At competitions, Cecilia would scan the bleachers for him.
As she grew older, the lessons, skate sharpening, and competitions fell to me. Dawson worked long hours at an insurance office. I worked changing shifts at a dental clinic.
At competitions, Cecilia would scan the bleachers for him.
“He’s working,” I’d say.
“I know.”
Eventually, she stopped looking.
“Maybe it’s time I started showing up more.”
The hardest part wasn’t explaining his empty seat. It was watching her pretend she hadn’t noticed it, even when she had saved him a place beside me.
At thirteen, she and Dawson hardly talked. So when I was assigned evening shifts for a month, I worried about asking him to drive her.
“I’ll do it,” he said. “Maybe it’s time I started showing up more.”
The first Tuesday, they returned laughing over his terrible taste in music. On Thursday, he bought her favorite strawberry milkshake.
