Chapter 14: The Voice Memo

Dot made Brittany sit at the end of the kitchen table, the farthest chair from me.

She put a mug of coffee in front of her without asking how she took it.

"Drink," Dot said. "Then say your piece. If it's another video, I'll put you down the stairs myself."

"There's no video." Brittany held up her empty hands. "My phone's in my pocket, face down, and it's off the table. I wanted you to see that."

Keir leaned in the doorway with his arms folded and said nothing.

I sat across from her with my father's photograph in front of me.

"You have one minute," I said.

Brittany reached into the other pocket and pulled out a second phone.

It was old, with a cracked corner, the kind you keep in a drawer.

"I record everything," she said. "I know that's what everybody says about me. It's true. I record Mom, too, because she's good content."

She tapped the screen.

The sound was thin and muffled. I heard a spoon against a cup, and then Bernadette's voice, low and quick, without any church in it.

*"When she's at the counter, you say shadow. It has to be you, Brittany. It can't come from me."*

*"Mom, that's mean."*

*"It's a joke. It's a joke on camera, and the comments will do the rest. Film from the left so my pearls show."*

*"What if she cancels the tickets?"*

Bernadette laughed.

*"With what? She has forty dollars. Stanton will say 'Mom' once, and she'll cry in the car, and we'll be in Rome by noon."*

Brittany pressed the screen and the kitchen went quiet.

I realized I had been holding my breath, and let it go slowly.

The coffee in the mug in front of Brittany was steaming.