Chapter 39
Carey walked around in the kitchen carrying May.
“These are my keys. One of them starts the car, one of them—this one here—opens the door to our house, this one opens my office at the hospital. Here are my sunglasses, to protect my eyes while I’m driving to work.
In the winter it’s usually dark when I drive in, because I start doing surgeries at seven o’clock, but near the end of summer, like today, the sun is already low in the east, but it can be very bright.
I’m going to give you back to your mother now.
I hate to leave, but there are people waiting who don’t feel good, and I can help them. ”
He kissed her cheek softly, handed her to Jane, and leaned close so he could give Jane a grown-up kiss. He said to her, “See you later. Love you.”
“I know,” she said. “But I still like it when you remind me like this.”
As soon as she heard Carey’s car go down the driveway, she began to be aware of the sounds of Katie coming down the stairs. She looked at the open doorway, waiting for her to appear.
She came in, her eyebrows knitted and her eyes studying Jane for a reaction.
“Wow. You look great, honey.” It was true.
Katie was lucky that she didn’t have any of the complexion problems that made a lot of teenagers suffer.
She had wonderful black hair that hung straight down her back, and an athletic body.
The new clothes that she and Jane had picked out over the past weeks looked good on her.
Jane knew that last evening Katie had laid out the things she was going to need for her first day of school.
Jane had pretended that she was utterly confident that Katie had packed all the necessary and appropriate things, but after Katie had gone to sleep she had secretly checked her bag.
She saw her printed class schedule, pens and pencils, laptop, phone, notebook, and so on.
Jane had also found protein bars and fruit, obviously put there in case Katie wanted to retreat from the cafeteria at lunchtime.
It had made Jane feel sad for Katie, but she was pretty sure that when she looked in Katie’s bag later, she would find the emergency food was still in there.
“You really think I look okay?” Katie said.
“Better than okay. Definitely. You’re all set—clothes, makeup, everything.
Just remember to smile at people, respond to anybody who talks to you, and be confident.
There’s likely to be nobody in your new school who has lived through anything like the things you have.
You’re as brave and strong as anybody, and very smart. Relax and jump in.”
“Thanks, Jane.”
“What do you want for breakfast?”
“I’ll make it.”
“No, I insist. You hold May and I’ll make you something. How about an omelet?”
“That sounds good.” Katie smiled. “I woke up kind of early, so I’m pretty hungry.”
Jane made Katie’s breakfast, went upstairs for her shower, dressed, and came down to drive her to the Stanhope School.
While she was driving Katie to school, Jane talked to keep her mind off her anxiety.
“I’ll be driving you to and from school until you get your license.
You’re the right age for that. We made your birthday be in August, so we can get you started whenever you want. ”
“I already know how to drive. I got my permit the day after I turned fifteen. That’s the age in Oklahoma, and I was about to take the license test when my grandmother got sick. Then she died and I never got around to it.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Jane said. “I’m glad you can drive, though.”
They talked about other things that had little to do with school all the way until Jane drove up through the tall iron gates to the parking lot of the school.
Other students were already getting out of cars and walking toward the front entrance of the main building, talking with first-day excitement with friends they saw every day and friends who had been away for the summer.
Jane said, “What do you think? I’ll bet it looks a lot like your old school on the first day. ”
“Right,” Katie said. “I’m ready.”
“You can call me if you want.”
“It’s against the rules except in emergencies and stuff.
I’ll call you when it’s over.” Jane watched her as she got out of the car and headed for the front entrance.
Jane inched her car forward in the drop-off line.
The parents ahead of her had to wait for openings to turn onto the street, so the process was slow.
She scanned the high school kids near the front steps and spotted Katie.
There were three girls her age looking at her, and then Jane saw them approach Katie tentatively.
Yes, those were smiles. Katie said something too, and her smile matched theirs.
They all started up the school steps, still talking. Jane exhaled. One win.
Jane moved her car ahead again, and swung out between the gates of the school, looking much the way two or three hundred other parents looked that morning.
As Jane drove toward the expressway, she glanced at May in her car mirror.
“We’re going to do something different today.
We’ll stop and see Jake.” She returned her eyes to the road ahead.
“He went around to all the neighbors and woke them up and made sure they were safe the night of the fire, and timed the 911 call so the fire department got there just at the right time. He’ll want to tell us all about it.
Maybe we can watch the crew drive the big bulldozers through what’s left of the old house, truck the wreckage away, and level the lot, so the ground can go back to being just green land.
“Another day maybe we’ll plant something there.
What about flowering bushes? Or a garden?
The old people used to plant big gardens.
They planted corns, beans, and squash. They called them ‘The Three Sisters.’ We’ll have nearly a school year to think about it, because you have to start those crops in the spring.
They used to figure out when it was time by looking at the first leaves that grew back on the trees, and when a leaf was the size of a squirrel’s ear, they knew it was the right time to plant.
Maybe we should plant blueberry and currant bushes where the old house was right away, and our ‘Three Sisters’ at home, so you and I can tend them and watch them grow. ”
The End