Page 72 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition
“Yes, buddy. You’re not in trouble. You can finish watching the movie with Willa. I’ll go talk to Summer.”
“Let me go. Let me talk to her. Okay?”
He studies my face, his forehead and jaw relaxing. “Okay.” He kisses the top of my head.
I go up to Summer’s room, knocking on the closed door before entering. She is lying flat, facedown on her bed. I go to the side of her bed and sit down.
“I’m sorry,” she says, the words completely muffled because they’re spoken into a blanket.
“I know. The thing is, Summer, I think one of the things you’re supposed to ask yourself when you’re decluttering is ‘does this thing bring me joy?’ Right?”
She nods.
“Sit up.”
She slowly pushes herself up and sits next to me at the head of her bed.
“Making perfume brings me joy. And I make it to sell to other people because I hope it will bring them joy too. So it’s not clutter. And besides, it’s mine. You can’t throw out or put away things that aren’t yours without the other person’s permission. Do you understand that?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
We both sigh.
“Are you mad at me?”
“Kind of. But I’ll get over it. Are you mad at me? Because we weren’t paying attention to you during karate class?”
She nods.
“Think you’ll get over it?”
She nods. “He doesn’t pay as much attention to us now when you’re here.”
Oh shit. Dagger to the heart.“That’s not true. That can’t be true. Your daddy pays so much attention to you. He loves you so much, just as much as he always has.”
Her lower lip sticks out.
“Do you wish I wasn’t here?”
“No.”
“You want me to stay?”
“Yes.”
“You just want your dad to pay more attention to you?”
She nods.
“Okay. I’ll send him up. Do you promise to stop throwing things out and hiding them?”
She nods. When I stand up, she says, without looking at me, “You know that thing you said today?”
“When you gave me the painting?”
She nods. “Do you still?”
