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I nodded.

“We’re going to get you checked,” he told me. “Your mom’s meeting us.”

I wanted to say that everybody was making too much of it.

I had been about to say that for the last twenty minutes.

Every time I looked at Chief, I couldn’t.

He got up when we came into the hall.

So did Sadie.

“I’ll text you,” I told her.

“You’d better,” she said. She squeezed my hand carefully, avoiding the scrape.

Chief took my bag from her before I could.

Dad watched him do it. He didn’t object.

The three of us walked out together.

At the last set of doors, I stopped to push the heel of my shoe back into place.

Chief turned so fast he nearly hit me with my own bag.

“I’m fixing my shoe,” I told him.

His eyes dropped to my foot. Then came back to my face.

“Okay,” he said.

Dad held the door. Neither of them hurried me.

I wished they would.

Outside, the courtyard looked exactly the same. A few discarded napkins moved beneath an empty table. Sun lay across the brick edging.

I didn’t look at the oak.

Chief walked on that side of me anyway.

At Dad’s car, he handed over my bag but kept hold of the strap for a second after Dad took it.

“I’ve got her,” Dad said quietly.

Chief let go.

I climbed into the passenger seat.

Before Dad shut the door, Chief bent enough to see me.

“Keep your phone on,” he said.

“I will.” I tried to smile.

He looked at the attempt like it hurt.