“Gradually,” the teacher said.
“Is she safe to be around the other kids?”
My chair scraped the floor.
She heard
Alice’s name.
The nurse answered before I could.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
But Alice had been waiting nearby with my mother and heard enough.
Later, she asked, “Does she think I can give people cancer?”
“Everybody’s going to look at me differently.”
And before I could stop myself, I said, “Then maybe we wait.”
Alice stared at me.
I heard myself too late.
Two days later, Sophie and her mother came over.
The second Alice saw them, she looked at me.
“I asked your teacher a question.”
“I asked you not to, Mom.”
“I was trying to help.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“Yeah.” Her voice went quiet. “And it was mine.”
Sophie stood near the couch until Alice finally asked why she hadn’t signed the card.
