Vanessa put her arm around me.
I let her.
We went inside eventually.
All of us. Me and Ellie and Vanessa and Danny and David Reyes. I put on a pot of coffee. I made more oatmeal. Ellie insisted on sitting next to Danny at the kitchen table. She kept staring at him like he might disappear.
The kitchen was small and shabby. The linoleum was peeling by the sink. There was a water stain on the ceiling over the stove from the roof leak. Gerald, the blue bucket, was sitting in the corner by the back door, half full from last week’s rain.
Nobody said anything about any of it.
Vanessa held her coffee cup with both hands.
“Can I tell you the rest?” she asked. “About the ring?”
I nodded.
“It was my grandmother’s,” Vanessa said. “Rose Martinez. My grandfather gave it to her in 1951. R.M. to E.M. Rosa to Eduardo. No, other way. Eduardo to Rosa.” She laughed a little. “I always get it mixed up. Forever.”
