“Look at me.”
Slowly, she did.
“Why did you keep giving your things away?”
“I didn’t give everything away, Mom.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“Why did you keep giving your things away?”
She looked toward Denise.
“Can we just go home?”
“No.”
Her eyes filled instantly.
Then a girl sitting near the dock shouted, “Tell her about Trail Day!”
Mia spun around.
“Ava!”
The girl grinned.
“She needs to know!”
Mia looked at me.
“Mom, please…”
Denise stopped smiling.
“Tell her about Trail Day!”
And I knew we had finally reached the part she’d brought me here to hear.
“What happened on Trail Day?” I asked.
Nobody answered at first.
Then Denise said, “Mia gave away the one thing she’d wanted most since she arrived.”
And I knew we had finally reached the part she’d brought me here to hear.
I looked at my daughter.
And she whispered, “It wasn’t a big deal.”
