Then she tried again.
“If you want to know where the picture came from, I’ll tell you here. Or I can show you. Or I can leave.”
It was the first thing she’d said all evening that didn’t feel chosen for me.
“I can show you. Or I can leave.”
I grabbed my jacket.
“Take me to the library.”
Claire changed out of the green dress without another word.
***
Twenty minutes later, we were standing beneath the fluorescent lights of the Pine Street branch.
The adult section looked completely unfamiliar.
The children’s room didn’t.
The adult section looked completely unfamiliar.
Smaller than I remembered.
Much smaller.
I walked slowly past the shelves until I found the back corner.
“There used to be a blue rug.”
Claire pointed. “Right there.”
Now it was gray.
I sat at one of the little tables.
My knees barely fit underneath.
Now it was gray.
Claire stayed near the doorway.
I looked around.
Then I saw a display of adventure books.
And another piece came back.
Nora slamming a book shut.
Me accusing her of skipping three pages.
Her telling me I was just slow.
I saw a display of adventure books.
I laughed before I meant to.
Claire didn’t ask why.
“She cheated,” I said.
“Oh, constantly.”
“She skipped ahead.”
“Also constantly.”
“I hated that.”
“She knew.”
I looked over at her.
Claire smiled, but it wasn’t really at me. It was at somebody who wasn’t there.
“I hated that.”
I hated how much that hurt.
“Was she sick?” I asked.
Claire glanced toward the doorway before answering.
“Yes.”
There it was.
The thing she’d been carrying toward me for six months.
“How sick?”
“Was she sick?”
“She had a chronic condition from childhood. That summer was one of the better stretches.”
“So she came here?”
“Every week she could.”
Claire walked over but stopped on the other side of the table.
“She hated people asking about her health before they asked her name.”
“That summer was one of the better stretches.”
I looked at the empty chair beside me.
“I didn’t know.”
“That was why she liked you.”
I gave her a sharp look.
“Don’t turn me into some saintly eight-year-old.”
Claire almost smiled.
“You weren’t. You made her cry once because you said she cheated at Uno.”
“That was why she liked you.”
“Did she?”
“Absolutely.”
Despite myself, I laughed.
It lasted maybe two seconds.
Then the harder question returned.
“What happened to her?”
Claire pulled out the chair across from me.
“Can I sit?”
I nodded.
She sat.
“What happened to her?”
