I closed my eyes. That guitar had cost more, but not by much. It wasn’t reckless stupidity, and I had to admit he’d thought it through.
“Mom?” I opened my eyes. He was watching me carefully, the way he did when he wasn’t sure whether I was about to hug him or ground him. “Are you mad?”
I looked at him for a long moment. “I am shocked, baby,” I said. “But I am so incredibly proud of you. And I’m also mad that you sold something that valuable without telling me first.”
He nodded quickly. “That’s fair.”
I held out my hand. “Come here.”
He crossed the room and folded himself into me, all elbows and thirteen-year-old awkwardness. I put my arms around him and felt the last of the anger dissolve into something heavier and warmer.
PART 3: The Gift
The next morning, my son made me a cup of tea and asked if we could go pick up the wheelchair.
“It’s ready at the hospital, Mom,” he said. “Can we go? And then drop it off at Elena‘s house? It’s going to be a surprise because… I didn’t say anything to her about it.”
“What about her parents, honey? Won’t they be upset that you meddled?” I asked, already putting my shoes on.
“I don’t think they can be mad. They couldn’t help her right now, so I did. I’m not blaming them. It’s just that… she needed it.”
When we arrived at their home, Elena opened the door in her old, squeaking chair and went completely still when she saw Alejandro.
He cleared his throat nervously. “Hey, Elena. I…”
She looked from him to the large box in my hands and back again. “What’s that?”
He glanced at me once, then back at her. “It’s a new wheelchair for you.”
Her mouth parted, and her eyes widened in complete shock. “What?!”
Jillian, her mother, appeared behind her, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Elena, who’s…” She stopped dead in her tracks, staring at the box.
Alejandro set the box down so fast he nearly dropped it. “Your old one was bad,” he said, his ears turning bright red. “I mean, not bad bad, just… it wasn’t working right. And I found one, and I thought maybe…”
Elena‘s eyes filled with tears so suddenly it made my chest ache. “You bought me a wheelchair?” she whispered.
Alejandro looked deeply embarrassed. “Yeah.”
