“These belong to Anna. Perhaps you should tell her what happened.”
He held the box carefully.
“I haven’t always been a good father,” he admitted.
“Then you still have choices to make.”
I went home.
Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, coloring a picture of a castle.
“Did you talk to him?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Is he still mean?”
“He understands that he did something very wrong. He wants to apologize.”
She considered that carefully.
“Okay. But I don’t want to go to his house.”
“Then you don’t have to.”
Three days later, Mr. Harrison approached us while we were outside collecting fallen leaves.
He stopped several feet away.
“Lily, may I say something?”
She looked at me. I nodded.
“I’m sorry I refused you candy on Halloween,” he said. “You were polite, and I was unkind. You didn’t deserve that.”
Lily studied him.
“You made me sad.”
“I know. I’m very sorry.”
