Dove
I could feel it in my chest the second I stepped outside. That heavy, waiting kind of quiet that always came before something I did not want to say out loud.
Zahi was already by the fence, kicking at the dirt with the toe of his shoe like he was trying to wear a hole straight through to China. The sun was high and bright and it made everything in La Romana look too warm, too alive, for the way my stomach was twisting.
"Ready?" he asked without looking at me.
I nodded, even though he was not watching. "Yeah," I said. "Let me just tell Pa we're going to the shops."
We walked back around to where my father, Uncle Juan, and Uncle Felipe were all crouched around the same fence that absolutely did not need fixing. They had been "fixing" it since yesterday. It was more an excuse to drink coffee and argue about who did what wrong in 1998 than it was about the fence.
"Pa," I said, and he looked up, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
