Chapter 9-How long had he been getting ready?

Clipping of a cartoon: a man in a tootoo skipping and the caption, Desfile un dia, pobrezas todos los dias...
Marina and Ori slid into opposite sides of their usual booth at the diner. “I can't believe I underestimated the amount of copy on the op ed page.” Ori collapsed onto the bench, laughing. “You saved the day with that cartoon we stole from that glossy magazine, with the man in a tootoo skipping.” He wiped away laughter tears. Marina smiled at Elsa, their usual waitress, who brought cafe con leche for Ori and decaf con leche for Marina. “No, you saved the day with the caption. 'Desfile un Dia, Pobreza Todos los Dias.” He nodded,”Let's say it was a collaboration.” But now the laughter was gone. “Sometimes I wonder about that slogan, you know.” He stopped and stared out the window where a man was tossing bundled daily papers onto the sidewalk by the newstand. Marina waited, watching him think. “The people love the Parade and maybe we shouldn't alienate them.”
Marina sipped the decaf con leche. Elsa deposited her over easy eggs and Ori's omelette, and their toast with the butter on the side, just the way they no longer needed to order it.
“Maybe it's not the way for the fish to swim in the waters.”
Ori listened to her, and then smiled. She said, “The Partido doesn't do Mao, I know.” She laughed and Ori laughed with her. After they were done he walked her to her door a few blocks out of his way. She climbed the narrow stairs. Jimmy had been out when she came home from the amanecidas on the last few Thursday nights. She didn't know where he went, maybe even to his old apartment with Marlen. He came back to their place around the time Marina woke up after the all nighter in the middle of the afternoon.
Today she walked into their small living room. Jimmy had built another loft bed for them so that Osmani could have the loft bed in the small side room. This bed he'd suspended from the ceiling over the wooden couch so there were no legs wasting space underneath. He'd built a stair case with pegs jutting out alternately from each side of a piece of railroad tie he'd scavenged from the abandoned docks. The piece of railroad tie had been exactly the distance between the narrow couch he'd built into the wall and the new bed. She sat on the couch and stretched her legs and let her gaze move around the room. She loved the high desk Jimmy had made her from a beautiful veneered door he'd found on the street. Later when she woke up she'd sit to write on the stool Jimmy had rescued and reupholstered when Kwasi decided it was too beat up for the Waterhole.
In the middle of the floor, was the avocado tree. She had been wanting not to look at it. She had seen it the minute she walked into the room but she had been wanting not to look at it. Jimmy had pulled it out by the roots and thrown it there probably many hours ago. The leaves were limp, the roots surrounded by loose dirt.
The first thing she thought to do was call Sandra, who was still be up, winding down from the amanecida.
“My avocado. He killed my avocado.” She threw herself on her knees, and stared at the tree, and cried, deep old tears. Sandra listened until she was done crying. She didn't need to say a word.
Jimmy was gone, and this time he wasn't coming back. She knew exactly where she would find him. She stood, dusted the dirt off her blue jeans and walked toward the door. This time I get to be the man, she thought. She was elated for an instant before a wave of shame made her retch.
She was so tired she felt like she was walking underwater inside a blister but she walked all the way to the harbor to Osmani's secret playground. She got on her knees, crawled under the cutoff fence, and made her way to the warehouse where she'd seen the makeshift home almost a year ago. She pushed open the metal door and stood there looking into blackness. After a few minutes she made out the familiar figure of passed out Jimmy. The bedding was now on a platform. There was a camping stove and a cooler and now as her eyes fully adjusted to the darkness she saw a tent and inside it a cot, Osmani's room. How long had Jimmy been working on his home improvements? How long had he been getting ready to leave?