Chapter 32
Graduation was hot.
Jake had expected something profound.
Instead his gown stuck to the back of his knees.
Marcus’s cap kept sliding sideways.
Noah complained that polyester smelled terrible.
“Everything smells terrible to you,” Jake whispered.
“Correct.”
The ceremony started.
Names.
Applause.
Speeches about beginnings that sounded suspiciously like endings.
Jake watched Noah cross the stage.
Lisa screamed.
Again.
Elena screamed louder.
Sofia used two fingers to whistle.
Noah nearly missed the principal’s hand because he was laughing.
When Jake’s name was called, the noise doubled.
Robert stood.
Marcus, already seated with graduates, yelled, “WARDEN!”
Jake almost tripped.
Nobody around Marcus understood.
Thank God.
Jake took his diploma cover.
For one second he looked toward the woods beyond the school.
He felt the boundary.
Quiet.
Present.
Not asking anything from him.
Then he looked toward Noah.
Noah smiled.
Jake smiled back.
Choice.
Still.
***
Lisa hosted graduation at the house.
Jake had requested pizza.
Lisa produced enough food for a wedding.
“Who are these people?” Jake asked as relatives appeared.
“Family.”
“I have never seen half of them.”
“You have now.”
Noah’s family came too.
Not all of them.
Enough.
Cousin Lena arrived and immediately sneezed when Comet approached.
Jake stared.
Noah whispered, “Told you.”
“A werewolf allergic to dogs.”
Lena pointed at him while reaching for a tissue.
“Say it and die.”
Jake loved her instantly.
Ethan brought Claire.
Claire brought the folding chair.
Marcus shouted when he saw it.
“YOU STOLE MY CHAIR.”
“You left it at my house.”
“It is historically significant.”
Sofia placed a tarot deck on the picnic table.
Marcus immediately sat across from her.
Jake noticed.
“Cardboard?”
Marcus glared.
“Shut up.”
Sofia drew one card for him.
The Fool.
Everyone laughed.
Marcus looked at the card.
“I hate this family.”
Sofia smiled.
“You’re in it now.”
Marcus stopped.
The joke left his face.
Then returned softer.
“Yeah.”
He put the Fool beside the Page of Swords in his phone case.
***
That evening Jake sat with Elena and Noah on the back steps.
The party continued behind them.
Elena held a glass of lemonade.
“There is something I should have told you sooner.”
Noah groaned.
“Can we make that sentence illegal?”
Elena smiled.
“Probably.”
She looked at Jake.
“Mara’s mother was named Ilona.”
Noah waited.
“She was Romani. She married a man named Joseph Bennett in St. Louis after the war.”
Jake listened.
“The wolf line came through Ilona’s father,” Elena continued. “But not because he was Romani. Other relatives from the same community never changed. Some descendants did. Some didn’t.”
Noah nodded.
They had said versions of this before.
Elena continued.
“Mara spent years trying to separate family history from the stories outsiders invented about us.”
Sofia joined them carrying cake.
“She hated the word curse.”
Elena smiled.
“She said people call something a curse when they want permission to fear the person carrying it.”
Jake thought about that.
Noah looked toward the yard where Lena was arguing with Marcus.
“I wish I remembered more of her.”
Elena took his hand.
“Then remember what you do.”
Sofia handed Noah cake.
“And stop turning her into a saint. She cheated at cards.”
Elena laughed.
“Constantly.”
Noah smiled.
Jake liked this version of family memory better.
Not supernatural recordings.
Stories.
Contradictions.
People allowed to stay complicated.