“If this apology matters,” I said, “you need to apologize to Sophie too. You aimed a phone at her baby brother. You embarrassed her mother in front of her. She gets an apology too.”
Karen nodded again.
Sophie studied her for a second.
Sophie came to the doorway, suspicious in that blunt way I’d loved about her since she was barely a toddler.
Karen cleared her throat.
“I am sorry,” she said. “I should not have recorded your family. I should not have spoken to your mom that way. And I should not have made a baby into part of my argument.”
Sophie studied her for a second.
Then she asked,
The next weekend, I took both kids back to the same beach.
“Did you learn not to record people’s babies?”
Karen winced.
“Yes,” she said. “I learned that.”
Sophie nodded once.
Karen left a minute later, still awkward and quieter than before.
The next weekend, I took both kids back to the same beach.
When Oliver got hungry, I sat beneath the umbrella and fed him.
I brought the same umbrella. Sophie brought two shovels because she said one castle might become a whole city.
When Oliver got hungry, I sat beneath the umbrella and fed him.
The blanket was beside me, but I did not pull it over myself like armor.
I just fed my son.
After a while, she held up a dripping shell.
Sophie dug a second moat and talked to herself about bridges.
After a while, she held up a dripping shell.
“The tower needs one more,” she said.
“Then give it one more,” I told her.
For the first time since Oliver was born, I did not wonder whether I was enough for both of them.
