Next Time Away novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Last Stall

I opened the van's back door and crouched, with Greta's carrier swinging against my knee.

"Elsie. It's Tove."

"I know," Elsie said.

"How long have you been in here?"

"A while. Mommy said I couldn't come in till she said." Her voice was very small and very even. "She said you'd say no."

"I'm not saying no."

"She said you hate us now."

"I don't hate you, Elsie."

She looked at me.

She had her dead father's eyes, the same ones as in the photograph on the easel an hour before.

"Are you cold?"

"A little."

"Come inside."

I lifted her out and set her on her feet in the gravel.

Her hand slid into mine without being asked.

Jonas had parked behind the van.

He got out and stood in the snow with his cap pulled low, and Elsie looked up at him with wide eyes.

"You're the boat man," she said.

"Yes."

"Mommy says you're bad."

"Your mommy was wrong about that," Jonas said quietly. "But you don't have to take my word. Do you like cocoa?"

"With marshmallows."

"How many?"

"Three."

"I can count to three," Jonas said, and held out his hand.

She took it.

I watched them go up the porch steps together, a girl in a green sweater and a big man with a scar across his hand, and my throat closed.

Then I put Greta's carrier on the hall bench and went looking for Dagny.

The house was dark except for the nursery.

The door stood open, with the painted ELSIE sign still hanging crooked on its nail.

Dagny sat on the floor inside, in her cream dress, with her back against the wall.

Open suitcases lay around her.

I saw sweaters in them, Elsie's school shoes, a toothbrush in a plastic bag and a framed photograph of the green-sweater Christmas.

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