Every Single Second (27 page)

She hesitated then and glanced at Nella. What? her eyes asked. What do I know? Nella could only look back, trying to encourage her.

“We can’t change what my brother did that night. No matter how much we want to, we can’t. But . . .” Angela twisted a lock of hair. She was getting nervous. Probably she’d just remembered she was saying this in front of thousands of people. She drew a breath. “But maybe, I’m not sure, but maybe what happened can change us. I mean, doesn’t it have to? Because otherwise . . .”

All at once she gulped and pushed the microphone into Nella’s hand. She was trusting Nella, like so many times before.

“Otherwise,” Nella heard herself say. “Otherwise . . . we’ll just be sorry, and what’s the good of that? That won’t make things better.” Her voice, that voice from deep inside, grew stronger, like the singing at the vigil, rising, pushing against the darkness. “But maybe if the past shows us what we never, ever want to happen again, maybe it’s not really the past anymore. Maybe . . .”

“Maybe,” Angela finished, “maybe the past turns into the future.”

The reporter stared. She was, possibly for the first time in her life, speechless.

“Amen,” breathed the red-haired cameraman.

They all watched the evening news. All except Dad, who still hadn’t come back from visiting Nonni.

“There’s you!” shouted Sal.

“Angela!” crowed Vinny. “Nella!”

They stood side by side, Angela the angel and Nella the skyscraper. The caption running beneath said,
Angela DeMarco and friend.

Nella pushed away the microphone, defending Angela. “She has the right to remain silent.”

“Good for you!” cried Mom.

Angela said how sorry they were. And then she handed the microphone to Nella. Time didn’t stop, or even slow, but Nella saw something she missed in real time, while this was actually happening. Something leaped, shining and sparking, through the air, connecting her and Angela.

“We’re going to be sorry all the rest of our lives.”

“But maybe if the past shows us what we never, ever want to happen again . . .”

“Maybe the past turns into the future.”

The camera zoomed in on the two of them, standing side by side. Their faces filled the screen.

Back to the newsroom.

“Two remarkable little girls,” said the news anchor.

Turquoise Suit flashed a smile that might possibly have been genuine. “You can say that again, Jim.”

They were still awake when Dad poked his head in Nella’s bedroom door.

“Dad! What took you so long?”

He peeked at Vinny, asleep in his youth bed, then stepped across the two of them lying on the floor in their sleeping bags.

“You ever have a day that lasts half a lifetime? While other days go by”—he snapped his fingers—“before you can blink. Last time I checked, the definition of a day was twenty-four hours. So what’s the deal?”

“Everything is relative,” said Nella.

“What’s that even mean?” He sank onto Nella’s bed and leaned back on his hands. “It’s always sounded fishy to me.”

“Dad, just tell us where you were so long!”

“All right.” He sat forward, hands on knees, the hallway light falling across his face. “First I went to see Nonni. Before I could say a word, she asked if you’d found the money. You were right, Nella. She wants to help you and your family, Angela.”

“But . . .” Angela couldn’t believe it. “It’s so much money! Doesn’t Nonni need it? Or your family?”

“Angela, have you ever tried to argue with that old lady? You might as well argue with a . . . a bird. First we’ll post bail. Tomorrow I’ll go down to the courthouse and find out what we have to do.”

Angela hugged her pillow so tight, why didn’t it explode?

“I have to take back every rotten thing I ever said about Nonni,” said Nella. “It’s going to take me at least five years.”

“Next I went to the hospital. He’s better today, kiddo. And when he heard the news about Anthony making bail . . .” Dad did some serious throat clearing. “Then something really crazy happened. The cop on duty came in to tell us the Andrews family decided not to press the menacing charges.”

“Really? Why?”

“That’s what I wanted to know.” Dad leaned back on his hands, and his face disappeared into the shadows. His voice floated on the darkness. “So I drove down to the Andrews house.”

Despite the heat, Nella pulled the sleeping bag up to her chin. What was her father thinking? They’d never talk to him. He was from Anthony’s neighborhood. On Anthony’s side. She cringed, thinking of what they must have said to him. Poor Dad!

“All the lights were on, but still it was late to be knocking on someone’s door. I just stood there on the lawn, knowing I should turn around. Why would they ever talk to me? If I was them, would I ever trust anybody again?”

Nella pictured the Andrews house the way it looked on the news: crooked awning, toys on the lawn. Wait, no—the
toys were on the Manzinis’ lawn. And then, who knows why, she saw Marie, reaching for something invisible.

“While I was standing there trying to decide what to do, the door opened. It was his fiancée. I was ready for her to slam that door in my face, but instead she listened to me. I started explaining about your father, Angela, and she already knew. Her brother’s a veteran, she said. And her uncle. And her cousin, he lost a leg. She knows, she said. She’s seen close up.”

“I wish I could meet her,” whispered Angela.

“I said how sorry we were.”

Dad paused again.
Sorry, so sorry.
Those were the words he’d always wanted to say to Marie’s family, only they never let him. The words had lodged inside him all these years, unspoken, unheard. A song he never got to sing.

“I started to leave then, but she came outside. Not
she
. Maya, that’s her name. Maya said D’Lon always expected the best from people. He told their boys every day, Bad has a big mouth, that’s why it gets all the attention. But don’t be fooled, he told them. Good doesn’t need to brag. Good knows it’s stronger.” Dad leaned forward, his face emerging from the shadows. “Then Maya said to tell Anthony’s sister and her friend she got their message. What did she mean? What was she—”

“Mr. Sabatini?” Angela interrupted. “Do you think . . .
I know it’s not up to me, but can we share Nonni’s money with Maya’s family?”

Dad grew quiet. Nella knew he was thinking the same thing she was: Nonni’s love would never stretch that far. She was too old, too set in her ways to help
those
people.

But maybe Dad had also started believing in changing the past.

“We can ask her, Angela.”

“Anthony would want us to do it. I know he would.”

“We’ll see what she says.”

Dad lay back on Nella’s bed. Within moments, he was out, breathing softly and steadily. She got up and pulled a sheet over him. After a long time, she fell asleep too.

When she woke the next day, her father was still there. He looked so peaceful, like a man forgiven. Like this was the best sleep he’d had in years.

CRAPP

now

NELLA: Hello?

SAM: Do you want to come to my soccer practice tomorrow?

NELLA: You’re on a soccer team?

SAM: I’m trying out for the Garfield team. I already met some guys, and all they seemed to care about is how good I am. At soccer, I mean. You should come. It’s going to be your school too. Our school.

NELLA:
(trying to sound unexcited)
Okay.

SAM:
(sounding excited)
Great! Wait! There’s something I’m supposed to tell you. Clem says—

NELLA: You talked to Clem?

SAM: That is one bizarre girl. She was trying to get this plastic bag out of a tree, only she couldn’t reach. She was doing these crazy leaps, like a spazzy ballerina. So I get it for her, and she says, Tell Nella there’s a new crap member. I help her and she disses me!

NELLA: Not crap. CRAPP.

SAM: Like I said. Bizarre.

FRIENDSHIP, FATE, AND OTHER COSMIC THINGS

now

A
pproximately one hundred eighty seconds after the phone call, Clem’s father, complete with bow tie, opened the door.

“Our own Little Nell! Come in.”

“I just wanted to give this to Clem.” She held out Nonni’s grabber claw. Dr. Patchett feigned terror.
Feigned
was a word that didn’t work for everyone, but it fit Clem’s father perfectly.

“Hold your weapon!” he cried. “I surrender!”

“Patch!” Clem appeared at the edge of the room. “Don’t be so ridiculous.”

“Ah, my darling Clementine.” He feigned relief. “You take over. I’m too old and feeble for battle!”

Nella held out Nonni’s claw. “I heard you were on patrol.”

Clem didn’t move from the other side of the room. It was a big room, and right now it was bigger than ever before.

“Sam,” Clem said. “He’s so bizarre.”

“He can’t help it. He’s a boy.”

Clem let a smile slip out. She pushed her heavy glasses up her nose. Nella continued to hold out the claw. Her arm was starting to get tired.

“Did you . . . did you still take the picture?”

Clem pulled her bandanna lower on her forehead and nodded. “Do you want to see it?”

“Okay.”

Nella followed her into her room. Her wonderful room. She set the claw down, and Clem handed her the phone. Nella nearly dropped it.

“
That’s
where you took the picture?” Nella couldn’t believe it. Clem stood in front of Nella’s house!

“I still wanted you to be part of it.”

“I wanted to be, too.”

Clem carefully lifted the top off Mr. T’s house.

“I saw you both on TV. I didn’t get it before. I never
knew anybody like her, with a family like that, and problems like that.” Clem lowered her hand and let Mr. T sniff her fingers. “I guess it just didn’t compute.”

“It’s not your fault.” Nella came to stand next to her.

“Yes it is. When you’re always focused on the big cosmic picture, you can miss the earthly details.” She pressed a finger to her temple. “It was like
ow
.
Ow ow.
Like my brain was made of stone and it got a big crack in it.”

Mr. T squeaked.

“I’m not saying the Leap Second wasn’t monumental. It was! But there’ll be another one in a couple of years. That’s the thing with time. It keeps happening.” Clem lifted the hedgehog out and spoke to him. “You should’ve seen her! She zoomed across the playground like a superhero defying the dark forces of evil.”

“Don’t believe her,” Nella told the hedgehog. “She’s really, really nearsighted. She probably needs new glasses again.”

GAD, Clem put the hedgehog in Nella’s hands. When he squeaked, the soft under-part of him thrummed. Nella needed to tell Clem how confusing everything still was. How many crucial things she still didn’t understand, like friendship, and goodness, and courage. Not to mention God and fate and boys and other cosmic things. Maybe she’d never understand, or maybe there weren’t the right
words, or maybe she just didn’t know them yet. Maybe she was still figuring out how to talk.

“Vinny can talk now,” she told Clem. “One day he said
Angela
. And he hasn’t shut up since.”

“That’s called a chain reaction. That’s this thing in chemistry where the products of one reaction contribute directly to a further reaction. For example, a bombardment of neutrons.”

“I thought you’d never speak to me again.”

Clem picked up the claw and pinched her. “Do you want some pomegranate juice? It’s the new papaya.”

While she was gone, Nella held fast to Mr. T. It was difficult to feel a hedgie’s heart, surrounded by all that armor, but she thought she could.

NOW AND ALWAYS

A
ngela and Anthony visited their father every day. He’d been transferred to a rehab center. Angela said she hated the place, and Nella said tell me about it.

When Maya got the money they sent her, she sent them something back. A photo of the two boys. The big one, D’Lon Jr., smiled nicely. The little one, Cassius, made a face.

Bobby always ruined family photos the same way.

Anthony kept it in his wallet, Angela said. Someday he hoped he’d get to meet them.

“He’ll go to jail,” Angela said. “We know that. I just
hope it’s not too far away.”

“My dad will take you to see him,” Nella promised. “No matter how far it is, I know he will.”

They were sitting on Nella’s front porch, the cemetery wall looming across the street. Some vine Dad planted spilled over the top, all starry with white flowers. The two of them were quiet, till Angela unexpectedly laughed.

“I almost forgot! Guess who I saw at Papa’s rehab?”

“Sister Rosa.”