PART 21

The school show took place on a rainy Friday.

I sat beside Elena and Rose in the second row of a brightly painted auditorium.

Willa wore yellow cardboard wings and played a butterfly in a play about seasons.

Halfway through her only spoken line, she forgot the words.

She stared at the audience, her face tightening.

I felt the familiar urge to help from a distance, to signal or mouth the line.

Elena touched my wrist lightly.