It was a Thursday afternoon and Carmen had Shay in her back seat. She had just picked him up from school and was taking him to get ice cream before he went to his first therapy session. Shane and her had had their own mini-session with the therapist to talk about how to approach Shay about therapy and how to help make him less nervous.

“So how was school, Shay?”

“It was good. I made a friend. His name is Marcus.”

Carmen’s ears perked up—neither her or Shane had heard him talk about anyone from school—this was a good sign.

“Oh yeah? Tell me about him.”

“I dunno, he’s cool. He is tall like me and in my class but he is nine. He got held back. He likes to eat Jolly Ranchers and has a skateboard.”

Carmen’s heart sank a little bit—‘held back’? Maybe this wasn’t a good sign. “Whatever,” She thought. “Just let it go—a friend is a friend.”

“That’s cool. Is he nice to you?”

Shay squished his face up. “Carmen!” he whined.

“What? What did I say? All I did is ask if he is nice to you, what’s bad about that?”

“No one asks that, Carmen! Of course he is nice to me, otherwise I wouldn’t say he is my friend. You sound like you’re my mom when you stay stuff like that.”

Carmen smiled. It kinda freaked her out to think about sounding like a mom—but he was right, she felt just like Mercedes when she said that. She shivered at the thought. On the other hand she sorta liked it. “No, Carmen—don’t let your mind go there. You know he will be gone before you know it. You’re not this kid’s mother, he already has one.”

They pulled into the ice cream place and she yanked Shay back by the shirt before he ran across the road.

“I know, I know—look both ways. I swear I was going to!”

“Mhm yeah sure.”

Shay gave her a crooked smile. “Hey therapy is today right?”

“Yep.”

“How long is it again?”