Seven Times They Chose Him. The Last Time, They Lost Me novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Sketchbook, Taped

My mother came on Saturday morning, alone, in her own car.

She parked at the end of the drive and sat there with the engine off for ten minutes.

I watched her from the barn door with a pencil behind my ear.

When she finally got out, she was carrying a gallon freezer bag in both hands, held flat against her chest.

Aunt Dot came out onto the porch and stood at the top of the steps.

"Janine."

"I want to see Zack. Five minutes. You can stay."

"I'm staying," Aunt Dot said. "Zack, it's your call."

I walked across the yard and stopped at the bottom of the steps.

My mother looked terrible.

She had no lipstick, and her cardigan had no pin.

She looked older, and smaller, and I felt something that I did not want to feel, which was sorry for her.

"I brought you this," she said.

She held out the bag.

Inside were my pages.

They were not whole.

They were a hundred pieces of paper, laid out and taped back together in the right order, each strip lined up against the next with clear tape that shone in the light.

The heron had its eye back.

The tape crossed it in a thin silver line.

"It took me two nights," she said. "I got most of it. There's a part of the barn drawing I couldn't find."

I took the bag.

It was heavier than it should have been.

"Thank you," I said, out of habit, and then I stopped.

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