Car Crash Neglect Christmas Divorce novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Crosswalk

I went down the front steps in Doran's shirt and my winter coat.

Two men in company jackets were lifting a white crib down from the van, with a mattress and a changing table behind it.

A card was taped to the rail.

I took it down and read it on the sidewalk.

Come home. I'll fix everything. The nursery is waiting. D.

"Ma'am?" the older driver said. "Where do you want this?"

"Back in the van."

"I was told to put it together for you."

"I know. I'm sorry you drove out in the ice."

I tore the card in half and gave him the pieces.

"Tell Mr. Albrecht my daughter already has a crib."

He looked at the card, and he looked at me, and he started loading the crib.

Behind me, Doran stood in the doorway in his jeans with Maddy on his shoulder, watching the whole thing.

"Was that the ex-husband?" he said.

"The future ex-husband."

"Do you want me to do anything?"

"Hold my daughter," I said. "That's everything."

Three weeks later, I went back to school.

I taught half days, because the district said so and because Maddy still woke every three hours, and I parked in the staff lot behind the first grade wing.

The children had made me a banner.

It said WELCOME BACK MS GRUBER in forty different crayons, and a boy in the front row had drawn a baby with seven fingers.

"That's Maddy," he told me. "I gave her extra so she can hold more stuff."

I almost cried into the construction paper.

At three o'clock, I stood at the curb on pickup duty in a reflective vest, with Zelda beside me holding a clipboard.

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