Chapter 24: My Name on the Door

They wheeled me to the corridor in a chair, with my daughter in my arms.

The nursery window was a long pane of glass at the end of the hall.

Marcy stood on one side of me and Garson on the other.

My father had come, and he stood a little behind us with his hands in his pockets.

Cory was at the far end of the hall.

He had not come any closer.

He wore the gray sweater from the scan, and his hair was wet with snow.

A nurse opened a door and said, "Mr. Kester?"

He turned around.

I held the baby up to the glass.

She was asleep, wrapped in a white blanket, with one fist against her cheek.

Cory walked the length of the hall one step at a time.

He stopped a foot from the window.

He put one hand flat on the glass.

His eyes filled, and he did not wipe them.

He looked at her for a long time.

He looked at me once, over the top of her head.

He mouthed the words through the glass.

They were not "I'm sorry" and they were not "forgive me."

They were "Thank you."

I nodded.

He took his hand off the window.

He walked back the way he had come, and he did not turn around.

Nobody in the corridor said anything.

Then Marcy blew her nose very loudly, and my father coughed, and Garson rested a warm hand on my shoulder.

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