Page 82 of But For You

“You—he⁠—”

“Come sit down, Randall.” Dane placated him as I opened the front door and then closed it behind me.

Sometimes, it didn’t pay to apologize to people.

“His shoes were made of seagull?” Kola asked me on the ride home from Dylan’s house. “That’s gross, Pa.”

“Yeah, I know.”

At the grocery store, we had to pick up milk and other various items.

“Hannah,” I called out in the cereal aisle when the distance between us was getting too great, “how far is too far?”

She turned and looked up at me. “If you can’t reach out and touch me, that’s too much.”

“Right.” I extended my hand.

It was funny how she walked backward until my palm touched her back; I thanked her for respecting my wishes.

“Nana says that you thanking me is bad, that I should just do what you say.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think she’s right, but I like it when you say thank you.”

I took Hannah’s hand as I watched Kola do some weird contortionist walk. “Why is he doing that?” I asked her.

“He doesn’t wanna break your back by stepping on a crack.”

“But you don’t care if you break my back?”

“I think you’d be broken already if it was a real thing. I think it’s like demons.”

This was new.

“What demons?”

“Suzy said that demons come up from hell through the floor and get you when you sleep.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But the floor is hard. How could they come through?” my daughter wanted to know.

“It’s an excellent point.”

“So, things like that, I don’t think they’re real,” she said, putting the topic to bed.

“I suspect you’re right.”

“On Saturday, after the movie, can we go to the aquarium?” Her mercurial mind flicked around even faster than mine.

“Why?”

“The dolphins,” she said flatly, like, What else could it be?

“We can ask everybody else, but I was thinking we’d go to the park.”

“Oh, the park is better. Never mind. You’re very smart.” She beamed up at me.