Chapter 22: Her Name on the Form

On Monday morning I sat in the principal's office with a pen in my hand, as ordered.

Poppy's grandmother sat beside me in her gray coat.

Rupert stood by the door in a canvas jacket and steel-toed boots that still had the store creases in them.

He had a shift at the loading dock starting within the hour.

He had come to the school first.

The principal laid a folded sheet on her desk.

It was the trespass notice, with Lydia's signature on one line and the other line blank.

"I should never have handed this to you," she said to me.

Her hands were folded on the desk.

"I took a signature from a woman who wasn't a parent, and I gave it to a pregnant woman in front of the whole school."

She took the notice in both hands and tore it in half.

Then she tore it again.

"Ms. Tarrant is removed from the pickup list as of this morning. Mr. Ingleby, your signature, please."

Rupert signed where she pointed.

"And a new emergency form," the principal said.

She slid it across the desk to me.

It was a plain printed page.

I had been handed one every September for five years, and every September I had passed it to Rupert to fill in.

The first line said Poppy Ingleby, and the second said Rupert Ingleby, already signed.

Under that were two lines for other adults who could be called.

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