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“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you, Elijah.” Mrs. Cade is full-on crying now. “I should have been there. We should have taken you in, honey. I’m so sorry. I’ll never forgive myself.”
I put my arm around her shoulders. Elijah’s lips move like he’s trying to figure out what to say.
“You’re here now,” he says after a moment. “And I really appreciate it.”
The ten minutes fly by entirely too quickly, and soon a warning flashes across the computer telling us our time is almost up.
“You’re going to be okay,” Mrs. Cade says, wiping her eyes with the fifth tissue she’s grabbed since this call began. “I can’t wait to meet you in person.”
“Same,” Elijah says. For a quick moment, his grin looks just like Sasha’s, and I can practically feel Mrs. Cade thinking the same thing.
“I’ll call you again tomorrow,” I say.
“You let us know if you need anything,” Mrs. Cade says, as if he’s at a hotel and not locked up in prison.
He chuckles. “Okay. Thank you.”
***
The day before Elijah has to be at the courthouse to meet the judge (which has been expedited thanks to Mr. Cade), Mom makes us two gigantic bowls of ice cream and we eat it together while we watch Mean Girls with Sasha’s commentary playing next to us on the end table. I close my eyes when Sasha talks, grateful that her voice will never fade from my memory. Something tells me I’ll still be watching these things when I’m old.
Although I’ve shared a few of Sasha’s adventures with our parents, most of them — the important ones — I’ve kept to myself.
“Do you have your outfit picked out for tomorrow?” Mom asks, digging her spoon into vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate syrup.
“Yeah, the navy blue dress. Does that look court-ish?” This isn’t exactly a court case like in the movies, but Mr. Cade has arranged a hearing with the judge to plead Elijah’s case. He explained to us that most good lawyers push this off as long as possible to delay sentencing, but he wants a fresh start for Elijah. So he pushed it forward. He’s obtained character references from the Reinharts and people who worked at Elijah’s old group homes. It only took a few minutes of the tough Texas lawyer’s time to convince Anthony to admit that Elijah never dealt drugs with him or his other roommates. Mr. Cade says we’re going to win this one. We’re all going to the courthouse to show our support.
“I like the navy blue dress.” Mom’s lips curve up as she eats another spoonful. “I think you look very beautiful in that dress.”
I lift an eyebrow. “That doesn’t really answer my question.”
Her eyes flit over to me, the look on her face waking up the butterflies in my stomach. “I just thought you’d like to know.”
The look she gives me is new for us. She may not have said it directly, but she’s talking about boys here. These are the kinds of things I always reserved for talks with Sasha. But now I guess these topics are finding their way into my relationship with my mom.
“Thanks,” I say, feeling heat rush to my cheeks. On the computer beside me Sasha says, “None for you, Glen Coco!” before collapsing into giggles.
“So,” Mom says a few minutes later. “There’s only one adventure left?”
I nod, stirring my chocolate and ice cream until it’s a uniform color. “No telling when it will arrive. I’m not ready for them to be over.” After that first envelope arrived, I thought I’d go crazy waiting for the rest of the adventures. But now that it’s almost over, I find myself hoping the time will pass slower, the mail will take longer and this final adventure from Sasha won’t come until I’m fully ready to say goodbye.
Mom watches Sasha’s face on the computer screen and then she turns to me. “I’m sure she’ll make it a good one.”
At night, while I’m lying in bed unable to sleep because the courthouse meeting is tomorrow, my phone chimes from my nightstand. Reaching over, I see that it is 12:01 in the morning, and I have a new email from TheFutureSasha.
Hey there favorites,
The time has come to end this adventure. I think it’s only fitting to end by showing you the best day of my life. This one beats out every bad day I’ve ever had.
Well, what are you waiting for? Watch the attached video!
Love you and miss you both,
Sasha
The video attached to the email is practically glowing with how badly I want to watch it. I should wait for Elijah, probably. But if this is the best day of her life, I don’t think Elijah would fault me for my lack of patience.
I play the video.
