The bakery clerk handed the young woman a white cardboard box, and she smiled, her fingers still twisting that single lock of blonde hair. She turned toward the front registers without looking at us, her high heels clicking against the clean linoleum.
“Toby, what did you say?” I asked, dropping to one knee so my face was level with his.
“The lady,” Toby said, pulling his rabbit closer to his chest by its gray flannel ear. “She has the pretty blue necklace. She plays in your bedroom.”
I looked back at the cake aisle, but she was already passing the floral department, her small frame disappearing behind a row of autumn mums. My hands were suddenly cold against the plastic handle of the shopping cart.
The gravel in my mother’s driveway on Woodmont Boulevard crunched under my tires at exactly a quarter to five. I kept the engine running, the steady vibration of the station wagon humming through the steering wheel as I unbuckled Toby from his car seat.
“Grandma has the special wooden blocks ready on the porch,” I told him, keeping my voice as flat as I could.
My mother, Martha, stood near the front steps, her heavy gray cardigan pulled tight against the autumn breeze. She stepped down onto the concrete walk as Toby ran past her, his brown rabbit trailing along the grass.
“You are late, Nora,” my mother said, her eyes moving from Toby to my face. “You said you would drop him off by four.”
“Got held up,” I said, my hands gripping the top of the open car door. “At the store.”
My mother stepped closer, her sharp eyes scanning my face, then my fingers. I was gripping the metal frame so hard my knuckles had turned white, and my shoulders were shaking under my blue clinic scrubs.
“You are white as a sheet, Nora,” she said, reaching out to touch my forearm. “What is wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” I said, stepping back toward the driver’s seat. “Just tired.”
“Nora, you do not look tired,” she said, her gravelly tone softening just enough to make me want to cry. “You look like you are about to fall over.”
“I have to get home,” I said, sliding behind the wheel. “Gregory will be waiting.”
“He can wait ten minutes for a cup of tea,” she said, her hand still holding the edge of my door.
“No,” I said, putting the car in reverse. “I need to go now.”
The master bedroom was completely quiet when I let myself back into the house. The low autumn afternoon light filtered through the heavy linen drapes, casting long, dark shadows across the mahogany dresser.
I walked straight to the dresser, my nursing clogs loud on the hardwood floors. On top of the polished wood sat my mahogany jewelry box, a heavy piece with brass fittings that Gregory had given me when Toby was born.
