Chapter 4
I pulled into a grocery store lot before asking Denise to explain.
“She received something from a lawyer on Friday,” Denise said. “I thought you knew.”
“I don’t. Who sent it?”
“She wouldn’t show me the whole thing.”
“Then what did you see?”
“A notice about the children. Marcus, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.”
My first thought was that Nia had filed to change our custody agreement. My second was Eli asking whether I planned to take them away.
“I’ll speak to her,” I said.
“Please do it when the kids can’t hear.”
“I will.”
Nia didn’t answer my first call. She answered the second.
“Did your mother just call you?” she asked.
“Yes. She mentioned papers from a lawyer.”
Nia sighed. “I wanted to tell you after I knew what they meant.”
“Can you tell me now?”
“They’re from the owner’s attorney. The house is being sold. He offered me money to leave early if I sign a release.”
I gripped the steering wheel. “Why did Denise think it concerned the kids?”
“Because I asked a legal aid office about our parenting schedule. If I move to Mom’s, the drive to school gets longer, and I need to know what happens on weekdays.”
“Are you asking to change the schedule?”
“I asked a question. I haven’t filed anything.”
I believed she was telling me what she knew. I also knew how frightened the children had been that morning.
“We need to keep them out of these conversations,” I said.
“I know.”
“I’ll pick them up after school Tuesday if you have viewings. Send me the details.”
She thanked me. Before we hung up, I heard Ava ask for her in the background.
On Monday morning, I called the school office and checked that my contact information was current. Then I emailed Eli’s teacher to ask for a meeting about the assembly and his recent worries. I copied Nia so she would know exactly what I had said.
She replied within an hour. She could meet Wednesday.
At work, I asked my supervisor whether I could leave early two afternoons a week for the next month. I managed deliveries for a building supply company, and the afternoons were usually busy. He looked at the schedule, moved one route, and told me we could try it.
I sent Nia the days I could cover.
She responded with a photograph of a handwritten list of apartment viewings. There were seven addresses. Four were close to the children’s school.
Tuesday, I picked the kids up and took them to the library. Ava needed a book about whales. Eli sat with me at a table and worked on math problems. When he finished, he said he had something to show me.
He pulled a permission slip from his folder. His class was holding a family breakfast on Friday morning.
“Can you come?” he asked.
I checked the time. Eight o’clock.
“Yes.”
He studied me. “You don’t have a truck to fix?”
“I’ve arranged to be there.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble at work.”
“I won’t.”
He nodded and put the slip away. I made a note in my phone, then set a second reminder in case the week got away from me.
After the library, Nia texted that she was running late. I took the children to a diner for dinner and sent her the address. She arrived while Ava was explaining why whales needed air.
“How were the apartments?” I asked when the kids were busy with their food.
“Two were gone before I got there. One had a leak in the bedroom. The last one was decent, but it costs more than I can manage.”
“How much more?”
Nia shook her head. “I’ll work it out.”
“I can contribute to moving costs.”
“You already pay support.”
“That’s for the kids. We can discuss a temporary arrangement while you find somewhere stable.”
“I don’t want money to turn into another argument.”
“Neither do I. We can write down whatever we agree.”
She looked at me for a long moment. “Let me think.”
When I got home, my mother was waiting outside my apartment. She had a container of soup and the unmistakable expression she wore when she had been worrying for hours.
I let her in and told her about the house.
“Poor Nia,” she said.
I looked up.
“Did you think I would blame her for needing help?” Mom asked.
“I didn’t know what you’d say.”
“I’m upset about what she told the children. I can be upset and still care about her.”
I thought about how often I had treated those feelings as if I had to choose one.
Mom put the soup in my fridge. “What does she need?”
“A place near the school. Some time to find it.”
“And what do the children need?”
“To know both of us will be there.”
“Then start with Friday.”
I did.
At seven forty-five, I stood outside Eli’s classroom with a paper cup of coffee and a bag of muffins for the shared table. Nia was already there. When Eli saw me, his whole face brightened.
“You came.”
“I said I would.”
We ate with him while Ava visited a friend’s classroom down the hall. Eli showed us a model bridge he had made. He had built two sides and a narrow piece across the middle.
“It kept falling,” he told us. “So I made both sides stronger.”
Nia reached over and squeezed his hand.
As we left, his teacher asked us to wait. She closed the classroom door after the other families had gone.
“Eli has been worried about more than the assembly,” she said. “Yesterday, he asked whether he would have to choose which parent could come to school events.”
Nia and I exchanged a look.
“We’ve told him he won’t,” I said.
“I’m glad. Keep telling him.” The teacher hesitated. “He also said he might be moving far away.”
Nia’s face went pale.
“We don’t know where we’re moving yet,” she said.
“I understand,” the teacher replied. “I wanted you both to know what he’s carrying.”
Outside, Nia leaned against the wall.
“I never told him we were leaving town,” she said.
I remembered Denise offering her home. “He may have heard us talking on Sunday.”
“Or heard me on the phone.”
We stood in the crowded school hallway with a question neither of us could answer. Eli was listening even when we thought he wasn’t, and each piece he heard had become a frightening story in his mind.
Nia wiped at her eyes.
May you like
“I need to tell him about the house,” she said.
“Yes,” I answered. “Let’s do it together.”
