Page 93 of Dawn Caravan
“This is not…” He closed his eyes and willed the erection away. “Can we not start a conversation about this when we’re here to video call my baby sister?”
“That’s fine,” Tenzin said. “We can talk about it later.”
“Or never. That’s okay too.”
She patted his cheek. “I don’t know what René was talking about. You have a wonderful sense of humor, Benjamin.”
24
“So then!” Sadia leaned on the desk and kicked her legs up behind her. “Kara and Owen were the last ones, and they jumped in the pool and went all the way to the bottom!”
“Really?” Ben shook his head. “That’s really dangerous.”
“I know!” Sadia’s face was glowing as she told them about her swimming party. “All the way in the deep end. That’s where Dema threw the hoops.”
Tenzin said, “The deep end is very deep.”
“I know! But Kara grabbed the red and the yellow ones—those were her colors—and she swam all the way up and she popped up” —Sadia jumped up— “and then swam to the steps, and that’s how she won the race.”
Tenzin asked, “What did she win? What was the prize?”
Sadia lifted her shoulders. “We didn’t have a prize. We were just racing.”
Tenzin frowned. “No prize?”
“That’s cool.” Ben squeezed Tenzin’s knee. No doubt the idea of a competition without something shiny at the end was messing with her brain. “You don’t need a prize. Sometimes racing is just for fun, right?”
“Yeah.” Sadia was bouncing again. “And on the trampoline, I totally won.”
“Of course you did,” Tenzin said. “You are superior to other human children.”
“But I came in last on the bikes since I just got mine and I don’t have practice like my friends. And that’s why I didn’t win in the diving race.”
Tenzin opened her mouth, but Ben jumped in. “Which is fine, because you’re going to ride your bike a lot, right? With Zain and Dema? So you can get better on your bike and have more fun.”
Sadia nodded. “And pretty soon I’m not even going to need the extra wheels anymore and Baba can take them off and then I’ll go” —she pointed her fingers into an arrow and zoomed them across the screen— “superfast!”
Tenzin turned to Ben. “So she is not holding a grudge against her playmates for besting her in the race?”
Ben shook his head. “Everyone is good at different things, Tenzin.”
Tenzin pursed her lips, and Ben could practically read her thoughts. What was the point of competing unless you were good atallthe things?
“It’sfun.” He spoke quietly and grabbed her hand so she wouldn’t say anything more. “It’s fine.”
“Hmm.” Tenzin watched Sadia on the screen. “Sadia, you are taller than the last time I saw you.”
“Yeah, I’m very tall now. When are you going to be in New York again so I can come see the birds?”
“I cannot give you an exact time right now, but I will call you when I reach home unless it’s during your sleeping hours.”
“Good.” She sat in the purple chair at her desk. “Ben are you going to New York too?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll come visit you in LA.” He and Tenzin were both putting off the New York conversation. Technically, the house belonged to Ben, but he’d bought it with the intention of letting Tenzin make it her home, and she had. She’d decorated the second floor, installed a training area on the first floor and an elaborate garden on the roof. Her name wasn’t on the deed, but it was her home.
Yeah, New York was complicated.
Sadia let out a long yawn.
