Chapter 21: Monday Morning

On Monday morning I walked my daughter to the front doors of Dunmore Elementary myself.

I held her hand the whole way, and she let me.

The principal was waiting in the lobby.

She was a tall woman with reading glasses on a chain, and she'd been avoiding my eyes for two weeks.

She did not avoid them now.

"Mrs. Ellery," she said. "May I speak to you privately?"

"You can say it here," I said. "Pippa should hear it."

The principal took a breath.

"Mr. Ellery called me on the third of November," she said, "and asked me to put a note in your file that you were unwell. I put it there."

"I know."

"I should have called you first. I should have asked what happened at that event." Her voice was not steady.

"I've removed the note. I've shredded my copy. I'll say so in front of the PTA, if you want me to."

"Thank you," I said. "I don't need the PTA."

"Pippa." The principal bent a little. "I'm very sorry. You've been carrying a lot."

Pippa looked up at her with Connor's mother's flat steadiness.

"It's okay," she said. "You didn't know."

"I should have."

"Yes," Pippa agreed. "But it's okay."

The principal's mouth twitched, and she straightened.

At the door of the sixth-grade room, a girl in a purple coat was waiting with her backpack on both shoulders.

"My mom says your mom is a hero," the girl announced.