Chapter 19 - THE FIRST BORING SATURDAY
Three months later, Mia woke at 7:12 on a Saturday morning and did nothing heroic.
She did not check a baby monitor.
She did not count bottles.
She did not listen for angry footsteps.
She walked into the kitchen wearing dinosaur pajamas and asked for pancakes.
Erin almost cried.
“Chocolate chips?”
“Too many.”
“That sounds medically serious.”
Mia grinned.
Caleb banged a spoon against his high-chair tray.
He was healthy now.
Loud.
Hungry.
Perfectly ordinary.
Erin had started work again part-time. The insurance money remained protected. The house was being sold after the criminal case released it from evidence.
Travis had accepted a plea agreement that included prison time and restitution. Carol faced probation and had agreed to treatment and no contact unless the court later approved it.
None of that fixed childhood.
But it created space for one.
Mia’s therapist had given her a job that sounded easy and wasn’t.
Every day, she had to name one thing that was not her responsibility.
On Monday: Mommy’s bills.
Tuesday: Caleb crying.
Wednesday: Grandma being sad.
Thursday: grown-ups fighting.
Friday: keeping everybody alive.
Erin had to leave the room after that one.
Saturday morning, Mia carried her old gray rabbit to the table.
She opened the tiny zipper pouch Erin had sewn into its belly.
The two quarters were inside.
Erin looked at them.
“You want to put those in your piggy bank?”
Mia shook her head.
“I want to keep them.”
“Why?”
Mia thought carefully.
“Because I used to think they were the reason Caleb got help.”
“And now?”
“Now I know I was wrong.”
Erin smiled.
Mia pushed the coins back into the rabbit.
Then the doorbell rang.
She froze.
Old fear flashed across her face.
May you like
Erin did not tell her to be brave.
She simply said, “You stay here. I’ll answer it.”
