She Heard Nothing novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Seven O'Clock Bus

The note said: I'll be at the gate until the seven o'clock bus. I'm not asking you to come.

I read it twice in the bunk room doorway while Albert stood with his hands open at his sides.

"Do you want me to go with you?" he said.

"No."

"I thought not." He nodded. "I'll be at the shed, if she asks for me."

Lottie caught my sleeve.

"I'll stand where I can see you," she said. "I'm good at it now."

The morning was cold and gray, and the field smelled of wet grass.

At the far end, by the iron fence, Sabina sat on her suitcase.

She had pulled her hair back with a rubber band and put on a sweatshirt that was too big for her.

She was in the exact spot where her mother's SUV had stood all week.

She heard me coming and did not stand up.

"You came," she said.

"I wanted to see what you'd do if I didn't."

"Nothing." She gave a short, dry laugh. "I'd have taken the bus."

I stopped about four feet away.

I did not sit down, and she did not ask me to.

"You said you'd tell me why," I said. "On the field you screamed it. I'd like to hear it said slow."

Sabina looked at her shoes.

"When I was nine, my aunt said it in the kitchen," she said. "She said, they were so lucky to get Sabina, since Marilyn couldn't have more. I was behind the door."

"I know. You said that already."

"What I didn't say is that I spent seven years being perfect." Her voice was flat. "I did everything right. I was class president. I never said a bad word. I thought if I was perfect enough, nobody would ever bring up that I was picked."

I waited.

"And then I found the form. And it said she had a girl with her eyes, and she had written that part down."

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