Free Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green by Helen Phillips

in comparison.”
    “Oh, Sylvia, you’re lovely,” Ken/Neth sighs. Shut it, Ken/Neth.
    “I miss him so much,” Mom says again. “I miss him so much. I miss him so much.” She’s crying now. Ken/Neth keeps stroking her shoulder.
    I’ve never seen Mom like this. Not even when The Weirdness started. She always stayed very, very, very calm.
    I really can’t handle hearing her say that over and over again. It’s just … too true. So I have to go, back into the night, alone.
    I curl up later with Roo and she wets the bed.
    It figures, I guess.

CHAPTER 5

    T he next morning Roo and I are hanging out in Mom’s room, watching her get ready for the yoga retreat. Here’s the problem: She doesn’t have any yoga pants.
    “I don’t even know what yoga pants are, really,” she says. “But they told Ken/Neth to tell me I need them. Maybe I’ll just wear my running shorts?”
    Right then there’s a soft knock at the door and my stomach falls. Ugh. Please don’t let it be Ken/Neth, butting in again on the few little moments Mom and Roo and I get to be alone together.
    “Did you hear a knock?” Mom says. “Go check, Mad.”
    I drag my feet the whole way to the door, and when I open it I almost faint. It’s the guy from the Selva Shop. Golden as ever.
    “Um, hello?” I say in an unfriendly way, but just because I’m nervous.
    “
Hola,
” Mom says to him in her bad Spanish accent. “Come on in.”
    I realize that I’m standing there blocking the doorway, my hands on my hips, so I move to the side and he steps into the room.
    “Good morning,
señora
,” he says to Mom. “Señor Candy says he’s bringing the golf cart around for you.”
    His English is
perfect
—no accent at all!
    “Hey,” I say, shocked, “I thought you couldn’t speak English!”
    “I went,” he says to me.
    “What?”
    “
I went
,” he repeats.
    “You went where?” For some reason my voice comes out sounding angry, and I’m blushing a ton.
    “
Fui,
” he says, “it means
I went. I went to Volcán Pájaro de Lava
on the front, and on the back,
And you?
”
    Oh yeah. That ugly T-shirt in the Selva Shop.
    “Okay,” I say nastily. “I wonder why you couldn’t have told me that yesterday.” What is
wrong
with me? Why am I being this way?
    He just smiles.
    “I can’t believe you speak
English
,” I mutter.
    “Mad!” Mom says. “Relax!” Then she turns to Mr. Perfect English, all smiles, and says, “So, I take it you’ve met?”
    “Well, I’m from Ohio,” he tells me, “so, yes, I speak English.”
    “O
hi
o?”
    “Yeah, but we don’t know each other’s names,” Roo says to Mom.
    “Well then,” Mom says, “let’s do our formal introductions.”
    “Of course,
señora
,” he says, nodding politely, though there’s something in his nod that’s not quite polite, as though he’s rolling his eyes at us even though he’s not rolling his eyes.
    “Please, call me Sylvia.” I can tell Mom already thinks he’s wonderful. She thinks he’s a
very intelligent young man
. “Girls, meet Kyle.”
    “Hi, Kyle!” Roo practically shouts.
    Kyle is
not
the right name for Kyle. Kyle is a name for one of the Popular Boys at school: Kyle is blond hair, blue eyes, good at sports,and always throwing too hard during dodge ball in gym class. This Kyle should be called … Mars, or something like that.
    “Kyle,” Mom continues, “meet Ruby and Madeline.”
    “You can call me Mad,” I say, astonishing myself. Roo and Mom turn to stare at me. In the past I’ve only ever let Mom, Dad, and Roo call me Mad.
    “Mad as in
mad
?” Kyle smiles as though he’s made a joke.
    I hope I was right to say he could use my nickname.
    “Well,” Mom says cheerily, “looks like everything should be fine around here, then.”
    “What about the babysitter?” Roo asks. “And the Spanish tutor?”
    Why
did she have to mention the babysitter in front of Kyle?
    Mom looks puzzled and gestures at Kyle.
    And my legs turn to total