The Empty Lot Field Guide

The sign arrives first.

The sign says COMING SOON. Under the big letters is a drawing of a building that looks nothing like the lot behind your apartment. In the drawing, there are neat windows and two small trees. In the lot, there are milkweed stems, a crooked path, and the brick where Jo always parks a bicycle that nobody is allowed to touch.

Leena reads the smaller print through the fence. Malik takes out a notebook. Jo says signs never include the important parts, like where the sparrows go. You have a disposable camera with seven frames left, a borrowed field guide, a piece of chalk, and the last Saturday before school begins. Monday appears on a survey stake in red.

Mrs. Rosa comes down the apartment steps carrying a watering can. “You four have something to do today?” she asks. Jo points at the sign. Mrs. Rosa studies it for a long moment. “Then start by finding out what it means,” she says. “And don’t forget to ask what the place means to other people.”