Cash grinned. “Nah, thanks. Haven’t had one of those since I was ten.”
Ooh, you’re so cool, Cash, Pinky wanted to snap. Go pickle your liver in beer instead.
“What can we do for you, Cash?” Pinky’s dad’s usually exuberantly happy voice was strained with annoyance. Pinky smiled to herself as she reached over and grabbed a Hershey bar. Across the fire, Samir rolled his eyes at her and she grinned, feeling even better.
“Well, I actually came over to talk to Pinky.” Scratching his stomach through his shirt, he said, “My mom says our cleaning lady said you turned up at her house? With a flyer or something? And the woman at the seafood market said the same thing.”
Pinky stiffened. Crap. This was not how she’d wanted her mom to find out about the town hall meeting she was helping with. “Um, right.” She adjusted her ponytail and ignored the skewering looks her mom was tossing her way.
“Priyanka,” her mom said in a voice that was just two notches higher than her usual one. “Would you mind sharing with me what the flyer’s for?”
Standing, Pinky glared at Cash. “You can go now.” Shrugging, he sauntered off.
Reaching into the pocket of her shorts, Pinky got out her cell phone and pulled up a picture of the flyer she’d been handing out all week.
Her mom took her phone and looked at the flyer, her expression hard. “You can’t get people all agitated about this.” She looked up at Pinky. “We don’t live here. This isn’t our problem.”
“I already told you, I’m just joining a cause that the town residents have already organized. Besides, this is everyone’s problem!” Pinky said, sitting back down.
“I told you to leave it alone,” her mom said. “This—” She squeezed her hand around Pinky’s phone, as if she wanted to crush it. “This is…”
“Something you would’ve done twenty years ago?” Pinky couldn’t help but ask.
“Pinky,” Samir said, shaking his head. “Just… maybe let it go for now?”
She stared at him, not really able to believe he’d just said that. He’d been with her when she’d found the photo. He’d heard what her mom had just said to her. And he was taking her mom’s side? “Are you serious?” she said, huffing a laugh. “You’re on her side?”
“I’m not taking sides. I just… I don’t think anything productive’s coming out of this, that’s all,” he said, sticking his hands into his pockets.
“I agree,” Pinky’s mom said. Because of course she did. Of course she agreed with Samir.
Pinky dug her toe into the sand and forced herself to say nothing.
* * *
They stood at the bank of the lake with all the other families, dozens and dozens of people all holding their lit lanterns, their faces glowing in the gathering dark. Samir and Pinky stood close together, each of them holding their shining lanterns like magical orbs meant to grant secret wishes. Pinky had decorated hers with a drawing of butterflies emerging from a cocoon of stars, and Samir’s had an abstract design that looked like swirling smoke enveloping people. It seemed kind of sad, but when she’d asked him about it, he’d just laughed and brushed her off. There was a palpable excitement in the air, and Pinky pushed the fight she and her mom had just had—and the comment Samir had made, taking her mom’s side—to the back corners of her mind.
“At the count of ten,” Mr. Parker said into his megaphone. He beamed around at them all, winking when he caught Pinky’s eye. “We will let our lanterns float into the air. Remember to whisper your wish into it first!”
The Parkers were black and one of only three other families of color who also owned a lake house on Ellingsworth. Pinky’s and Dolly’s parents had had them over for dinner many times over the past few summers. Mr. Parker was always the one who led the lantern-lighting ceremony. As the mayor of his city back home, he was kind of used to taking charge, Pinky supposed. And no one else wanted to do it anyway.
There were murmurs of excitement all around. Pinky smiled at Samir, and he gazed back, his smile somehow muted. “Better wish for something good,” he said.
Pinky laughed. “Oh, I am.”
His eyes crinkled a little at that. “I guess it’s no surprise what you’re going to be wishing for. Does it rhyme with ‘utterfly crabitat’?”
Pinky shrugged. “I can’t tell you, Mr. Jha, or it won’t come true.”
“All right,” Mr. Parker said, his voice reverberating in her ears. “Ten… nine… eight…”
Pinky took a breath and looked over at her mom and dad. They were standing a few dozen feet away, giving Samir and Pinky their privacy. She studied her mom’s face but couldn’t decipher her expression. What would she wish for this year? For her daughter to become more like her? For a different daughter altogether? The thought made Pinky’s throat hurt, and she swallowed away the threatening tears.
“Three… two… one! And release!”
Pinky released her lantern at the same time as Samir released his, watching her butterflies rise higher and higher, disappearing off into the night sky. She tipped her head back to watch all the lanterns float into the indigo velvet sky, lighting the night up like a thousand fairies watching over their town. The still, black lake reflected their light, and it was like dual universes, both lit up, both starry, both floating and dreamy.
Pinky felt a brief sense of vertigo, of fear, of not knowing which universe she belonged in. She laid her head on Samir’s firm shoulder, sighing as she felt his arm wrap around her, anchoring her to this place, reminding her where she was.
CHAPTER 18 Pinky
It was the following Saturday, officially August, and the town hall meeting to organize the big protest against the developer had just concluded. Pinky didn’t know if her parents had forgotten about the significance of the date (unlikely) or had purposely made plans at the country club that morning, but either way, she was glad she’d been able to attend without having to get into a giant fight about it. Now she turned to Samir, Gloria, and Dolores in the otherwise empty hall, grinning. “Oh. My. God.”
“Thirty-three people.” Gloria shook her head, smiling, as she gathered up her notes and papers. “That’s really not a bad showing.”
“Not bad at all,” Dolores agreed.
“I know!” Pinky laughed, catching Samir’s eye. He smiled back. “And we were afraid we might not even have ten.” Pinky squealed. “Gloria, Dolores, I think we’re going to save the habitat. This protest is going to kick major developer butt.”
Gloria laughed. “You might be right.”
* * *
Once Pinky and Samir were on the bus, Pinky turned to him, still floating on a cloud. “Wasn’t that amazing? Do you think the plan we all came up with in the meeting might work? That it could actually, really work, I mean?”
Samir smiled. “I think everyone was feeling pretty optimistic.”
Pinky frowned a little as the bus drove right into a pothole, jostling them. “That’s not really an answer.”