Kanani rolled her eyes. "Girl," she said in imitation of Lanesha.
Serene inclined her head toward the driveway. "The Volvo is back."
"Oh, yeah, Aarav brought it back a while ago. You went spend a few nights over at his new place."
"I did?"
"I thought it was weird, but you wanted to go there."
"Did you come with me?"
"Yeah."
"What's his new place like?"
"I dunno, kinda small like. It's a one-bedroom. He's got all those sad looking guru guys up on the walls that he and Ramani are in to, you know. And it smells in there, all musty from those teas he likes to drink. We slept on the sofa couch and you wanted to talk to him all the time about stuff like past lives."
Serene tried to imagine this, but it was hard.
"You even meditated with him." Kanani wrinkled her nose. "Come to think of it, you didn't want to skateboard or do nothing but sit around talking about the crazy things your folks like to talk about." Kanani lapsed into momentary silence and then said, "You must have been Dora. It makes sense."
Serene lowered her hand from her mouth. "Dora must have said or done something to Steve. He was acting weird when I came home." She shot to her feet.
Kanani grabbed her hand. "Where you going?"
"To Steve's."
"Maybe you ought to feel it out."
"No. I need to know."
Maggie answered the door, her eyes the same green as her son's. A look of surprise flitted across her face, followed by irritation drawing her penciled in brows together. "Serene." Her mouth tightened.
"Is Steve home?"
"He left for work." Maggie started to close the door, then appeared to change her mind. "Look, I know you're angry about the car and we're sorry. None of us knew that your grandmother was going to give him the Mustang, least of all Steve. But I want you to know that we're discussing what to do with it because we legally can't give it back to your family."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's a stipulation of the will."
"My grandmother gave Steve a car?"
Maggie opened her mouth to answer, then closed it, confusion clouding out all other previous emotions.
"Is that why me and Steve aren't talking?" Serene asked quietly.
"I… what?" Maggie rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I'm talking about the car, yes. The one your grandmother left Steve in her will."
What will? Serene wanted to ask. When? Why?
"Serene? Are you okay?" Maggie's face softened with concern.
Serene forced a smile, her mind frantically trying to find an explanation for her blatant ignorance. "It's okay. He can have the car. I want him to have it."
Maggie opened her door wider. "Why don't you come in and we can talk."
But Serene was already backing away. "That's alright. Tell him I stopped by."
"He has his own phone now." Maggie stepped fully outside. "I can write down his number for you." She studied Serene, like how someone examines a thousand-piece puzzle that is only partially finished.
"I'll get it later," Serene said, making her mouth stretch into a smile again, a flash of heat running through her body, hands suddenly clammy. She turned and jogged back across the street to her house, all the while feeling Maggie's eyes burning through her back.
42
Dora - March 2020
Poking out from under the pillow in her room, Dora found the journal, a cover of pink and purple frayed cloth with shiny sequined squares. Aarav had given it to her a year before Cedar's death. But how had it wound up here? Dora stood from her crouched position, the book still in her hands, trying to piece together the late morning events. At some point two days ago, she had become Dora again––the real Dora. Dora had ordered all those samples of a summer clothing line. She stared at the journal in her hand, a journal she thought lost ages ago, long before moving to LA. She opened the book. It smelled like old paper and mold.
The first entry was typical of someone who has recently started a diary––an introduction of herself, her age and the family she lived with. Reading through the events of her young life, a smile crept over Dora's lips. Enthralled, she turned the pages, the entries reminding her of long ago mundane activities, some of them forgotten until now. She had kept up writing for the first five entries every day, each entry growing shorter and shorter. After that, she wrote sporadically, the diary ending two months before Cedar's accident. There was no mention of that day. Dora started to close the book, but as the pages fluttered closed, she noticed more entries. Flipping through the empty pages, about halfway through, the journal picked up again. What she found sent a chill through her system. In small neat writing, not her own, was the date and an introduction by Dora Wilson––Ramani's last name––not Serene Hokulani.
My name is Dora Wilson. I live with Ramani and Aarav they are Serenes parents. When I was three they took me from my home Shangrela. Serene use to have a brother named Cedar but he fell off a cliff at Three Pools. Serene was there when it happened. It was the worse thing that ever happened to this family. Serene thinks its her falt becase Ramani told her that and so she was crying so much that it put her to sleep and now Im back. I have to fite hard to stay here becase Sahana and little girl are all ways tring to get in. Little girl was mostlie sleeping up till now but Serene woke her up with all her crying. I under stand thow becase Cedar dieing is the worse thing that
