An hour later, it was still there. The cheese had gone stiff.
“Please, Mom. Leave it.”
Around nine, I heard her crying through the wall. I knocked.
“I said I don’t want to talk!”
I stood there with my hand on the doorframe.
I figured Annie had refused the dress. Or said something cruel. Or thrown Lily’s kindness back in her face.
I went to bed thinking that was the worst of it.
I was wrong.
I figured Annie had refused the dress.
***
The doorbell woke me at six.
I stumbled downstairs, squinting against the porch light. A woman stood outside beside a thin girl.
The girl was wearing a blue cardigan.
It took me a moment to understand. That was Lily’s cardigan. Daniel’s cardigan. And the girl wearing it was Annie.
She had her arms wrapped around herself. She wouldn’t look at me.
Something about her face was painfully familiar. It nagged at me, but I couldn’t place it.
That was Lily’s cardigan.
“Is Lily home?” the woman asked.
“Yes, but it’s six in the morning. What happened? I’m her mother.”
Her chin trembled.
“You don’t know why Lily really gave Annie that dress?”
“To help her. Lily told me what’s been happening at school.”
