minute I thought he was hiding something But what Everything he did was an open book Not like me I pulled out my journal from my backpack It was small and I used it to record things Sometimes I write down what’s going on like Cheetah’s jump breaks my bed Or I jot down what I see like a billboard or a piece of graffiti Once I drew High Bridge because even though I’m scared of bridges I liked the way the arches came down to meet the highway like the legs of gigantic Transformer robots Ana records things too but she doesn’t keep a journal she uses her phone to take pictures She doesn’t care about signs or bridges or words She takes pictures of horses She’s crazy about them She goes riding on Saturdays at a stable on the other side of the Hudson River and that’s where she takes lots of pictures She says she wants to be a trainer someday or a professional horse photographer I don’t know yet what I want to be I know it has to do with words and building things with my hands Mighty my brother read from a highway wall as we took the exit to St Vincent Ave So I wrote it down in round letters even if I already have Mighty in my journal because it’s my favorite St Vincent Ave is the ugliest and most beautiful street in the world Dad says it starts in the Bronx and ends in the town of Yonkers We go there to eat at Spice or to shop for furniture The stores are close together with rolling metal gates that pull down when it’s time to close Between windows the walls are marked with graffiti Not the quick words you see on the highway but large oversize letters or characters drawn like cartoons Only they’re not funny They’re serious telling the story of something I don’t know My mom disagrees She’s an urban designer which means she helps to decide where buildings go and how people use them So something like graffiti drives her crazy She’s glad we don’t have much of it in Dobbs Ferry But I wish we did When we come to St Vincent Ave I end up with so many new words in my notebook Today we squeezed our Subaru into the last parking space We were lucky because the rest of St Vincent Ave was closed off All along the sidewalks there were booths lined with people selling things I could smell the smoky scent of barbecued corn and refried beans cooking nearby It’s a street fair Ana said excited Can we look around Cheetah begged Can-we-can-we My parents agreed as long as we made our way to the furniture store So we walked along St Vincent Ave Ana and me on one side my parents and Cheetah on the other At a table with hats and scarves Ana took a picture of me in a tie-dyed cap with an orange flower on it which looked ridiculous over my big frizzy hair I could see my shadow next to hers on the ground hers lean and tall mine short and round with hair sticking out from under the hat While Ana tried on the same cap I drifted to the next table where there was a man and an elderly woman selling jewelry I wouldn’t have noticed them except they were
arguing their voices low and tight like they were yelling with the volume turned down How can you wear that asked the man his face craggy like the side of a cliff Remember the train station It’s not safe Wear what Then I noticed a brightly colored necklace around the woman’s neck I had to wear something she said And a person selling jewelry can’t be wearing an apron Besides you’ve been obsessing over it like a fool for years I have a mind to sell it away today The man almost leaped out of his chair Don’t you dare Ma Put it away For a moment she didn’t say anything as they glared at each other like two burning coals in our backyard grill I was fascinated by their game of chicken Who would win The woman finally gave in Fine she said She undid the necklace and laid it on the table Now why don’t you run along and get me some lemonade He let out his breath and ruffled his hair up so that it reminded me of a bird’s nest I’ll do that Ma But put it away okay Then he stood up and he was like a tall building blocking the sun But then anyone next to me seemed like a tall building He peered at me for a moment his eyes gray against his olive-toned face and walked away The woman was watching me too as I stood at the edge of the table next to a tray of earrings All completely handmade she said trying to sound friendly and not like she’d been fighting with her son a few seconds ago They’re made from healing crystals great for health I nodded While she spoke I stared at the necklace on the table I knew I shouldn’t ask She probably didn’t mean what she said to her son Is that for sale I said She saw what I was looking at and glanced down the street I guessed what she was doing She was checking to see if her son was coming back After a moment she picked up the necklace the one she had been wearing a minute ago and held it out to me I took it from her I wanted to know what the big story was why the craggy-faced man was so angry in the first place It was a pendant the size of a checker piece on a leather string At first I thought it was just a flower but then I saw something in the middle a symbol bordered by purple-and-pink petals
I’ve seen this before I said suddenly I know someone with the same necklace Is that so asked the woman mildly It was popular for some time I remembered Margaret wearing hers when she and Allie lived next door But what was so special about this necklace I turned it over In tiny letters a single word was etched keeper Handmade enamel silver plated on the back It’s an Indian peace sign Indian like you You’re from India aren’t you I nodded though I hated being asked that Like Ana never gets asked if she’s from Norway So I added My parents were born there but I’ve lived in Dobbs Ferry my whole life The woman brightened Oh I used to live near Dobbs We talked about the construction going on with the Aqueduct Trail and the waterfront I let her do most of the talking while I looked at the pendant I was never good at figuring out what to wear I wasn’t pretty like Ana or stylish like my mom But I could picture myself with this necklace And maybe some of the girls stopping me in the hall at school to say they liked it Even if that kind of thing never happened to me How much I asked I could still see the storm in her eyes left by her son But would she do it Would she sell me the necklace in spite of him Her face puckered Then she said Seeing you’re from Dobbs I’ll let you have it for five Five Didn’t she say handmade It was a good price I only have four I said Huh A girl with a budget she said gravely You know what it is right What it is Wasn’t it just a necklace It says keeper on it Is that the name of the person who made it Maybe it was the name of her son Though he didn’t look like a Keeper to me She shook her head It’s a finders necklace You know finders keepers Every necklace has one of those two words on the back It tells you what sort of person you are This one says you’re somebody who keeps things
Oh That didn’t seem like much to me By now Ana had joined me and she was wearing the tie-dyed cap Behind her I saw something else The craggy-faced man was coming back The woman must have seen him too because she said You have a deal Four it is Wait up Myla Ana called as I hurried across the street just as the man reached the table I could feel his eyes on me but what was he going to do I’d bought the necklace and now it was mine At the furniture store Mom saw the necklace I was wearing Where did you get that A woman sold it to me for four dollars Margaret has the same one Do you remember My parents did not She said it’s an Indian peace sign I said Indian like us Dad looked more carefully I see he said pushing up his glasses It’s an Om What’s an Om Ana asked A two-letter word Cheetah said Dad pointed to the pendant It’s this symbol I suppose you could call it a peace sign But it’s more than that He explained how in yoga the sound our mouth makes when we say Om is very important I guess he knew because he’d been doing yoga for as long as I could remember But it’s not the only two-letter word Cheetah went on There’s ai which is a kind of sloth And xu which was a coin used in Vietnam And in Scrabble you can Stop I said Cheetah was a spelling whiz which meant we had to quit family game night because he always beat everyone at Scrabble But that didn’t stop him from talking about it What about at Ana asked And it There are lots of two-letter words Yeah but those are common Cheetah said Ana laughed You’re hilarious She was always saying that to my brother even though I didn’t think he was particularly funny It was weird how they got along so easily when I hardly spoke to Ana’s little sister I fingered the cool back of my necklace Om I said to myself testing out the sound in my mouth It felt rich Like a piece of chocolate Inside the store the salesman showed us a platform bed eighteen inches above the floor six inches taller than my cinder blocks Mom said that was nothing even though you’d think for an urban designer six inches was everything Like falling into the space between the train and the platform Six inches could mean the difference between life and death Myla you brought a ruler Ana asked watching as I measured She’s scared of sleeping on a bed Cheetah explained to the salesman
