“Thanks, Lara-bear.” At long last, Dad’s face relaxed into something that resembled his typical expression. “I really am so sorry that I missed picking you guys up. It won’t happen again. I promise.”
“Okay,” Lara repeated.
Yet she wasn’t sure she believed him.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE CASE OF THE WEIRD PARENTS
LOCATION: House, 4:30 p.m.
EVENT: Talked to Dad. He admitted that he lost his job. Finally.
QUESTION FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION: Why does one bad thing happening mean that everything else falls apart?
Lara definitely did not continue to dwell on the afternoon’s events. No, she put every effort toward doing other things. Math homework, reading her favorite Georgia Ketteridge fan pages, and even a little bat mitzvah prep. (Very little, if she was being honest.)
After staring at the same Hebrew word for five minutes, Lara had to admit that maybe she really was thinking about Dad and his troubles.
She needed a true distraction. So she marched upstairs to the bedroom, where she found Caroline sprawled across the bed, eyes fixed to her phone screen.
Lara frowned. This sight had become quite common in the Finkel household—perhaps too common. Who was Caroline texting? Whenever Lara asked, her sister replied “a friend.” Like that was somehow informative.
When Caroline caught sight of her sister, she made a face and shoved the phone underneath a pillow. As if she was afraid that Lara could somehow see it from seven feet away. The whole thing was so bizarre, it made Lara want to read her sister’s texts even more.
Maybe she could concoct some kind of a plan to tear Caroline away from the phone so she could take a little peek. Just to check up on her sister and make sure she wasn’t in trouble. True, Lara couldn’t imagine what Caroline of all people could possibly be doing to make trouble. But there was no harm in checking, was there? It was practically her duty as the big sister.
She just needed to do something. It had to be big enough to draw Caroline away from the room without the phone. Maybe . . .
The sound of very angry voices pierced through the hallway. Lara’s body jerked.
Instinct prompted her to glance over at her sister right away. A frown-shaped wrinkle popped up on Caroline’s forehead. Lara’s own mouth drew into a matching frown at the sight.
“It’s Dad and Ima,” Lara whispered.
“I know,” Caroline said, switching over to her tablet quickly.
Even though Caroline soon turned back to her phone, Lara knew her sister was bothered by the ever-louder noises coming from down the hall. How could she not be?
One minute passed, then two. The voices continued, and Lara’s heart started thumping at an alarming rate.
This kind of thing just didn’t happen. Not to Dad and Ima. Lara wouldn’t have believed it was happening, except for the simple, undeniable fact that it was happening.
She needed to do something. Lara nodded at her sister. “Let’s go.”
Caroline didn’t question it. She just clutched her tablet to her chest and joined Lara.
It was time to do some investigating. Even if Lara wasn’t quite sure she wanted to know the conclusions of this particular investigation.
Lara did her very best to keep quiet while she tiptoed down the hall. As she and Caroline drew closer to the master bedroom, Ima’s voice got louder.
Lara’s heartbeat quickened further, reverberating throughout her entire body. Trying to ignore the unpleasantness, she crouched by the closed door. She didn’t care about not looking suspicious. She needed to hear every single word. Once her left ear brushed up against the wooden door, she stopped moving. Next to her, Caroline did the same.
“. . . yes, now Lara knows,” Dad was saying. His voice hadn’t yet reached Ima levels, but the note of annoyance punctuating his words could hardly be missed.
“I cannot believe you forgot to pick the children up from school,” Ima told him. Even on the other side of the door, Lara could feel angry vibrations radiating from her mother.
“I don’t know how many ways I can possibly tell you that I feel terrible and it won’t happen again. I promise.”
The responding sniff caused Lara to wince. “Your feeling terrible does not change the fact that our children—and my sister’s child too—could have been badly hurt as the result of your negligence.”
“Oh, come on.” Dad’s voice jumped to a higher pitch. “I messed up, but you’re exaggerating. They were fine. Lara’s smart. She can take care of things okay.”
Normally such a compliment would have made Lara glow. Instead, she just felt . . . she didn’t even know what she felt.
“Anyway, none of this is going to matter,” Dad continued. “I’m going to find a new job and everything will be good again.”
“Will you?”
Ima’s voice was almost too quiet to hear. As Lara registered her mother’s meaning, she let out a cry against her will.
Surely such a sound would prompt Dad and Ima to leave their room, finally. Lara almost would have welcomed the discovery.
No one came.
“Well, what’s that supposed to mean?” Dad asked finally.
For a long time, Ima did not say another word. Lara could hear her own heartbeat trying to escape the confines of her chest, and she felt sure that Dad and Ima could hear it too.
Another glance over at Caroline revealed a stream of tears running down her cheeks.
Ima let out a long exhale. The air itself almost seemed to hiss.
“I don’t want to argue with you,” she said. “I just want to solve the problem so we can move on with our lives.”
“I told you. I’ve got this under control. I’m applying for jobs. I’ll get one of them. Everything will work out. And then we can move on with our lives.”
Funny, how different the words sounded coming out of Dad’s mouth instead of Ima’s.
“Okay,” Ima said. She didn’t sound happy, but neither was she particularly upset.
A teeny-tiny ball of hope sparked up inside
