The lemonade stand was Eli’s idea.
His school was raising money for new library books, and he had decided he was going to set up a stand at the fall festival and sell lemonade until he had enough to buy a whole shelf himself.
He asked me to help him make the sign.
We sat at the kitchen table with poster board and markers, and he wrote the letters in careful block print while I held the ruler steady.
When he was finished, he held it up so I could see.
It said “Eli & Hester’s Lemonade” in big blue letters, with a little drawing of a lemon in the corner.
I looked at it for a long moment.
“You put my name on it,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Because you’re helping me.
That’s what partners do.”
I laughed a little.
“Partners,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Like a team.”
The fall festival was on a Saturday, and the weather was perfect, the kind of crisp October day that made everyone want to be outside.
Eli sold out of lemonade in two hours.
Marcus came by and bought two cups he didn’t drink, just to support the cause.
Marissa stopped by and gave Eli a hug and told him she was proud of him.
Quincy wasn’t there.
His supervised visit wasn’t scheduled until the following weekend, and Eli didn’t ask about him.
He just kept pouring lemonade and counting quarters in a coffee can and smiling at everyone who walked by.
When the afternoon was over and we were packing up the table, Eli turned to me.
“Are you coming to my school thing next month?” he asked.
“The science fair?”
I looked at him.
“Do you want me to?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“I’m doing a project on DNA.
I thought you might want to see it.”
I felt my throat tighten.
“I’ll be there,” I said.
He nodded and went back to folding the tablecloth, and I stood there in the autumn sun with a poster board sign in my hands.
I had spent thirty-one years trying to keep a family together by pretending everything was fine.
Now I had a family that didn’t ask me to pretend.
It was smaller than I’d imagined.
But it was real.
