All the Pieces of You
Unfortunately for Dulce, Soda and I didn't move in the end. We had plans to, but my dad had a different idea.
When Dad came home from one of his truck routes, he was as happy as the rest of us to see Soda home again. I think Dad was getting worried I would be a war widow before I reached twenty-one.
Dad was amazed by Soda's new leg, and that took up a good hour of dinner conversation.
"It stays on by these straps?" Dad asked, looking over the leg while Soda's pant leg was rolled up.
"This one does. It's not a very good one, though. I'm supposed to get a new one that actually fits, once the paperwork gets here."
"And how will the other one stay on? The new one?"
Soda shrugged, smirking at me over my dad's head. "I'm not real sure. I'll just be happy to get the other one, 'cause this one hurts after a while."
When Soda mentioned that we were going to look for a house to move into, Dad immediately shook his head.
"You guys should just live here," he said. "I mean, it would save y'all some money, and it's not like I'm here a lot anyway. The two of you will have more use for a three-bedroom house than I do."
When he said it, he looked sad. I knew he was thinking about Dally. I don't think he would have been able to stand living there with both Dally and me gone. I could see the surprise on Soda's face, and I'm sure mine looked the same.
"But where would you live?" I asked, taking a bite of my carrots. Dad motioned with his head, as if we weren't inside. I realized he was talking about the apartments across the street.
They were actually pretty nice, and I could see how it would make more sense to him to live in an apartment than a house all alone. It would be much easier for him to maintain, too.
"Are you sure about that?" Soda asked. I knew he didn't like taking things from people, but Dad was already waving the question away with his hand.
"It's paid off anyway. Y'all wouldn't even have a house payment to worry about." I was always the one who made out and paid the bills, since Dad was away so much and Dally could never be bothered. I knew the house had been paid off when I was thirteen, but I never would have thought to ask for it.
"Wouldn't we have to buy it from you?" I asked. I had never heard of giving a house to someone. Not when you were still alive, anyway.
Dad shook his head. "You can give a house a gift, just like you would a car. If y'all were to sell it, you'd have to live here for at least two years or you'd have a lot of trouble with taxes."
I looked at Soda and shrugged. I liked this house. I had lived in it since moving to Tulsa. It was close to my family and Darry, and like my dad had said, it would save us money.
"Are we even old enough to completely own a house, though?" Soda asked. I had been thinking the same thing, but I hadn't said it. The question made my dad laugh.
"You think being old enough to serve two years in a war wouldn't make you old enough to own a house, too? Brookie will be nineteen next month and you're already twenty. Last time I checked, that's older then eighteen on both sides."
While I had paid bills and filed taxes for my father since my mother died, I had to admit I didn't really know much about being an adult. It seemed there was a whole lot to learn.
Dad wouldn't let us argue with him. He insisted we have the house, and he wouldn't take any money for it, either.
"Consider it a wedding gift," he said when Soda tried to offer him his army pay. "Besides, you'll need that money until they can get your medical stuff sorted and you can get a job."
Then Dad's eyebrows knit together. "You can still do that, can't you?"
If it were anyone other than Sodapop, they might have gotten mad about the question. But Soda just laughed. "I can walk, can't I?"
When I told Dulce the news, she was playing in her yard next door. I waved to Aunt Dolly sitting on the porch, watching Dulce play. No one else knew yet, because she wasn't showing, but Aunt Dolly was actually pregnant with her second baby.
"Hey, Dulce!" I called to her. She dropped her dolls in the dead grass and ran to the fence. "Guess what?"
She tilted her head back to look at me. "What?"
I leaned over the fence, so my face was close to hers. "I'm not moving. I'm gonna live next door to you forever and ever and ever."
Her little blonde eyebrows lowered over her eyes and her lips pursed into a pout. "Lyin' bad, B."
'Brooklyn' and even 'Brookie' was too hard for Dulce to say, so she always called me 'B'.
"I didn't lie. I was gonna move, but then my dad said I could have this house and live next to you forever. Won't that be fun?"
I could hear Sodapop laughing behind me as Dulce's little angry face turned a little red. Dulce was something else. Aunt Dolly said she inherited a Spanish temper from her father.
"Mama, B's tellin' lies!" I rolled my eyes at Dulce as she ran across the grass to Aunt Dolly.
"I reckon she thinks I need to do my rosaries now, for sinnin'," I laughed while Dulce put her hands on her hips and stomped her feet as Aunt Dolly told her I was a grown up and she couldn't punish me.
Aunt Dolly was raising Dulce Catholic. There had been times before that Dulce had brought me a string of rosary beads when she thought I had needed to apologize.
"You're bad," Soda told me, wrapping an arm around my waist and kissing the top of my head. Even Aunt Dolly was laughing, though, as Dulce gave me a dirty look and returned to her dolls.
"The little Spanish princess is spoiled," I countered.
Dulce was only a baby when Soda left, so of course she didn't remember him. Just like any girl, she was charmed by him, though. Aunt Dolly waved us over to her yard, and Dulce kept glancing up at Soda while we walked over.
I moved one of the porch chairs down to the ground for Soda. My dad's house—our house, after the paperwork would go through—only had one step. Aunt Dolly's porch had five, and even though they were low, little steps, I knew they would be too hard for Soda.
The leg they had given him to get home was just not good. Since it didn't fit well, it was hard for him to control and keep his balance on.
Almost as soon as Soda sat down, Dulce came running over to him.
"What this?" She asked, pointing a little finger at Soda's cane. "Is it 'cause owie? Mama said got owie."
Soda smiled and looked at Aunt Dolly. "An owie?"
Aunt Dolly shrugged. "She's two. I was going for something she might understand."
Soda turned back to Dulce, leaning down and smiling at her. "Yeah, I got an owie."
"Leg owie?" When Soda nodded, Dulce nodded back as if she understood perfectly. "I give you Band-Aid."
Then Dulce climbed over me on the porch steps and disappeared into the house. When she came back, it was with a Band-Aid in her tiny hand. I couldn't help but laugh when she crawled back over me and went to Soda.
Since he held the cane in his left hand, I guess Dulce reckoned that meant his left leg was the one that was hurt. Soda let her pull up his pant leg and stick the Band-Aid to his leg. Since the plastic that made it up was skin colored, I don't guess Dulce even noticed it wasn't a real leg.
"Feel better?" She asked, obviously happy with herself. Soda gave her a smile and said it did. Then she turned to me with a look on her face like I should be in trouble.
"B don't got no Band-Aids?" Dulce didn't wait for an answer. She shook her head at me, her pigtails bouncing around her face. Her expression let me know just how dumb she thought I was before she went back to her dolls.
"Apparently Dulce thinks I'm a bad wife," I said, looking up at Soda. His brown eyes were shining.
"I reckon I'll keep you a little while longer, at least. See if you get any better with some practice." I rolled my eyes at him as he reached a hand out to tug on a piece of my hair.
Even though the temperature outside dropped when the sun started to go down, I felt warm inside. I loved that even though it had been two years and who knows how many miles between us, everything fell back into place once Soda was back.