It started honking soon after the first parabola of sun appeared from behind the mountains that rose beyond the compound; and it didn’t stop until Lobo answered bark for honk—stood at the gate with his nose between the pickets.I’d fallen asleep in that plastic chair and awakened to sunrise. Manuel’s bulb was out, and the courtyard was going live—smoke rising through the kitchen windows, Jon and Neil creeping from the chapel’s dark shell, Mrs. K. creaking down the stairs and heading for the bathroom, her hair mashed at embarrassing angles. Catherine opened the kitchen door and stood in the courtyard—arms crossed and eyes on the sun, refusing to take in her mother. Jazzy was singing—I heard her voice but couldn’t see her. Not far from me, their legs straddling a wooden bench, Sophie and Riley sat face-to-face. Riley’s pouch of bracelets was upended between them, and Riley had her back to me. It didn’t matter: She had to have walked right by me, had to have seen me sleeping there, had to have known that I’d wake to this—her and Sophie, her new best friend, making bracelet plans.“You’re a genius, Riley,”
