A Happy Family Without Me novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Pickup List

Torsten's POV

Fenella's name was on the school's pickup list. Now mine was too, written in her handwriting.

She had gone to a nurses' training day two towns over and could not leave it.

"Three-ten," she'd texted me that morning. "Poppy takes her violin bag, not the piano book. Then Garner's mother's for supper. Thank you."

I wrote back: "No bill."

She wrote: "There's always a bill."

I read that twice at the shop, with a plane in my hand, and a stripe of cedar curled on the floor.

At three o'clock I parked on the street by the elementary school and walked to the gate.

Parents stood in the afternoon sun in their usual clusters.

I knew a few by sight. They knew me as the man from the boat shop who didn't talk.

Then I saw Garner Waldegrave by the flagpole, in his good coat, holding a boy by the hand.

The boy had a bat bag over his shoulder, and his hair was combed flat.

Garner's eyes found me as I walked up.

He smiled, easily, and I knew the smile.

"Here he is," he said, loud enough for the line. "The neighbor."

A couple of mothers glanced over.

"Afternoon," I said.

"Sorry, pal, you can't take her. Poppy's mine on Wednesdays, and I'm taking her to my place. You're not on any list."

"I'm on the list."

"You're not family. You're a guy across the street who's been in my wife's house at night."

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