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We went back to our sticker fun. I drew some lily pads, filled them with frogs, and wrote my name on the paper with a crayon. By the time I had the fifteen-billionth frog on there, the stress of the day had fallen away.

The theme of the night was animals, which I loved. They had a dress-up area where I got to put on a cow costume. Abbott picked a chicken, and Rowan was a kangaroo. He was the cutest. We were even able to put a stuffed animal in his little pouch, like a joey.

It had been a long time since they had a dress-up area, and I was there for it. We kept those costumes on as we built with blocks, used a sensory table they had filled with corn instead of sand, and had a snack, which included animal crackers and bananas.

I was having such a blast that I didn’t want to leave. It was time. Dog was waiting for me, and I needed to figure out what to do with my bike. As much as I enjoyed kicking all of that down the road earlier, it was time to get back to it and deal with it.

The others were going to stay a little longer, so I went back to change by myself, keeping my froggy-on-the-lily-pads drawing with me. Putting my street clothes on helped a lot with getting big again. Once I checked out and got my phone, I called for a rideshare. One that could be there in a half hour that had a big enough vehicle to carry my bike. It was hella expensive, but I called for it immediately and sat down.

I replayed the evening in my head, not the bad stuff with my bike but the fun part with the stickers and the blocks and making animal noises as Ms. Lily read us a book about visiting the zoo.

The rideshare was late. It wasn’t a shocker, given the time of night. When he pulled up, he rolled down his window. “You, the one with the bike, are you Lake?”

I nodded.

“Why do you have that?” He pointed to my busted bike.

“Because it’s broken, and I need to go home. That’s why I ordered this extra-extra-large vehicle.”

“Yeah. That’s a no-go.” He didn’t even pretend to care. “You need to cancel on your end.”

“Why do I need to cancel?” He was here, and his vehicle was huge. I didn’t see the problem.

“Because I’m doing food deliveries and don’t have room for it.”

“But I’m not the one canceling. You are.”

He growled. Who the heck growls? “Fine. I’ll cancel.”

They weren’t supposed to do food delivery with rideshares, but sometimes you had to make a dollar. I wasn’t going to begrudge him that. I still hated that I was stuck.

I’d known it was going to be a crapshoot whether I was able to get a ride home with my bike. It still sucked. It was late. I was tired. Dog was home waiting for me, and I had an early morning. This was not a great way to end my night.

I propped my bike up, not bothering to lock it. What was the point? I went inside, thankful that Rico was there.

“Hey, neighbor. My bike is busted, and the rideshare couldn’t get it home. Any chance it’ll fit in your car?” He probably still had a few hours on his shift, but waiting him out was better than trying rideshare after rideshare.

“A coworker picked me up today,” he said. “I need a new muffler.”

Now that he mentioned it, I half remembered hearing his car the other day.

“Oh, well, thanks anyway.” Another rideshare crapshoot it was.

“Hey, wait. I have a friend who could probably bring it for you.”

“You think they would just do that?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure.” He jumped over the desk. “Come on. Let’s go get it. I’ll keep it safe and make sure it gets back to you. There is a place I can lock it up out back, if he needs to come get it after I’m off.”

Rico was little like me. He didn’t have a daddy, either. I wanted to have him over to play, but our schedules never seemed to work with him mostly on nights.

I called another rideshare. This one promised to be quicker because I picked soonest available and not a car type. I hated the idea of leaving my bike behind but felt better knowing that Rico had it, that it was inside, and that someone he trusted would be taking care of it.

It wasn’t the first time I wished there had been more of a connection between Rico and me. But there wasn’t, and you couldn’t force that. No good would ever come from it.

When I finally walked to my place, I was exhausted. Dog picked his head up, looked at me, then went back to sleep. I was glad because I wasn’t in the mood to take him out just yet. It would probably mean a 3 a.m. walk, but that was all right. Because right now, all I wanted to do was curl up in my bed and go to sleep.

Chapter Five