She ran at recess.

She raised her hand and got things wrong and laughed about it, all of it without first checking the room for permission — and that, more than any arrest or settlement, was the thing I had gone to war for.

Chapter 30 — The Art Show

I was standing in the gym at the annual Spring Art Show, the room loud with parents and the smell of cheap punch, when Bernadette and Birdie came through the doors.

Birdie was in a bright yellow dress.

She spotted me, let go of her mother’s hand, and barreled across the gym to wrap her arms around my waist.