Page 26 of When People Leave

“And she was adorable,” Antonio added. “Everyone loved her. She had so many friends; we used to call her the social butterfly because she flew from group to group.”

‘That’s not the mom we knew, she rarely went out,” Charlie said. What could’ve happened that changed her entire personality? Charlie wondered scrunching her forehead, knowing she was creating wrinkles where there hadn’t been any.

“Do you remember our mom’s old address?” Morgan asked.

“Of course. It wasn’t far from here. Give me a second.”

Antonio went up to the counter and came back with their pizza and a pad of paper. He wrote down an address and handed it to Morgan.

Even after devouring one and a half rolls, Charlie was still starving. She grabbed a piece of pizza almost before the metal platter hit the table. She took a bite and then began fanning her hand in front of her mouth to wave away the heat. She grabbed her water and chugged it.

“Sorry, I should’ve warned you that it just came out of the oven,” Antonio said.

“It’s delicious,” Charlie said, moving her tongue along the roof of her mouth, hoping she still had some skin left up there.

Abby offered Antonio a piece of pizza, but he shook his head. “Thank you, but I’ve had my fill of pizza…at least for today.” He patted his rotund belly, which poked out under his grayish-white T-shirt.

Morgan blew on her slice and took a bite. “Did you know our grandparents?” she asked after swallowing.

“Not really. They weren’t around much. I heard they both died a long time ago.”

“At least that’s one thing Mom told us that was true,” Charlie whispered to Abby.

“Do you remember the last time you saw our mom?” Abby asked.

Antonio put his hand up to his forehead and rubbed it as if summoning a genie out of a bottle.

“I think it was when Charlie was almost two. Carla came in one day, and I could tell something was off. I asked if she was okay, and she wouldn’t give me a straight answer.

That was the last time I saw her. At first, I thought she had gone on vacation, or one of you was sick.

But after a few weeks, I called her, and her phone had been disconnected. ”

“That’s weird,” Morgan said.

“I know,” Antonio said. “About six months later, I ran into one of our mutual friends who hadn’t heard from her either.

After a while, I figured if Carla wanted to talk to me, she knew where I was.

” Antonio had a far-off look. “I’m so sad to find out she died but meeting you all tells me that at least she did okay for herself. ”

“Can you tell us anything about her life when she lived here?” Charlie asked.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad,” Abby added.

“I remember the first time your mom and I tried pot,” he said, chuckling. “Oh, I shouldn’t be telling you this story.”

Morgan laughed. “We’re all adults, we can handle it.”

“We had no idea what we were doing,” he said.

“We got a joint from some kid in school and drove to the parking lot of an ice cream parlor. Every time we tried to light it, we’d get nervous, so nervous that the match would go out.

Finally, we took a puff and coughed a lot.

We both pretended to be high so we could stop.

Then, just as we got in the car to leave, we realized the police station was across the parking lot on the street behind us.

We convinced ourselves we were high, even though we’d only taken one puff, and we laughed the entire drive home. ”

“If you want to get high now, you could go smell Dylan’s T-shirt,” Abby said, and everyone laughed.

“Let me think, what else I can tell you,” Antonio said, then after a minute, he went on. “Did you know your mom had impressive math skills? I only passed geometry because she let me copy her homework and helped me cheat on the tests.”

“I wish she were here so we could hold that over her head,” Morgan said. “She would’ve killed us if she found out we were cheating.”

“What about boyfriends? Did she date a lot?” Charlie asked.

“Not much, and at first, I couldn’t figure out why. A lot of guys liked her, but Carla had a wall up, probably because of her childhood.”

“What do you mean?” Abby asked.

“Carla didn’t talk about her parents much, but I got a little out of her, he said.

“Her mother had a lot of rules about dating, so I was surprised when Carla married your father and shocked when I heard they ended it. She told me if she ever married, she’d never split up because of how her parents’ divorce affected her. ”

Charlie enjoyed hearing stories about their mom, but Antonio didn’t tell them anything that helped them understand her better. I hope coming to Brooklyn wasn’t a waste of time, Charlie thought.

Antonio went on to tell them about how Carla enjoyed taking Morgan to a neighborhood park to play—the same park where, in high school, Carla, Antonio and their friends had gone to drink beer and feel like rebels.

“It used to be just a big expanse of grass and woods, but after we graduated, the town put in swings and a jungle gym, and it became the place where moms took their kids,” Antonio said.

“What’s the name of the park?” Morgan asked.

Antonio pulled a pen from his pocket and wrote down the name on the same paper he had given them with Carla’s old address.

Morgan took out cash to pay for the food, but Antonio wouldn’t accept the money.

He made them promise they would let him know if they found out why Carla left New York so suddenly.