Chapter 6: Penelope

Grandma opened the door about six inches and kept her cane across the gap.

"Paul," she said. "You told me my granddaughter had the flu."

"Mom, I was trying to spare you."

"From what?"

"From worry." He gave her his customer smile. "May I come in? I brought Penelope. She has something to say to her sister."

Penelope stood behind him on the walk in her skating jacket.

Her eyes were red.

Grandma looked at her for a second, and her face softened a little.

"Penelope can come in," she said. "You can wait."

"Mom."

"Sit on the porch, Paul. I'll bring you a glass of water."

She stepped aside, let Penelope in, and shut the door in his face.

Through the window I watched him stand there with his hands in his pockets.

He did not sit.

"Go on out to the garden, you two," Grandma said. "The tulips came up early. Look at them and talk."

She gave me a small nod that said she wanted my father to worry about me for a few minutes.

The back garden was small and wet, with brown stalks from last year and a row of green spears coming up.

Penelope stopped beside the bird bath and crossed her arms.

She wore her hair in a tight ponytail, the way she did before a competition.

"Dad says you need to come home," she said in a flat voice that sounded like it had been rehearsed in the car.

"Okay."

"You're ruining Regionals."

"How?"

"Mom's crying. Dad's on the phone all night. Nobody can focus."

"I have two triple jumps in my free skate, and I can't do them when everybody is yelling."

"I wasn't the one yelling."

"You left!"

Her voice cracked on the last word.

I waited.

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