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My mother pursed her lips and frowned, a sure sign that something was not actually okay.
“We saw Sam today,” she said softly. “At the grocery store. He works there now. The one over in Wakeby. We had just stopped on our way over to get some of those cookies that Declan likes.”
I nodded. “How’s he doing?”
“I didn’t talk to him,” she said, shaking her head. “No, we didn’t talk to him. He was bagging groceries in another line, and I happened to see him so we just went and did the self-checkout. I think your father wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t. Couldn’t.” She shook her head again. “I didn’t think he’d be able to work. Even something like bagging groceries. That surprised me.”
Sam Powell had been my little sister Marissa’s boyfriend, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks if there ever was one. He’d gotten the shit kicked out of him not long before my sister got sent away, effectively ending their relationship. The beating he took had caused him permanent brain damage, though I had a feeling that if she were alive today, none of that would have mattered to Marissa, and she’d still be with him.
“Do you think I should have talked with him?”
“Only if you wanted to,” I said.
Sh
e gave a short, strangled-sounding laugh. “Wanted to? What would I have said to him? That’s what I said to your father when we were finally out in the car—what exactly was it that he was planning to say?”
“I don’t know, Mom,” I said. I rubbed a hand over my eyes. This wasn’t the conversation I wanted to be having right now. Or ever, really.
I was saved, though, when my father asked me how the practice was going, and we started to talk about that, instead. The conversation then moved on to the weather, to sports, to how Declan was doing in school. And then Declan was up from his nap, a little bleary-eyed at first, his hair sticking up on one side of his head.
“What do you feel like doing for the rest of the day, buddy?” I asked.
“Can we get ice cream?”
“I did promise him we could get ice cream,” my mother said. “We were going to stop on the way home, but I could tell that he was too tired.”
“Too tired for ice cream?” I raised my eyebrows.
“I’m not too tired anymore! Look how much energy I have!”
And Declan shot off my father’s lap and started racing around the backyard like a pinball.
“Must be nice to have all that energy,” my dad said, laughing.
I was about to tell Declan that we could go get ice cream then, but then he must’ve spied Allie, because he shot across the yard and into her backyard, yelling her name.
“Where’s he going?” my mother asked. I stood up.
“Why don’t you come meet Declan’s teacher,” I said.
My mother brightened. “The woman you saved?”
“Yes, Mom, though we don’t need to refer to her as that, okay? Her name’s Allie.”
Allie must’ve been working in the garden, because that’s where we found the two of them when we got over there. She stood up and brushed her hands off when she saw that my parents were with me.
“Nice to meet you,” she said after they introduced themselves.
“We’re going to get ice cream!” Declan said.
Allie wiped at her forehead. “Are you?” she asked. “It’s certainly a good day for it.”
“Why don’t you join us?” my mother asked. “We were just going to go into town and get this boy here an ice cream—it’d be lovely if you joined us. That is, if you feel up to it, of course—I heard about what happened at the fundraiser. I hope you’re all right.”
“I’m fine,” Allie said. “Just a little banged up, but luckily, Cole was there. And I feel much better now.”
“We’re so glad to hear that,” my mother said.
