. Now I'm nice to you for the same reason I'm trying to be nicer to Elizabeth. We're family. I think that's what Paul is trying to get across, John. When everything is said and done, your family has to be the most important thing to you."

"Bitch," Regan muttered. They sat in traffic, snarled across all six lanes of the highway that would lead them back across the bridge. Regan sat in the passenger seat, having tossed Andy the keys because she didn't want to deal with the bumper-to-bumper gridlock that was inevitable.

"Wait until Joy finds out her idol is a major skank," Regan joked.

"Probably make her idolize her more," Andy rejoined. "You know, give her a higher bar to shoot for."

Regan slapped Andy playfully on the arm.

"She seemed pretty interested in Alex Pak," Regan noted.

"That poor boy seems scared of his shadow!" Andy replied.

"Like you before I took you under my wing," Regan giggled. "Seriously, he seems nice."

"He does," Andy agreed. "That's the problem."

"Joy is nice," Regan asserted.

"I'm not saying she isn't," Andy cut in quickly. "I like Joy. But..."

He sighed.

"But what?" Regan inquired.

"She's ... flighty," Andy hedged.

"I don't think so," Regan countered.

"When it comes to guys, she is," Andy claimed. Regan had crossed her arms over her chest defensively and he didn't want to get into an argument. "Look, Alex seems ... backward. I doubt he's had many girlfriends - if any. He's going to crush hard on a girl like Joy. She's ... she's not looking for something serious. She might steamroll him."

Regan grudgingly conceded the point. Joy's dalliances usually lasted no longer than a week - and often lasted just one night.

"There's nothing wrong with it if everyone understands from the beginning," Andy added. "But you're right. Joy is nice and a guy without much experience might fall hard for her."

"This traffic is ridiculous," Regan noted to change to subject.

"It's a big weekend," Andy told her. "You had the concert; the Dodgers are in town over here and the Angels are across the bridge. Those are two division rivals. The Warriors are in playoffs. And everything ends at about the same time."

"The Warriors?" Regan asked.

"The NBA team," Andy answered. "They're called the Golden State Warriors but they play on our side of the bay. They were home tonight against Sacramento. The winner plays San Antonio for a trip to the finals."

Regan shook her head. She hadn't followed professional sports at all until she met Andy - and then only baseball because she knew he liked it.

"Tomorrow is going to be worse," Andy continued. "The U.S. Women's National soccer team is playing at the football stadium at the same time the baseball games are going on. That doesn't include all the other Memorial Day events."

As Andy continued to talk about what was happening in the area over the weekend, Regan began sorting through her CDs. Almost all of her music was digital now but she still had several discs that she had purchased over the years. Traffic came to a complete halt and she looked at the lane next to her.

She saw a woman in the car with three girls that appeared to be in the early teens. Even with the windows up and the air conditioning on, she recognized the Alyssa Grace song the girls were listening to.

"Don't drive off without me," she said as she opened the door.

"Regan!" Andy yelled but she was already standing on the freeway tapping on the window next to her.

The woman eyed the intruder warily. She was dressed well and she was riding in a nice car but that didn't necessarily mean anything. She inched the window down.

"Did you go to the concert tonight?" Regan asked. The woman nodded but didn't speak. The girls in the car were looking closely at the strange person standing in traffic talking through a window.