"The pie," she said. "You left your half on the plate. I was nervous, he said. You're still allowed to be nervous, she said. "You're just not allowed to run. " And then she was through the door and out into the Cedar Falls night.
And Marcus stood in the middle of Plet's Diner with an empty pie plate and a full chest and the particular feeling of a man standing at the beginning of something he cannot yet name. On a road he thought he'd closed forever, watching the first set of lights that might finally be leading him somewhere instead of away. He left a 20 on the table, twice the bill, because the 19-year-old waitress had refilled his coffee twice without being asked and had, by the focused neutrality of her professionalism, allowed two people to have the most important conversation of their lives on uninterrupted. He walked to his truck. He sat in it for a moment.
Then he picked up his phone and called Ranata. She answered on the first ring, which meant she had been waiting. "Well," she said. Saturday, Marcus said. Community center on 5th noon.
Bring Zoe. Silence on the other end of the line. Then quietly, baby, Ranata said. "It's about time. " Marcus started the truck. He pulled out of Plet's parking lot and onto Maple Street.
Headed home. And for the first time in longer than he could specifically account for, he was not watching his rearview mirror. He was watching the road ahead. Saturday arrived with the kind of energy that Cedar Falls reserved for its better days. Not perfect.
Not easy, but alive in a way the town sometimes forgot it could be. Marcus got Zoe dressed by 10:30, which was itself a minor miracle given that Zoe had opinions about every item of clothing she owned, and those opinions changed every four minutes. She settled on a yellow shirt with a dinosaur on it, pink shorts, and her white sneakers that she insisted on tying herself even though the process took 11 minutes and the result was structurally questionable at best. ""Are we going to see the police lady? "" Zoe asked, standing at the door with the focused energy of someone who had been thinking about this questions since approximately Thursday. "We're going to a community event. " Marcus said that the police lady is running. Zoe said among other people.
Yes. So, we're going to see the police lady. Marcus picked up his keys. You ready? Zoe grabbed her jacket off the hook by the door with the satisfied expression of someone who has won an argument without technically having one.
"Ready? " she said. They pulled into the Cedar Falls Community Center parking lot at 11:58, which Marcus had timed precisely enough that he was not embarrassingly early, but not late enough to seem like he wasn't paying attention. He had thought about this more than he was comfortable admitting. He heard Zoe before he fully processed anything else. "Bounce house! " Zoe announced at full volume from the back seat.
Her face pressed against the window and then she was door. She was already unbuckling her seat belt before the truck had completely stopped moving. Zoe, daddy, it has a slide on it. Marcus put the truck in park. If you open that door before I say so, Zoe's hand was already on the handle.
She stopped, turned, gave him the look of a child in the absolute outer limit of her self-control. "Now," Marcus said. She was out of the truck in under two seconds and moving toward the bounce house at a pace that suggested the concept of walking was something she had theoretically studied but never fully committed to. Marcus got out and stood by his truck for a moment. Looking at the community center setup.
Tables, families, the smell of someone's grill doing serious work nearby. A Cedar Falls PD banner. Officers in regular clothes mixed with people in the crowd. The whole thing deliberately casual, deliberately approachable, which he suspected was Elena's doing. He found her in 30 seconds.
She was standing near the registration table talking to a man in a Cedar Falls PD polo shirt who was gesturing towards something on a clipboard with the urgency of someone whose plan was not going according to plan. Elena was nodding and saying something back with the particular calm of a person who has the answer and is waiting for the other person to finish panicking before delivering it. She looked up as Marcus crossed the lawn. Their eyes met across 12 ft of community center grass. She said something brief to the clipboard man who nodded and walked away looking relieved.
Then she walked toward Marcus. "You came," she said. "You invited me," he said. A small smile. I was starting to think that line was going to be ours.
"It's a good line," Marcus said. She looked past him. "Where's Auntie Ellie? " A projectile named Kesha appeared from the left side at full speed and attached herself to Elena's waist with the commitment of someone who had been waiting for this exact moment since waking up. Elena caught her, steadied her, held her for a moment. Hey, baby girl, you find the bounce house?
"I did it four times already," Kesha reported. "You've been here eight minutes. " "I know," Kesha said. Clearly proud of this fact. Kesha, this is Mr. Read.
Elena said, "Marcus, you remember Kesha from the parking lot? " Kesha looked up at Marcus with frank 7-year-old appraisal. "You're tall," she said. "You're fast. " Marcus said, "I saw you come out of nowhere just now. " Kesha considered this as a compliment, accepted it with a nod. Then she spotted Zoe, who had returned from an initial bounce house assault and was now standing at her father's elbow with the very specific energy of a child who has seen each other child and is deciding whether to deploy friendliness. The two girls looked at each other.
"You like dinosaurs? " Zoe said, pointing at her own shirt. "I like sharks," Kesha said. "Sharks are basically water dinosaurs," Zoe said immediately. Kesha's eyes widened. They are totally, Zoe said with complete authority.
Come on, the bounce house has a slide. And just like that, they were gone. Marcus watched them go. Elena watched them go. Then they looked at each other and Marcus said, ""Water dinosaurs. "" And Elena said, ""I'm going to be hearing about that for months. "" And they were laughing.
The easy kind. The kind that doesn't need any buildup. The morning moved. Marcus helped set up extra folding chairs when it became apparent that the turnout was bigger than planned. Elena ran the event with the same efficiency she'd shown on that gravel shoulder calm decisive clear in her directions.
He watched her work and tried not to watch her work, which meant he was watching her work about 90% of the time. Around 1:00, they found themselves both standing near the grill while the man running it. A Cedar Falls officer named Torres distributed plates with the solemn authority of someone who takes barbecue very seriously. "You look good at this," Marcus said. To Elena.
"Eating barbecue? Running something," he said. People listen to you, not because of the badge. Before you say it's the badge, it's not the badge. She accepted a plate from Torres without looking away from Marcus.