Page 59 of One Breath After Another

Yeah, they always did.

Penny might like to start doing things for them, too.

But how?

• • •

PENNY WAS ALL TOO AWARE that the last therapy session before she returned to school for the meeting with the caseworker and principal was important. No doubt, a determining factor to a lot of things that still felt like they were just hanging up in the air. So, she was on her best behavior despite still not wanting to be there in the first place.

Her therapist asked questions—she answered them. The doctor wanted to talk, like she always did, so Penny made every effort to try.

It was the least she could do.

Right?

Anything to make this better.

“And things are going well at home?” Dr. Tangler asked. “Roz must be quite far along in her pregnancy. How’s that changing things?”

“Everyone’s excited,” Penny replied.

The woman stared at her over the rim of her glasses. “Even you?”

“Especially me.”

“Really.”

It wasn’t even a question.

That made Penny’s brow dip when she asked, “Why wouldn’t I be excited about the baby? Never even held a baby before, but I don’t know ... I just want to meet him. We all talk about him like he’s already here, anyway. Be nice to actually have him here, you know?”

Dr. Tangler smiled. “I do know, yes.”

“Do you have kids?”

“Two. Both teenagers so they’re ... not quite babies.”

“Oh.”

“You know, that’s the first time you’ve asked about me in all of our sessions together,” the therapist said, shrugging. “Why?”

Penny didn’t really have to think about it. “I was curious.”

“About someone else.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not a bad thing. It’s ... a good indicator that things are changing around you. Maybe inside you, too. You’re starting to see a bigger picture and not your immediate circumstance. You’re looking toward things that are coming in the future. Instead of just trying to deal with what’s happening right now. And I’m sure,” the woman added before Penny could open her mouth and contradict what she said, “that you still have moments where it’s one day at a time—or one breath at a time, even—but it’s not all the time. Do you realize how big that is?”

She hadn’t.

Not until the doctor pointed it out.

“They’ve made a place for me,” Penny replied, “that lets me do ... that. I guess. Naz and Roz, I mean. They don’t ask for much except for me to try. And so I do. Not that I wanted to at first, but then I did. For them, mostly.”

“And now?”

“More for me.”