Chapter 10
On Lily’s seventh birthday, she asked for a party at home.
I had suggested the park, the science museum, and a place with a room full of trampolines. She considered each one before shaking her head.
“I want everyone to come to our house,” she said. “I want to show them my room.”
So we planned a party in the garden.
Lily chose yellow balloons because they looked like the sun in her drawing. Nora helped her make invitations. Mrs. Flores took charge of the cake after watching me fail to measure flour twice.
Marcus arrived early with Lena and their daughter. They helped hang paper stars between the trees Amelia had planted.
By noon, our garden was full of children. Lily ran through them wearing a crooked paper crown. She stopped often to make sure everyone had a slice of pizza and knew where the bathroom was.
I recognized that careful attention. Amelia had done the same at every gathering.
Nora stood beside me as Lily led a group of friends toward the flowers.
“She’s happy,” Nora said.
“She is.”
“You are too.”
I thought about the months after we found her beneath the hall. I had been afraid of the house, afraid to make a choice for Lily, afraid of everything I had failed to notice.
Now I knew who to call when I needed help. More than that, Lily knew she could call for me and expect me to come.
“Yes,” I said. “I am.”
A little later, Lily took my hand and pulled me inside.
“You have to see something.”
She led me down the grand hallway. She no longer hurried past the place where the rug used to lie. She stopped there and showed me a framed drawing she had asked Mrs. Flores to help hang on the wall.
It showed a small girl holding a wooden horse. Above her were three bright yellow circles.
“One for Mom, one for me, and one for you,” Lily explained.
I looked at the picture.
“Where’s Nora?”
Lily pointed to a shape I had thought was a flower.
“She’s here. I gave her big hair again.”
I laughed.
“Does she know?”
“I’m going to show her after cake.”
Lily reached for my hand.
“I used to think this was the scary hall,” she said. “Now it’s where I found Nora.”
I knelt beside her.
“You were very brave.”
“I was scared.”
“You can be scared and still ask for help.”
She studied my face.
“Were you scared too?”
“Very.”
“But you came.”
“I will always come when you call for me.”
She hugged me so tightly that her paper crown slid over one eye.
From the garden, I heard Marcus call that the candles were ready. Lily grabbed my hand and ran toward the back door.
Everyone sang. Lily made us start over because Noah, her friend from school, had sung the wrong name as a joke. She closed her eyes to make a wish, then blew out every candle at once.
Nora cheered louder than anyone.
That evening, after the last guest left, we sat on the back steps with two small pieces of cake. Lily rested against my side, tired and sticky with icing.
“What did you wish for?” I asked.
“If I tell you, it won’t work.”
“Fair enough.”
She ate another bite, then looked up at me.
“I wished for something I already have.”
I waited.
“You,” she said. “And everybody who came.”
I put my arm around her.
I thought of Amelia’s letter and the promise I had made while reading it beside Lily’s bed. She had needed me to listen. She had also needed the people who loved her to have a place in our lives.
Inside, Nora and Mrs. Flores were laughing as they washed dishes. Marcus called from the driveway to say he had found one last party hat in his car.
Lily waved to him, then leaned back against me.
May you like
The lights of our home glowed through the windows. Her friends would come again. Our family would, too.
I held my daughter close while the last of the daylight faded, grateful that she felt safe enough to wish for the life we had together.
