Work Text:
Keith is four years old the first time he remembers going on vacation with his dad. He remembers sand, white and powdery under his feet, crystal blue water, and a boy with brown skin the color of coffee. Not the dark black color like the coffee his dad drinks, but the light brown coffee with lots of cream and sugar his dad lets Keith drink. His eyes are the same color blue as the water and Keith is mesmerized. Keith’s eyes are blue but they’re a dark grayish blue, almost a purple color like the sky right before a really bad thunderstorm. He also remembers the boy has lots of brothers and sisters but when they talk he doesn’t understand them, but that’s okay because he likes the soft melodic voices of a language he doesn’t understand. He’s only four but he becomes friends with the boy. They teach each other words and make up their own language of half Spanish and half English, and by the end of his vacation Keith cries because he doesn’t want to leave his new friend Lance. His dad promises they’ll come back next year.
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Keith is five years old and he starts school in August, but his dad is taking him on vacation again. It’s the same place they went to last year and he learns the name of the small island is called Cuba. He learns where it is on their small globe. He also wonders if his friend Lance will be there. It turns out, Lance lives in Cuba. His family owns the house where Keith and his dad are staying. They rent it out for people who want to stay there on vacation. Keith’s dad talked to the owners and paid ahead of time for their vacation. His friend Lance is getting better at some of his English words, and Keith is learning some Spanish. They still don’t quite understand everything the other is saying but that’s ok. Lance teaches Keith how to make sandcastles and he watches Lance’s older brothers and sisters as they surf the waves. Keith is fascinated with the soft brown color of their skin and how different it is from his pale skin. He wonders if it’s as warm as the coffee his dad lets him drink. It looks like it would be warm.
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Keith is six years old and when he sees his friend Lance they laugh and hug. He’s missed his friend. They both talk so fast neither of them can understand each other, but that’s ok. Keith’s dad lets him sleep on the beach with Lance and all his brothers and sisters. They hunt for hermit crabs in the moonlight, they watch the stars, and Keith is fascinated by the coolness of the sand at night. It’s so different then the warmth of the sand during the day. Lance teaches Keith new words like Abuelo and Abuela, Tio and tia, agua for water, Papa and Mami.
Keith feels his bottom lip tremble when Lance points to his mama, “Mami!”
“I don’t have a Mami.”
Lance doesn’t understand and his Mami explains to him. He hugs Keith and tells his Mami that he’ll share her with Keith and she can be his Mami too.
~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~
Keith is seven years old and he’s so excited to give his address to Lance. They can now write back and forth to each other during the school year instead of waiting until the summer to talk to each other. Lance is excited too. He’s learning English in his school and he’s getting better at understanding Keith. Keith is getting better at learning the Spanish words Lance has been teaching him as well. Keith’s dad also agrees to let Lance’s brothers and sisters teach him how to surf that summer. Keith doesn’t do so well the first few days and he’s tired of swallowing half the ocean. But he eventually manages to stand up on some of the smaller waves. Everyone cheers for him.
Keith’s dad lets them stay out late one night and teaches them the constellations. They find books and stare and stare at the pictures of the stars. They dream of space ships and flying through the stars.
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Keith is eight years old and he and Lance are inseparable. They’ve written so often during the year Keith was afraid they wouldn’t have anything to talk about over the summer. Just like the beginning of every summer they are so excited to see each other they laugh and hug and don’t let go for a very long time. Keith’s dad and Lance’s parents have become great friends, Keith feels like he has more brothers and sisters than he ever thought possible, and Lance is his absolute best friend in the whole wide world. There’s a new aquarium and Keith’s dad takes him and Lance. The boys are amazed at the different fish they see. Lance loves the sharks and he gets so excited he forgets to talk in English. His words are a jumble of English and Spanish and Keith just laughs because he likes when Lance smiles big enough to make his cheeks hurt.
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Keith is nine years old when his dad doesn’t come home. He waits after school just like he’s supposed to, but he’s late. His dad is never late. One of the teachers sits with him until it gets dark.
Keith doesn’t go on vacation that year.
He’s in a foster home and other than some of his clothes the only other thing he brings with him is a stack of letters. He asks if he can send a letter to his friend Lance in Cuba. He’s able to send one letter before he’s sent to another home. He’s never in one place long enough to know if Lance is able to write back. He doesn’t know if Lance misses him as much as Keith misses him.
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Keith is twelve years old when his foster dad at the tenth or eleventh house he’s put in burns all of his letters. Keith decides at twelve years old he hates everyone.
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Keith is twelve years old when he meets Shiro at one of the big brother programs. He tries to hate him but no matter how angry Keith gets, no matter how many fights Keith gets into at school, no matter how many times Keith comes back with cut up fists and a bruised face he doesn’t send him away.
Keith over hears Shiro talking to his boyfriend, or his fiancé, about keeping Keith. He doesn’t get his hopes up because no one ever wanted to keep him before so why should this time be different.
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Keith is fifteen and Shiro and Adam are now his legal guardians. The system won’t let him be adopted because they have stupid laws about two men adopting a kid, but that’s ok because Shiro tells him that being a legal guardian is as close as they can get without actually adopting Keith. At fifteen Keith learns to take what he can get.
Keith is fifteen when Shiro and Adam decide to celebrate becoming Keith’s legal guardians. They remember everything he’s ever told them about vacations in Cuba and his best friend Lance. They weren’t able to find the family or the house that Keith described but they found a vacation home from where they think is only a few blocks away. When Keith steps foot on familiar sand and sees the crystal blue waves it’s the first time he cries since he was told his dad died.
Shiro and Adam walk up and down familiar streets with Keith until he finds what he’s looking for. But the house is no longer there. So many houses that Keith remembers are gone, destroyed by a hurricane several years earlier. The family that used to live there moved away and no one knows where they are now.
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Keith is fifteen when he realizes he will never see his best friend again. It’s like losing his dad all over again. He never asks to go back to Cuba, never asks for another vacation.
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Keith is twenty one and he’s about to finish his senior year at NYU. He’s volunteering at the YMCA with the big brother program and tutoring some young kids in Spanish. He’s leaving late one afternoon when he runs into someone knocking all of their books out of their hands. He apologizes and helps them up but before he can get a good look they’re off and running with a wave and a quick thanks. Keith is stunned as he stares at the back of the young man because he swears he has skin the color of coffee that his dad used to let him drink and eyes the same color blue as the ocean. But before he can call out, he’s gone. He heads to his small apartment to finish up a few assignments and before long he’s forgotten all about the encounter.
Two weeks later Keith is waiting in line for coffee. He’s next in line and the person in front of him is grabbing their order and turns around and slams right into Keith. He’s covered in coffee but he can’t stop staring at the face in front of him. Blue eyes are darting back and forth over Keith’s ruined shirt, “Dude, I am so sorry! God I’m such a clutz I’ll pay to have your shirt dry-cleaned. Did I burn you or anything?”
Keith just stares and stares. Finally he snaps out of his daze and stutters, “Um…sorry..um this is awkward and you’re gonna think I’m crazy but is your name Lance?”
The guy stops his rambling and finally makes eye contact. Something flashes in his face, maybe recognition, maybe uncertainty, but it’s something, “Do I know you?”
Keith runs a hand across the back of his neck, “I don’t know, but you look like a friend I had when I was younger. It’s probably not you and I’m sorry for bothering you. Sorry, my name is Keith.”
The guy, Keith thinks it’s Lance, drops his coffee. He stares at Keith, “You used to vacation in Cuba every summer.”
Keith can’t catch his breath, it can’t be true. Could he have possibly after all this time found Lance? “You told me I could share your Mami because I didn’t have one.”
And Lance smiles. Keith knows it’s Lance because there’s no one else in the whole wide world that can smile as big as Lance. And it’s just like they are five or six years old again. They laugh and hug and maybe this time there are a few tears. Lance buys another coffee and buys one for Keith as well. They find a corner booth and talk and talk. Lance tells Keith about reading his letters and writing back but never knowing if Keith got them. He tells Keith about the hurricane and losing everything. He tells Keith about moving to a small town in Connecticut that was so different from Cuba he cried every day for the first five months. Keith tells Lance about his dad dying, about the shitty foster homes, and about Shiro and Adam. He tells Lance how Shiro and Adam took him to Cuba to help him find Lance, how they supported him and encouraged him to go to college. They talk until the small coffee shop closes and they make their way to a twenty-four hour diner and talk until the sun comes up. They talk until they both lose their voices.
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Keith is twenty seven when he makes it back to Cuba. He’s dancing with his feet in the warm white sand and he’s smiling at a boy with eyes the same color blue as the ocean. He’s surrounded by family; Shiro and Adam are there as well as all of Lance’s family, all of his brothers and sisters as well as Lance’s Mami and Papa. They are now Keith’s family too.