“IthinkI believe you, but I’m not sure I believe you.” I look over at her. My mom is so pretty. She could make plenty of money without us on her smile alone.
“Your dad is here as a witness. You have my permission to use him against me if I forget and try to drag you on live next week.”
“I think taking a step back is a good idea. A little bit of privacy never hurt anyone,” Dad says, and then he turns and walks out of the room like nothing happened. I would pay all of my Fosters Healing Ointment money to be as calmand detached as that man. I feel like I got hit by a truck. I should be relieved. I’m free from the content machine apparently, but I’m still in shock.
“How’s your arm doing?” Mom asks.
“It’s fine. I can’t wait to get this thing off.”
“Just two more weeks. It’ll be off before you know it,” Mom says. “And I won’t take any pictures. I promise.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I give her a tight hug and move to stand up. “I gotta go. Heaven’s outside.”
“Wait. Heaven’s outside?”
“Yeah. She wanted to be sure I was okay. I need to go tell her I’m not planning on running away, at least not tonight.”
“Tell her to come inside. I have your T-shirts and I want to get one picture of you two wearing them.”
“Mom!”
“With the Polaroid. You just spent the summer doing a super-fun bingo project with your new girlfriend. I won’t post anything about it, I promise, but Mom rights dictate I get at least one picture for the album. Go get her.”
“I will, but Cristine Ford, I swear to God if I see a picture of this Polaroid in your Instagram stories, I’m moving in with Auntie Carrie. I’ll commute to school from Santa Barbara. I don’t care.”
Mom stands and rolls her eyes. “Just go get her.”
A few minutes later, I’m back in my mom’s office with a very confused Heaven.
“Great! You’re here. Lovely to see you, Heaven.”
“Hi, Mrs.Ford,” she says cautiously. I’m not shocked shethinks this is all a trick. I barely know what’s happening either.
“Okay, so I took Heaven’s advice.” She grabs two black shirts off her desk and hands them to us. Heaven unfurls hers first. That big design she previously showed us is right there in the middle—the sun, the rainbow, the sparkles, and the clouds—withHeaven and Saylor’s Summertime Bingo Challengeon a black cropped T-shirt, just the way Heaven wanted.
“Okay, these are pretty metal,” Heaven says.
“I’m glad you like them. Go try them on. I want to get one picture, and then I will leave you both alone for the rest of the summer.”
“Right,” I say. We both change really quick, and then Mom tries to act all subtle, getting us set up in front of her backdrop and lighting kit. She truly cannot help herself. But at least she does actually grab her Polaroid instant camera.
“Okay. I’m gonna take four—”
“Mom!”
“Will you hold on! One copy for each of you to have, one for me, and one for Dr.G. That’s it. No digital record to be reposted anywhere.”
“Okay.”
“Now smile.”
I slip my arm around Heaven’s waist, and then Mom keeps her word and snaps four quick photos. She hands three of the square pieces of developing film to us.
“Now, I know I’m the uncool mom. But you don’t have torun right back to Heaven’s house. Heaven, you can stay and hang out for a while. Her sisters are gone, so they won’t be bothering you, and I have a ton of work to do, so I won’t bother you either. We’ll order dinner.”
Heaven shrugs, looking over at me. It’s my call.
“Yeah, we’ll stay.”