Chapter 22: Say Her Name

On Saturday the counter read 3, and Roxanne knocked on the door of the Newcombs' motel room.

I stood behind her with Elias.

She had a check in one hand and her mother's wheelchair handles in the other.

Mrs. Rowe was in the chair in a coat that was too big for her, pale and thin and alive.

"I asked to come," her mother said before anyone could speak.

Mrs. Newcomb opened the door and looked at the two of them.

She didn't ask them in.

"Eighteen thousand dollars," Roxanne said, and held out the check.

"It's what the dean's office paid the hospital for me. I sold my car to pay it back. I want you to have it."

"For what?" Mrs. Newcomb asked.

"For nothing. For her. I don't know."

"Say her name."

Roxanne's hand began to shake.

"Corinna," she said.

"Again."

"Corinna Newcomb. She was my friend."

"Again."

"She was my friend, and I walked away from her," Roxanne said, and her voice broke. "I'd give you the years back if I had them."

Mrs. Newcomb's face did not change.

She took the check, folded it once, and put it in her coat pocket.

"I don't forgive you," she said.

"I know."

"I may not for a long time."

"I know."

"But you came to my door and said it to my face," Mrs. Newcomb said.

"That is more than the grown people did."

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