Chapter 28 — Sitting in the Light

Two months on, her health back and her parental rights restored, Sidonie moved into the duplex Ellard owned down the street.

She packed Percy’s lunch and got it wrong — crooked crusts, too much peanut butter, the container that wouldn’t quite latch.

“Mom, this sandwich is totally squished,” Percy said.

“I’m rusty, buddy,” she laughed.

The next afternoon, at the school gate, she overheard him telling a classmate, proud, that his mom had packed his lunch, that she’d made it herself — and she had to step back to her car so he wouldn’t see her cry.