I had not been paying close enough attention to anything since the lake.
I answered.
“Meryl.” Mrs. Dilmore’s voice was careful in the way voices get when the person speaking has been rehearsing how to say something difficult. “I’m so sorry to call like this. I found something in my desk drawer today — and I think you need to come to the school.”
The room seemed to contract around me. Owen’s sneakers were on the floor where he had left them. His baseball cards were fanned across the desk. Everything exactly as it was, because I could not bring myself to move a single thing, and because moving anything felt like agreeing to something I wasn’t ready to agree to.
“What did you find?” I asked.
“An envelope,” she said. “It has your name on it.” A pause that lasted just long enough to rearrange something inside my chest. “It’s from Owen.”
