“I’d like her to know that too.”

We talked about the book she was reading.

I did not produce a telephone and make her listen to ringing as a demonstration of hope.

I checked the arrangements privately, as I had before, and accepted that I could not manufacture an answer.

Two years earlier, she had called a teacher Mom by accident.

She cried in the car afterward because other children had heard, and because the mistake made her miss someone she barely remembered.

I told her that families came in different shapes.