“How did you feel when Ms. Porter stayed there?”
Mara answered:
“Fine.”
“Then mad.”
“Why mad?”
“Because she left without saying goodbye.”
That ended up mattering more emotionally than legally.
Celeste’s petition was withdrawn after the evaluator found no basis for an emergency custody change.
Donovan told Mara after school.
She stood in the kitchen with her backpack still on.
“So I don’t have to go live with Mom?”
“No.”
“I mean, you can visit whenever you want.”
“But nobody is changing where you live.”
Mara nodded.
Then:
“I was scared.”
“I know.”
“I said mean stuff.”
“You said true stuff while scared.”
“That’s different.”
Mara looked at him.
“Are you still mad at Sabine?”
Donovan thought.
“Yes.”
“Do you still like her?”
He stared.
Mara waited.
“You have math homework.”
“That means yes.”
“It means algebra.”
Mara smiled for the first time in days.
Sabine returned eleven days after the board reinstated her.
Saturday morning.
No assistant.
No company car.
No warning.
She stood at the bottom of the exterior stairs.
Mara appeared first.
Sketchbook under one arm.
She stopped halfway down.
Sabine did not climb.
“I owe you an apology.”
Mara sat on the stair.
“Okay.”
Sabine looked up.
“I left without telling you.”
“Yes.”
“I convinced myself that was protecting you.”
“It wasn’t.”
“I know.”
Mara rubbed her thumb along the edge of the sketchbook.
“My mom does that.”
“Leaves?”
“Decides what I can handle.”
“Then disappears.”
Sabine looked as though Mara had struck her.
“I’m sorry.”
“You said you’d tell us if things changed.”
“I broke that promise.”
Mara’s jaw tightened.
“I thought if I didn’t like you too much.”
“It wouldn’t matter if you left.”
Sabine stayed quiet.
“But I liked you anyway.”
Mara continued.
“And then you left.”
Sabine’s voice became softer.
“I was afraid of how much I didn’t want to leave.”
Mara looked at her.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It barely makes sense to me.”
Sabine said.
“But it’s true.”
She paused.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me immediately.”
“I’m asking whether I can stop disappearing.”
Mara thought.
“If you’re going somewhere.”
“You say it.”
“Yes.”
“Even if you think we’ll be mad.”
“Yes.”
“Even if Dad says something annoying.”
From the doorway above, Donovan said:
“I’m standing right here.”
Mara ignored him.
Sabine almost smiled.
“Even then.”
Mara moved over.
A few inches.
Space on the stair.
Sabine climbed.
Sat beside her.
Neither spoke for a while.
Then Mara opened the sketchbook.
Sabine looked.
House.
Wide porch.