But Uncle Paul’s name had opened something.
A door in a hallway I had thought was sealed.
“What time?” I asked.
My mother exhaled.
“Nine?”
“Seven-thirty,” I said. “I have meetings.”
“Seven-thirty,” she agreed quickly.
“I choose the place.”
“Of course.”
“And if you lie to me, I leave.”
She flinched.
“All right.”
I looked at my father.
“Does this involve you too?”
He hesitated.
“Yes,” he said softly.
“Then you should come.”
My mother turned sharply. “But you said just us.”
“I changed my mind,” I said.
For the first time that day, I saw something like respect pass across Derek’s face.
I left before anyone could say more.
Outside, campus was impossibly beautiful. Families posed beneath palm trees. Graduates threw caps into the air. Bouquets wrapped in cellophane flashed pink and yellow in the sun. Everywhere I looked, people were holding one another.
I walked through it all alone, but it did not feel the same as before.
