Page 5 of Ghost Ribbon

“And?”

“It was terrible.”

Again, that almost-smile threatened me, pulling at muscles I rarely used.

Marco saw it. He seemed to see everything he shouldn’t.

“My mama says lemons are not for eating like apples,” he explained, his voice taking on a pedagogical tone. “But I thought maybe rich lemons were different. Maybe rich lemons would taste sweet, because rich people always have the best of everything.”

“They aren’t.”

“No,” he agreed sadly, staring at the offending fruit with profound disappointment. “They are also evil.”

Something happened to my chest. A pressure low behind my ribs. Uncomfortable. Warm at the edges. Like a bruise forming on the inside, like something was pressing against my ribcage.

I didn’t like it.

“What is wrong with you?” I asked, and heard my voice come out different, less flat, almost curious.

Marco didn’t seem offended by the bluntness.

“My body is bad sometimes,” he said.

“Bad how?”

He shrugged again, that single-shouldered motion that seemed to be his default response to things too big to explain.

“It gets tired. I get fevers. My chest hurts, like something is squeezing me from inside. Sometimes I sleep a lot. Days and days.” He paused, considering. “Sometimes Mama cries when she thinks I can’t hear.”

His gaze moved toward the villa, visible through the trees, its windows glowing with warm light.

“Papa says when he earns enough, they will take me to a better doctor. A very good one. Maybe in America.”

“And if he doesn’t earn enough?”

Marco looked back at me. The moonlight rested in his eyes like it had found a home there, turning the hazel to something liquid and luminous.

“Then I will still get better,” he said firmly, his small chin lifting with defiance. “Because Mama worries too much already, and Papa’s hands hurt from work, so I have to get better.”

I didn’t know what to say.

Marco shifted closer, dragging the oversized shirt back up over his shoulder. He was too small.

Too thin.

Too bright.

“You don’t laugh?” he asked suddenly.

“No.”

“Never?”

“No.”

“Not even if someone falls in a fountain?”

“No.”