Chapter 11: The Fall

By Friday evening twenty people were in my living room eating pizza off paper plates.

Cody's coach had brought the whole team, and half the parents had come along.

Colleen had called it a team dinner.

She had not asked me.

I came downstairs at 7:30 with my hair wet from the shower and my mother's pearls in my ears.

The house was loud.

Boys in team jerseys filled the sofa, and their fathers stood in the kitchen with beers.

Colleen stood at the bottom of the staircase in a pink wrap dress, holding a tray of paper cups.

She looked up as I reached the landing.

"Jo," she called, bright enough for the whole room to hear. "Could you come down and help me with these? I can't manage all of them."

"I'm coming."

I took the first step.

Behind me, on the landing, Cody stood against the wall with his phone raised.

He was filming the party the way he filmed everything.

I took the second step, and the third.

Colleen turned her head slowly, and for just a moment she looked past me at the room.

She looked at the coach and at three of the mothers.

Then she took one step backward, set down the tray and went down.

She did not fall so much as lie down.

She dropped to one knee, caught the newel post and slid sideways onto the hallway floor with a cry that made every head in the house turn.

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