Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green Read Free Page A

When Roo bugged her about it, Mom would say that as far as she knew, Dad might come home tomorrow, and business trips get extended all the time, and we just had to be patient and calm, and this is Part of What We Love Him For, Right, Girls?, and it really didn’t make sense for us to leave school and for her to take time off from the library right in the middle of the semester, and Dad would be furious if we did.
    It wasn’t till May that Mom decided we really did have to go to the jungle. Ken/Neth had gotten in the habit of coming for dinner once a week or so, which was pretty much starting to get on my nerves. So he was there at the dinner table when Mom announced that the time had come—she was going to book the plane tickets.
    But Ken/Neth insisted that she let
him
book the tickets.
    “Are you sure?” she said, though I could tell it would be a relief for her if he’d take care of it. “I don’t want to burden you.”
    “Sylvia,” he said in that really sincere way of his, “it’s not a burden, it’s an honor.”
    I noticed Mom slightly rolling her eyes, but Ken/Neth didn’t see.
    “Not only that,” he continued, “but it just so happens that today my contacts at La Lava informed me that they wish to invite you ladies to the Gold Circle Investors’ Gala in early July.”
    “The what?” Mom said.
    “It’s La Lava’s huge annual celebration for all of their investors, where they honor the ‘Geniuses’ who have contributed to the success of the organization in the past year. It’s basically the party to end all parties. I know you girls will get a kick out of it.”
    “Oh!” Roo yelped with glittering eyes. “I love parties! When’s July?”
    “Roo,” Mom said severely. “You know when July is.”
    “May, June, July,” Roo recited. “Wait, that’s not soon!”
    “The time will fly,” Ken/Neth said with a grin. “It’s just a little over a month.”
    “July is good,” Mom said. “We can all finish out the school year. And James very well may be back before then anyway.”
    “Maybe so,” Ken/Neth agreed. “Maybe so.”
    And from then on it was all: Ken booked the tickets, Ken says we should head down the Sunday before the gala, Ken is going to notify La Lava that we’re coming, Ken said we should be sure to bring some special dresses for the party, Ken this, Ken that.
    And every day Mom’s been telling us, “Look, girls, we’ll see Dad soon and everything will be normal.”
    But I know the truth. The truth is that Mom is mad, and hurt, and confused, and lonely. She thought I’d left the kitchen when shesaid to Aunt Sarah, “When I married James I never thought I’d be a single mother. And look at me now. Months now my kids haven’t had a dad.”
    “Okay, okay, okay,” Roo is saying as the plane glides to a stop on the runway. She shrugs and kicks gently at the seats in front of us, still offended that I snapped at her about Dad. “Jeez, I was just wondering if Dad’s as excited to see us as we are to see him.”
    And the truth is: I’ve been wondering the exact same thing.

CHAPTER 2

    T he airport is by far the tiniest I’ve ever seen. We just walk right off the plane onto the ground—we don’t go through one of those detachable hallway thingies. The second I step out onto the little staircase, I get slammed by hot, heavy air. I look over at Roo and see that her face is already shimmering with moisture.
    “Man,” Roo says, “what is
up
with this air?”
    “Welcome to humidity, Roo,” Mom says with a giddy laugh. Happy that we survived the tiny-plane ride. Happy that she’s about to see Dad.
    I feel like the air here is green. I mean, it’s not
actually
green, but it has this thick, green smell as though the jungle leaves are breathing it out. Which I guess
is
what’s happening, though it’s been a while since Dad reminded me exactly how photosynthesis works.
    We wait as the flight attendant and copilot pile everyone’s luggage next to the plane, and