Page 136 of The Circle

“Of course I wore it. Thank you,” Andra says, flinging herself around Christine and giving her a hug. She whispers something in Christine’s ear and Christine kisses Andra on the head.

“I love it,” Lizzy says, touching the fabric. “Is it vintage?”

“Yeah, it’s vintage,” Christine tells our other daughter, rubbing her arm lovingly as Christine and Andra share a furtive, semi-private look.

“Where are…?” I whisper as I lean into Danny.

“Plane. Mechanical issue,” he whispers back.

Kak.

“What are you whispering about?” Andra asks.

“Well…” I sigh. “It seems that a special surprise we had for you isn’t going to work out as we had hoped.” She looks at me with curiosity. “Your uncles were going to be here…”

“Along with a band and, like, just… it was going to be a whole thing,” Danny chimes in.

“But, apparently, there has been a transportation issue and they won’t be able to make it tonight.”

“Oh,” Andra says. I can’t tell if she’s disappointed or not. “That’s okay,” she says after a moment.

“We just wanted today to be as special as possible,” Christine offers.

“I know.” Andra smiles. “It is.”

“Christine, hey!” a man calls out.

We all turn to look as one and see a trio heading our way. A group of “khakis,” as Christine and Danny call them. Dad, Mom, and a freckle-faced little girl who looks to be about Lizzy’s age.

“Oh, hi,” Christine responds as they get near.

“Laura told us that Liz invited her to stay over at your house tonight and we just wanted to make sure that was really okay,” the mom says.

“Oh, yeah, sure. That’s fine. We’re about to start the bonfire and once we’ve had cake and whatever, she’s welcome to head with us back to ours.”

“That’s so sweet,” the mom coos.

“Are you Christine’s husband?” the dad asks Danny, extending his hand.

“No,” Danny says, but still shakes the man’s outstretched palm.

“Oh,” the dad says, clearly taken aback. “But… you are Liz’s father?”

“Yeah,” Danny says, offering no more. I see the man squirm a bit as he tries to avoid looking Danny in his one eye.

“And this is my other dad, Alec. And my sister, Andra. It’s her birthday. She’s the one we’re having the party for,” Lizzy says.

She could have said anything after “my other dad, Alec” and it wouldn’t have mattered. The second those words left her mouth, I saw the couple stop listening and start staring in my direction.

I nod. “Bru.” I nod at his wife as well. They are both working hard to understand and also refrain from asking the myriad questions I can see running through their mind.

Accidentally, completely without meaning to, I notice that we have encircled them. The five of us. We are standing around these three, trapping them in, inadvertently holding them hostage by the shape of our quintet.

“Okay, cool,” says the mom. “Oh. You know what? I just remembered that our flight got switched.”

“What?” Laura, the daughter, asks.

“Oh, shoot, you know, you’re right,” the dad says. “We got an alert a bit ago and I totally forgot. We’re now supposed to leave much earlier in the morning. I don’t think you actually can spend the night, kiddo. We have to get to the airport tomorrow.”