Free A Song in the Daylight by Paullina Simons Page B

a baby, but he did get blazing mad that I spent 750 pesos on a stupid test. Oh, to think that once upon a time, I avoided the test like the Black Death, and now I spend money I don’t have to take it randomly throughout the month, just in case.
So…we had another fight, this time till well after midnight, when the neighbors finally called the policebecause it was getting ugly, and the cops we had rallied with wanted to arrest Lorenzo, but I said no. After they left, I left too, and went to sleep in one of the rooms at the orphanage. Father Emilio keeps telling me that I can come and live with him. He doesn’t have enough hands to take care of the kids. But I said being around so many unwanted children would make me feel even worse about my life, if that’s even possible, because there I am, wanting a baby, and unable to have one. Lorenzo came to get me at three, and we lay in the twin bed together, and had sex under God’s eyes at San Agustin. I wondered if Father would still think I was worthy of communion. To test him, I came to him this morning, and challenged him with the truth of last night. And you know what he said? God never turns away from you. He is longing for your heart, Che. Yours and Lorenzo’s.
I give up on that Father Emilio.
So that was my day.
What do you think?
Want to trade?

6
Loose Change
    A t the breakfast island, Asher said, “Mom, if you and Dad got divorced, we would decide who to go live with.”
    “No, you wouldn’t, Ash,” said Larissa. “Mom and Dad would decide.”
    “Are you getting divorced?” Michelangelo kept eating his Frosted Flakes.
    “No, buddy. Eat quick. We gotta jet.”
    “Well, I’ll go with you ,” Asher declared, though no one asked. “You yell less.”
    “Are you kidding ?” said Emily. “Mom has such a temper. No, we should go with Dad.”
    Michelangelo hugged his mother around the middle. “You and Daddy aren’t getting divorced, right?” Still kept on with that soggy cereal, though.
    “No, sweetums,” said Larissa, running her fingers through his tangly gold curls.
    “Mom,” said Asher, “if you and Dad both died, like, tomorrow, who would we go to live with then? Uncle Jimmy?” Larissa’s brother Jimmy lived in Detroit.
    “Uncle Jimmy has no room,” said Larissa, getting some pretzels and a drink into a paper bag for Michelangelo’s snack.“Besides, he knows nothing of kids. What about Grandma?” She said that with negative conviction. She said it while shaking her head behind the question, no, no.
    “Yeah, I guess.” Asher was thoughtful. “Maybe Florida with Grandpa?”
    “We should go to school, that’s where we should go,” said Larissa.
    “Yeah!” said Michelangelo. “Grandpa. I want to go to Grandpa.” Michelangelo loved Jared’s dad more than anyone else in the world. Drawings of him in his golf cart popped up all over her house.
    “Oh, but how would we get there? We have no money for a plane ticket.” Asher turned to his mother. “Mom, can you give me cash for all the gift cards I got for Christmas? I have, like, two hundred dollars. I’ll be able to buy a plane ticket then.”
    “But what about me?” wailed Michelangelo. “ I don’t have two hundred dollars.”
    “Let’s look around the house for loose change,” said Asher. “Let’s start now. We’ll get enough for a plane ticket by the time they’re dead.”
    “How about if you start your search for loose change right after school,” said Larissa. “Okey-doke?”
    “We’re going to miss the bus,” said Emily. “Let’s go, Ash. Mom, I can’t find my sneakers. I have gym today.”
    She couldn’t find them for ten minutes. They missed the bus. She had to borrow her mother’s footwear, but when she moved her backpack to sling it on her back, there were the sneakers, cleverly hidden underneath. An exasperated Larissa drove them all to school. “Maybe a little less discussion about my death, and we’d all be more punctual.”
    “No, I don’t think