Chapter Forty-Two: The Next Saturday
The following Saturday, Marcus lit the grill shortly after noon.
There was no birthday cake this time, and no special occasion had been announced.
Andre arrived first and carried a bag of charcoal through the gate.
Caleb brought corn, Leon brought lemonade, and Darius arrived with the same joke about forgetting the ice.
Nia sat at the patio table drawing labels for her tomato plants.
A delivery driver stopped outside the fence and called out that he had a package for the Bennett family.
Marcus walked to the gate, confirmed the address, and accepted the box.
The driver waved and continued down the street.
Across the yard, Andre lifted the lid of the grill and checked the coals.
The familiar smell of smoke rose into the warm air.
Margaret appeared briefly on her porch with a watering can.
She looked toward the laughter in Marcus’s backyard, then returned to her flowers without approaching the fence.
Nobody asked her to join them, and nobody asked her to leave.
Darius set a plate of corn beside the grill and looked around at his friends.
“Are we finally having a normal cookout?” he asked.
“That depends on whether you remembered the ice,” Caleb replied.
Darius looked into his empty hands.
The others groaned, and Nia laughed so hard that she dropped her pencil.
Marcus picked it up and handed it back to her.
He turned toward the grill as Andre called for the burgers.
Five friends stood together in a backyard where they had always belonged.
The afternoon continued without sirens,
accusations, or anyone demanding that they explain who they were.
The End.
