Chapter 7: The Fall Concert

My mother changed Birdie's phone number and blocked mine.

I found out when I called the house three times and a recorded voice said the number was no longer in service.

Eli texted that night.

"Going through Dad's toolbox at the lake cottage tomorrow. He kept everything. If there's paper, I'll find it."

I wrote back: "I'll be at the school concert on Thursday."

"Why?"

"Because it's the only place she can't tell me to leave."

Carrow Falls Elementary held its fall concert in the gym.

The first-graders sang on the risers in paper crowns, and Birdie stood in the second row.

I sat in the last row of folding chairs with my hood up.

Ostrander Motors had bought the new risers, and a banner said so.

My father waited at the side of the stage in his good jacket, holding a cardboard check as tall as a child.

My mother sat in the front row with a tissue in her hand and Brody beside her.

She had not looked behind her once.

Birdie found me anyway.

She scanned the rows during the second song, and her mouth stopped moving.

Her whole face lit up. She waved with both hands in front of the entire first grade.

My mother turned her head and found me.