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I furrowed my brow, stared up at her, her round, deceptively angelic face a mask of confusion.
“Hi, Esther. I?—”
My words were cut off by the tight embrace that she pulled me into. She crushed me against her, holding me as if she never wanted to let me go. And I held her back, tears flowing from my eyes.
“You were going somewhere?” I asked after a long moment.
“Nowhere important,” she said as she pulled back a fraction of an inch to look at me, not smiling but the joy in her eyes unmistakable. “Come in,” she said.
* * *
Fawn
The hours had slid by like minutes, us talking about nothing and everything, the easy camaraderie we’d found in first grade coming back as if it had never been gone.
“You remember Mr. Richards, don’t you? How you were my little accomplice?” she said suddenly, turning her head toward me.
She lay with her back on the floor, ridiculously long legs splayed on the couch, the position one she’d favored since childhood.
“Grams is going to beat your butt if she catches you like that, Esther.”
For the first time in hours, her smile dropped. “Yeah, she would have.” Esther sighed and then sat up, swinging her legs to the floor and then propping against the couch. “She passed about six years ago now.”
“I hadn’t heard…”
Esther nodded. “I know.” Then she smiled. “She always said she knew you’d come back one day. I’m glad you’re here, Fawn.”
I nodded and then tried to lift the solemn moment.
“You know, I always paid for it,” I said, remembering how she’d get me to distract the old man so she could steal candy.
“You did not!” she exclaimed.
“I did. It was the only reason I went along. Why’d you do it, anyway?”
“I had a reputation to maintain then,” she said with a shrug. “It was stupid too because if Grams had ever suspected me of stealing…”
She shivered at the thought, and then Esther lifted one corner of her mouth. “Do you think Mr. Richards was in on it? I mean, stealth has never been my strong suit, but he never seemed to notice,” she said.
“He was,” I replied with a smile.
She just shook her head. “I blame you for all the years I wasted dreaming I’d be a cat burglar.”
Then she bounded up and used her long strides to go to the credenza.
“Look, Fawn!” She returned and shoved a picture into my hand.
I stared at it and then looked back at Esther. “Is that James?”
“I know, right? Little rug rat is in the Coast Guard now.”
“I can’t…” I started but then trailed off. James had been a pesky kid desperate to go wherever his cool older sister did, and now he was grown up. And I’d missed it. Hadn’t been there for any of the big moments in my best friend’s life.
Esther grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight.
“Don’t do that. What matters now is that you’re away from him, that you’re here.” And then her stomach rumbled loudly. “Sorry to interrupt this touching moment,” she said.
I laughed and then my eyes met hers.
