Chapter 15 - A Seat at the Table
Nora ran three steps before stopping.
Mara saw the fear cross her face.
A knock was still sometimes a blue door.
Sometimes a van.
Sometimes waiting until the sky went dark.
“Look through the peephole,” Mara said gently.
Nora dragged over the little step stool they had bought together.
Then she laughed.
“It’s the cake man.”
Damon stood outside holding a grocery-store bakery box.
“I was told there was a housewarming.”
Mara opened the door.
“You were told six o’clock.
It’s five forty.”
“I can stand in the hallway and become punctual.”
“Come in.”
The apartment was small.
The couch was secondhand.
One kitchen chair didn’t match the others.
There was food in the refrigerator.
Mara still opened it sometimes just to look.
June arrived with flowers in an old pitcher.
Ruth brought a casserole.
Tessa brought a set of towels and refused to discuss work until after dinner.
Nora inspected the cake.
Chocolate.
Cheap sprinkles.
She looked up at Damon.
“You remembered.”
“Yes.”
Months later, when the cases finally reached their conclusions, there would be no ballroom applause.
Graham would plead guilty to financial crimes and be ordered to repay money, along with a prison sentence.
Elisa’s own plea would end the public insistence that everything had been a misunderstanding.
She would face prison, restitution, and restrictions that kept her from returning to charity leadership.
The recovered funds would cover only part of what had been lost.
The rest would have to be rebuilt.
Tonight, none of that was Nora’s responsibility.
She was six.
She had a bedroom wall to decorate and a slice of cake to claim.
Mara set the dinner plates down.
Damon started to take the chair nearest the door, then paused.
“Where do you want me?”
Nora pointed.
“Here.
You have to sit beside me.”
He sat.
After dinner, Mara cut the cake.
Nora watched every slice go onto a plate.
One remained in the box.
She looked at it, then at her mother.
“Can I save that?”
Mara’s hand stopped.
For a second, they were back in the garden.
For my mom.
Then Nora continued.
“For tomorrow.
After school.”
Mara smiled.
“Yes, baby.
For tomorrow.”
Later, Damon helped carry dishes to the sink.
Mara stood beside him, drying a plate.
“You know,” she said, “I was angry at you for a long time.”
“I know.”
“Not just because your name was on the bill.”
He waited.
“Because you could afford not to know.”
He set a cup in the rack.
“I could.”
She studied him.
“Don’t do that again.”
“I won’t promise I’ll never miss something.”
“Good.
I don’t need a speech.”
“I’ll promise to keep checking.”
From the table, Nora called for them.
She had taken the empty cake box and drawn across the inside with a purple marker.
The letters were uneven.
One word leaned uphill.
Mara read it aloud.
“Food is for everybody.”
Nora nodded seriously.
“That’s the rule here.”
Damon looked around the crowded little apartment.
At June laughing with Ruth.
At Tessa fixing the loose leg on a chair with a folded piece of cardboard.
At Mara standing in a home nobody could make her leave for asking a question.
Then he looked at Nora.
“Good rule.”
She pushed a clean plate toward the empty chair.
“What’s that for?” Mara asked.
Nora shrugged.
“In case somebody comes hungry.”
May you like
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then Mara kissed the top of her daughter’s head and left the plate exactly where it was.
