A spring rain ruined the backyard cake plan the next year and they moved the candles inside. No television. Pam lit the candles. Cole made a wish he did not say. Lisa did not ask. Unsaid wishes were allowed on the shelf. Rick’s gift was a book Cole had named, not a jersey. The book was a good gift. Lisa said so, on the porch, in front of Cole, because credit for a book was not credit for a character and she could spare a sentence. Rick said thanks. He left on time. On time remained the grammar. The rain stopped. The green wall looked duller when wet light hit it. Dull was still safe. She was not ready for a color with an opinion.
Two and a half years after the wings, Cole watched a playoff at Derek’s and texted Lisa the score. She texted back a period. The period meant she had seen it and the house was fine. He came home hoarse from yelling. She did not mind the hoarse. Hoarse was a cheer that belonged to him. The family room could hold a cheer again if it was his. She made cocoa. He fell asleep on the couch in the replica, clean, chosen. She turned the lamp off and left the television off. The room was a room. The phone was in a box. The jersey on the banister was a story he knew and did not have to wear. She sat a minute in the blue-less dark and then went to bed. The next snap of her life was not a threat. It was Monday. Monday she could do.
Pam’s fury cooled into a standing offer: the folding chair, the bad coffee, a guest room if the house got loud. The house did not get loud. It got precise. Lisa said what she knew. Cole asked what he could carry. Rick arrived when the calendar said. Precision was not warmth. It was better than a commercial. Pam said she would take precision. Lisa said good. They split a donut in a parking lot like teenagers and did not call it healing. Healing was a word for a later year.
Mike’s couch acquired a pillow that was Rick’s and then lost it when the apartment opened. Mike said the dog would have hated the apartment. Rick said the dog hated most things. They laughed, short. Laughter was allowed if it did not erase a Sunday. It did not erase it. The Sunday stayed in Lisa’s folder and in Cole’s ears. Ears did not get returned. Rick stopped asking them to unhear. Unhear had been go to the kitchen. That sentence was retired. He did not get credit for the retirement. Lisa had retired it. He complied.