With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

Returns

On Sunday evening, ’Buela and I watch reruns of Beat Bobby Flay and eat her Fairhill-famous pernil and tostones. I was too jittery all day to cook and ’Buela has been too nervous to stand still. The whole weekend when I wasn’t at work ’Buela and I have circled around each other, neither one of us wanting to say that we miss Babygirl. You’d think that finally having a day free would mean I would go out with Angelica or enjoy not having to be responsible for a whole other human, but instead it feels like a rip in the fabric of my life that won’t get stitched back together until Babygirl walks through the door.

Babygirl gets home at 7:03, and ’Buela is the one who answers the door in a mad rush and pulls her from Tyrone’s arms. She passes Babygirl to me and I wrap my arms around her little body. Tyrone gives us a brief update before heading back to the car, but I don’t hear a word.

“Mommy missed you so much, Mommy missed you so, so much,” I say into her soft cheek. It’s like our entire apartment had been holding its breath, but now that Babygirl’s returned, even the breeze coming in through the window heaves a sigh of relief. ’Buela and I sit on the couch with Babygirl between us listening to her baby-sing about Moana, PAW Patrol, and cookies. Our dinner is forgotten; Bobby Flay is put on mute. For the rest of the night Babygirl is front and center, the candlelight we read the world by.