The Forget-Me-Not Summer by Leila Howland

on the sheet and the blue blanket was all bunched up at the bottom of the bed. Marigold was asleep, one arm flung dramatically over her head, the other resting on her heart. Zinnie walked downstairs in her pajamas and saw Lily standing on a chair over the stove, pouring pancake batter out of a ladle onto a black griddle that was frothy and hissing with butter. Aunt Sunny, already dressed, stood beside her. She was guiding Lily’s hand as she poured three small circles of batter. Zinnie’s mouth watered in response to the delicious smell of almost-burning butter.
    â€œGood morning, Zinnia,” Aunt Sunny said. “There’s juice on the table, and the tap is perfectly fine for water. Blueberry pancakes will be up shortly. Youryoung sister is doing a fabulous job here with the last few. How’d you sleep?”
    â€œFine,” Zinnie said, and poured herself some juice. “Do you know how to make champurrado?”
    â€œShampoo what now?” Aunt Sunny asked.
    â€œNot shampoo!” Lily said, laughing. “Champurrado.”
    â€œIt’s a Mexican drink. Kind of like hot chocolate?” Zinnie said.
    â€œI’m afraid not, but maybe you can teach me,” Aunt Sunny said.
    â€œOnly Berta knows how to make it,” Lily said sadly.
    â€œWe might be able to find a recipe online,” Zinnie said. She paused for a moment, her mind half remembering something odd, something she couldn’t quite grasp. “Oh, I had a weird dream.”
    â€œTell us,” Aunt Sunny said as she put a plate of blueberry pancakes in the center of the table. “People have claimed to have had wonderfully vivid dreams in those beds.”
    Zinnie sipped some orange juice and tried to remember. “There was a fairy there, flying in the darkness.”
    â€œPoetic,” Aunt Sunny said, “perhaps spiritual.” She used her hands to distribute the pancakes among four plates. “Was this fairy friendly or threatening?”
    Zinnie put her orange juice on the table. “Wait, there were two fairies. One good and one evil.”
    â€œAh, two sides of life, the light and the dark,” Aunt Sunny said.
    Zinnie was thinking about this, about how she sometimes felt she was probably the nicest person in the world, like when she’d helped Lily into her Pull-Ups last night and assured her that sometimes even big girls needed a little extra protection, but also how just twenty-four hours earlier she’d enjoyed stealing Marigold’s friend. Light and dark. It was a lot to think about over blueberry pancakes. Just then Marigold traipsed down the stairs in her T-shirt and leggings.
    â€œGood morning,” Aunt Sunny said. “Come join our feast. Then I thought we could go to the beach for a swim.”
    â€œNot Lily,” Zinnie said. “She’s afraid of the water.”
    â€œIs that so?” Aunt Sunny said. “Why?”
    â€œWhen I was little, a big wave knocked me over and I went tumbling and rolling and I couldn’t breathe . . . and I almost died,” Lily told her, saying the last bit in a whisper. “My daddy saved me.”
    â€œTerrifying,” Aunt Sunny said. “That California surf can be a beast.”
    â€œShe was caught in the undertow,” Marigold said. “And she hasn’t been in the water since.”
    â€œOh, no,” Aunt Sunny said, “How frightening.”
    â€œBut that’s okay,” Lily said. “Because my nanny, Berta, doesn’t swim either.”
    â€œWell, then, Lily can build a sand castle. Or she could stay here with me and work in my garden, and you girls can walk into town and see what’s what,”Aunt Sunny said. “I’ll draw you a map.”
    â€œWe can go by ourselves?” Zinnie asked.
    â€œSure,” Aunt Sunny said.
    â€œIt’s just that back in L.A. only I’m allowed to walk to the neighborhood stores without an adult. Zinnie needs a