Mr. Vargas started patting down his pockets but didn’t find one either. “Uh-oh,” he said. “What’s he up to now?”
I looked up from my purse and saw Frank had his orange bus pass in one hand and the handle to Room Twelve in the other. He slid the card into the crack between the door and the jamb and popped it open. For someone who claimed to know it was wrong to indulge in criminal activities, Frank sure seemed to have a knack for it.
When we nabbed him at the scene of the crime, Frank was spinning with joy. “She’s here!” he said. “But she isn’t here. I’ve already looked under all the furniture.”
It was obvious Mimi had taken up residence in Room Twelve. There was an open box of her favorite pencils on the desk alongside two stacks of yellow legal pads, one tall and pristine, one shorter and rumpled. We could see that the top page of the short stack was covered with her handwriting. A cardigan hung from the back of the chair at the desk, and the watercolor of Frank I’d painted her for Christmas was stuck in the mirror frame over the dresser.
“I have a great idea,” Frank said. “We’ll all hide in the closet, and when she comes back in we’ll jump out and yell, ‘Surprise!’”
“That’s a horrible idea, Frank. She’ll have a heart attack,” I said.
Honestly, Mr. Vargas looked like he was the one having a heart attack. He stood behind the desk chair. “This sweater,” he said, touching the cardigan. “This was mine.” He sat heavily on the bed.
“Where’s my mother?” Frank asked. “I’m going out to look for her.” Before I could stop him, he had flung himself out the door. So I flung myself out after him.
I didn’t notice one of my sneakers had come untied until I tripped over its lace and tumbled down the two concrete steps outside the door. It was a real Mack Sennett pratfall that I’m sorry Frank missed, since it would have made him laugh the way I’d always dreamed of making him laugh. When I stood up again I saw Mimi halfway across the courtyard. I didn’t recognize her at first. She was wearing a baseball hat she couldn’t possibly have stolen from Frank because he wouldn’t be caught dead in one. What I guessed were Julian’s embroidered jeans because they were way too big for her. A white T-shirt, no cardigan, since it’s always so hot in the Valley. It was absolutely Mimi though because she had dropped the plastic laundry basket and gathered Frank up in her arms.
“Oh, Frank,” Mimi said. “I love you, Monkey. I’ve missed you so much. What are you doing here? Is everything all right?”
“Everything is all right now, Mama,” Frank said. “You’re here, and so am I. Guess who else is? You’ll never guess so I’ll show you. But first, let’s talk about that hat. Did it belong to Uncle Julian?”
“No,” Mimi said. “I bought it in a drugstore across the street.”
“Good,” Frank said. “That means I don’t have to feel bad about demanding you remove it before I surprise you with who’s here.”
“Is it Alice?” Mimi asked when she pried her eyes off Frank’s face and spotted me.
Frank took the hat off her head and threw it in her laundry basket. “Of course it isn’t Alice,” he said. “I said you’d never guess.”
“Alice, your knees are bleeding,” Mimi said. She noticed that before I did. For a second there I thought she might hug me.
“My knees will be fine,” I said.
But Mimi had forgotten me. She was staring at Mr. Vargas standing in the doorway of Room Twelve. “Isaac,” Mimi said. “It’s you. Oh, Isaac, I’m sorry. There’s no book. I’ve disappointed you. Again.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Mr. Vargas said. “Your manuscript didn’t burn in the fire. Frank had it all along. He saved it for you. You’re going to love this story, Mimi. Why don’t you tell her, Frank?”
“Because I’m very busy now,” Frank said. “You tell her.” It was his big moment of victory, but Frank didn’t seem to care. He’d let go of his mother, pulled out his pocket square, and had come to doctor my injuries. Like grandfather, like grandson. “Ooh, there’s a piece of gravel with a sparkly vein of quartz stuck in your knee,” he said. “Where are my doctor’s bag and forceps when I really need them?”
“Frank,” I said. “Let’s go inside and wash my knees out in the tub.”