Chapter 5: Lamb for Five

Desmond invited them for Saturday dinner on Friday night, after I had already bought the groceries.

"Just the team," he said, rinsing a glass.

"Jocelyn, and Annie too. The girl's alone in this city, Natalie. It's a kindness."

"Of course," I said. "I'll make the lamb."

He glanced at me, surprised that I hadn't argued.

I roasted the lamb.

Junie set the table with the good napkins and put a crayon drawing at Annie's place.

It was a rabbit.

"Where did you see a rabbit?" I asked her.

"Annie told me about hers," Junie said. "She had one when she was little."

I straightened a fork that did not need straightening.

They arrived at seven.

Jocelyn came first, in a camel coat, with a bottle of wine under one arm and a kiss for my cheek.

She had a key to our house and had used it for years.

Annie came behind her, in a dress I had seen in the window of a shop downtown, with her hair down.

It was too nice for a woman who sent her rent money home.

Junie ran to her.

Annie knelt and opened her arms and said, "There's my girl," and Junie sank into them.

I watched my daughter's face over Annie's shoulder.

Then I went to the kitchen and counted slowly to ten with my hands flat on the counter.

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