Sophie stared at her shoes.
“My mom kept telling me not to talk about cancer unless you
wanted to.”
“I didn’t want to talk about cancer.”
“I didn’t know what else we had to talk about.”
“I didn’t want to talk about cancer.”
Sophie finally looked up.
“You still think a shark beats a T. rex?”
Within minutes, they were arguing like they used to.
I stood in the kitchen and listened.
Alice had handled the thing I’d tried to handle for her, and she’d done it better.
A few weeks later, after her care team agreed, we tried a short classroom visit.
I packed water, medication, emergency information, snacks, extra clothes, wipes, and the hospital bag.
Alice watched me loading everything.
“How long are we staying?”
“An hour or two.”
She looked at the bags.
“How long are we staying?”
“It looks like three weeks.”
