Page 39 of Denial
“Hey, you ready?” Silas emerges from the shower stall fully dressed. I quickly exit the camera, tucking away my phone as if I just got caught doing something I shouldn’t.
And maybe I shouldn’t have.
But seeing how she handles my kid makes me tolerate Ms. Thompson just a little bit more.
10
Alice
“Six…seven… eight… nine… ten! Ready or not, here I come!”
Merit barks at my mad dash across the playground. Wood chips scatter beneath my feet, giving away my position. Not that it matters. Nellie and I are playing her version of hide-and-seek tag. Even if she knows I’m close, she can just run and try to reach the safe zone, which happens to be the old wooden bench where I tied Merit.
The park is small and quiet. One of those hidden gems only the neighborhood kids know about. Sutton told me that there’s a much newer one on the other side of town, but this one is within walking distance and works just fine for us. Plus, it’s on the way home from school, giving us the perfect excuse to stop.
Little giggles echo through a concrete cylindrical tube painted in purple-and-yellow diagonal stripes.
I slow my jog and breathe in the late spring air. The sun shines overhead in a cloudless sky, reminding me of back home. The weather is hot, but nothing like the scorching Arizonaheat, where a day like today would reach the mid-90s and feel unbearable to be outside.
“Are you behind the slide?” I call loudly, throwing my body around to check the back. I probably look ridiculous to passersby, but her giggles grow louder. She’s the only audience I care about.
“What about inside it?” My muscles burn as I climb the rope ladder to the top and peer down the tube slide. For probably the first time in twenty years, I put my feet in and let gravity pull me down. Air rushes past. Static levitates my hair, sticking it to the edges of the slide.
“Nellie-Jo!” I singsong her name on my trek toward the cylinders.
Just as I anticipated, she sprints out of the other side.
“You can’t catch me!” she squeals. Wavy brown hair fans out behind her, bouncing against her back.
I release a playful scream and sprint after her. The two of us shriek as we tear across the sun-dried mulch.
The slap of her hand against the wooden bench rings out before she collapses tiredly onto her back. Her little feet dangle over the edge, swinging back and forth. Merit swipes her tongue across Nellie’s arm.
“Ew, Merit!” She buries her fingers in her dog’s fur.
“She’s congratulating you.”
“Told you you couldn’t catch me!” Her smile is wide as she pushes her messy hair out of her face with her other hand.
“I’ll get you next time.”
“I don’t think so, Miss Alice. I’m just going to get faster.”
I drop onto the bench beside her and look down into her flushed face. I never realized the ways she favors Sutton. She has his chin, but on her face, the angle is more feminine. The slope of her nose. Those eyes, so much like her dad’s, sparkle.
“We’ll see about that.”
“I’m thirsty.”
“Should we walk back home?”
Nellie nods, pushing herself upright. “Since it’s Friday, can I have a pop when we get there?”
The term throws me, delaying my answer. It takes me a moment to realize she’s talking about a soda.
Nellie tugs on my hand.
“Can I?”
