DROPS ME OFF, it’s about ten. Grandma’s car is gone. Colleen isn’t outside, but she’s not in her bedroom or the bathroom or any other room. I’m just about to call her cell when she bursts through the front door. “Big news!” she says. “Huge news. I found your mother!” All I can do is stare. “And I’m staying with Marcie for a while, but that’s nothing.” “My mother is at Marcie’s?” I gasp. “No, she’s in Azusa!” She holds an envelope right in front of my eyes, and I read Grandma’s address and then, up in the left-hand corner, hers: Delia Bancroft111-D MagnoliaAzusa, CA 91702 “Where . . . ?” I’m having trouble catching my breath. Colleen takes my face in both hands and kisses me. Breathes into me. Makes me breathe. It’s not sexy; it’s resuscitation. Finally I can wheeze, “Where did you find this?” “In your grandma’s bedroom.” “What were you doing in there?” “Snooping around. You don’t look in people’s medicine cabinets when you go to their houses?”
