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The sudden pang in my chest takes me by surprise.
“I will answer it later,” I say.
“You should answer it now. It might be important.” Her voice is dry. Her face, pointedly blank. My fingers are still on the band-aid I was about to place on her. She plucks it from me and applies it herself.
“Is there anywhere else that needs attention?” I ask almost desperately.
“No.” She rolls her dress back down and pins her legs together.
I feel her reorienting, clearing aside all the interest that had risen to the surface just a moment before. Gone is the prickly awareness that refuses to be denied whenever we share the same space and breathe the same air.
Now, there’s an icy distance. A clear and abject rejection.
“Mr. Sazuki, I have class now. If you don’t need anything else…”
I stagger to my feet slowly. My gut churns.
Dejonae does not spare me a second glance. Fingers twisting her purse strap, she hurries past me and turns the bend. I see her fast-walking up the path that leads to her music lecture hall.
My phone keeps ringing.
I suck in a deep breath and put it to my ear. “Ashanti.”
“Why didn’t you call me, Ryo?”
“Call you? For what?” I ask, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
“You know I spoke to Niko last night.”
I did. They speak every night.
“And you know Niko told me about what happened at the bowling alley,” Ashanti adds. “So then, you know I’d be extremely concerned and want to discuss why some stranger almost got my baby killed.”
“Dejonae put her life on the line to save Niko.”
“A sacrifice she wouldn’t have made if she hadn’t been involved in the first place!”
Annoyed and trying my hardest not to be, I keep my voice still. “Ashanti, you were not there last night. I am sure Niko told you thatshewas the one who ran into the road, knowing that she shouldn’t. If Dejonae had not acted as fast as she did…”
“Ryo, our daughter hasnevertried anything so impulsive. Where did she learn to do something like that?”
“She is a child.”
“Exactly. She’s susceptible to bad influences.”
“Ashanti, what do you wish to hear from me?”
“I don’t want my child around someone so careless, Ryo.”
“You do not know Dejonae. You do not have a right to judge her,” I say through gritted teeth.
“I don’t have a right? I am Niko’s mother!”
“Yes, but you are nothere.”
A long beat of silence passes.
“Well, maybe I should be.”
