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I failed to see the correlation between the mouse-inspired Pokémon and a reptile, but fourth graders were always trying to find themselves and figure out their place in the world. Who was I to say any different?
“We made paper airplanes,” Katie chimed in. Katie was only a half day at her kindergarten right now, but they seemed to be packing a lot into that half day. “Mine flew the farthest. It went zoom across the grass.”
“That’s amazing, sweetie,” I said to her, petting her soft blond hair. “You had to be really proud of yourself.”
She nodded and proceeded to stick half of a pancake in her mouth. I would have corrected her, but honestly the mood was so good, I didn’t want to start any negativity.
“How do you guys like Haley?” I asked.
“She’s nice,” Ben said.
“Yeah, I like her,” Katie added.
My eyes turned to my oldest, who was downright full of opinions–totally like her father–and would certainly have something to say.
“Leann?”
“We will see,” she said with a very mysterious air.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “What in the world does that mean, Lee?”
“It means,” she said, stirring the syrup around on her plate, “that I haven’t completed my investigation.”
“Investigation, huh?” I said, now completely enthralled by her. She was definitely her mother’s daughter. She didn’t get wit like that from me.
Leann nodded. “Can I be excused?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Put your plate in the sink.”
“Did you hear that Haley is a Lympian?” Katie asked.
“Olympian,” I corrected. “And yeah, I guess I did know that. Though she’s not an Olympian quite yet. She just won the race. That means she gets to go.”
“Ohh…” Katie said, her little brain clearly trying to understand what in the world all that meant. “Is she gonna go away?”
I thought about it for a moment. I supposed if Haley rehabilitated and got back to a racing speed that was comparable to her qualifier, then yes, she would leave. I found a little ache in my stomach at the idea of losing the first nanny that the kids had gotten along with.
“We will just have to give her a good reason to come back, won’t we?” I said to the two younger kids. They nodded and finished their breakfast, leaving me with the question–
How much longerdidwe have Haley?
Chapter Nine
Haley
“Ihear what you’re saying,” I told Dr. Harzel. “But I was out there, standing beside the ski lift. I couldn’t even think about getting on, let alone actually skiing.”
Dr. Harzel gave me a friendly smile, and it made me want to punch her. I wondered if she had ever been through something horrifying enough to need this kind of assistance.
“The thing we need to figure out, Haley, is what you’re so afraid of–”
“Death,” I said loudly. “Death is what I’m so afraid of. The feeling of the snow slowly crushing me. Of hearing people talking only feet away and having no way to tell them I am there. The cold, the way the minutes slowly ticked by. These are all the things I’m afraid of.”
Dr. Harzel went wild scribbling on her pad of paper, and it went quiet between us. I suddenly felt raw and exposed, and I longed to end the call and crawl under a rock.
“I appreciate your honesty,” she finally said. “This gives us a great place to start.”
“Start?” I asked her.
