"Both are allowed."
They drafted, on a legal pad from the junk drawer, phrases they might use in a message. We recently learned... We do not wish to intrude... Medical history available... Natalie spoke of you with care... No pressure for contact... Elise crossed out with care and wrote with respect. Daniel crossed out we feel obligated and wrote we hope to honor her wishes without creating new harm. The pad filled with revisions. Toby used the reverse of one discarded page to draw a snowman with sunglasses.
Near the end of the week, on a cold early evening much like the one that had started everything, Toby stood again by the fireplace wearing his own hat this time, a ridiculous knit thing with ear flaps. He announced that he was ready for the mountains, not the beach. Daniel smiled from the hearthstones, trail map forgotten on the cushion beside him. Elise, unpacking the last of the groceries they had bought in town, looked at her husband over the boy's head and found, not absolution, but a path with footprints already in it.
"Family meeting," Elise said, and Toby climbed onto the sectional with importance. "Tomorrow we drive home. Before we do, we say thank you to the cabin for holding our hard week. And Daddy is going to tell you one true thing about Aunt Natalie that isn't sad."
Daniel blinked, then understood the assignment. He scratched his stubble, blue eyes searching. "Aunt Natalie once convinced me that if I swallowed a watermelon seed, a watermelon would grow in my stomach and I'd have to eat salad forever to feed it. I didn't eat watermelon for two years. She confessed at Christmas when I was twenty and laughed so hard she spilled eggnog on Mom's rug."
Toby giggled. "That's mean."
"That was sisters," Daniel said. "Mean and love in the same cup."
Elise felt something in her chest loosen by a degree. She said, "And Mommy is going to tell you one true thing. Daddy and I got tangled this week because we were trying to take care of Aunt Natalie's important things. We are untangling. You helped by being brave and asking questions. You did not cause the tangle."