“Will you make Rice Krispies treats?” Frances asked. “Mom promised me last week she’d do it this afternoon. I was thinking about it all day.”

Joan looked through the cupboards. There was a box of cereal right next to a bag of marshmallows in the baking cabinet, among the chocolate chips and sprinkles.

“Sure thing,” Joan said.

She read the back of the box and then melted the butter and marshmallows. As she mixed the cereal in, she tried to piece together how, exactly, she was making dessert right now instead of doing an aerial flip in a jet.

When the treats had cooled, Joan cut them up and gave one to Frances as she finished her homework.

Frances looked at them. “Mom puts chocolate chips in them.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know that.”

“Can you put them in now?”

“Um…” Joan looked at the treats, considering. “I can try to put some on top, or sort of push a few in?”

“No!” Frances said, growing angry. “I don’t want them on top. I want them all throughout, like my mom makes.”

“Franny, I can’t put the chocolate chips in now,” Joan said. “They’ve already set.”

“Why did you do that?” Frances yelled. “Why would you ruin them?”

“I didn’t mean to,” Joan said. “You know that.”

“You just don’t want me to have them!”

“I do want you to have them, babe. But there’s nothing I can do.”

“Make them again, then!”

“Frances, please calm down.”

“I can’t calm down! I don’t want to calm down! I want you to put the chocolate chips in them!”

And then Frances swung her foot from the stool she was on at the kitchen counter, directly into Joan’s shin.

“Frances!”

Frances did it again.

Joan stared at her, completely shocked. Frances burst into tears.

At NASA, Joan’s job was preparing for every single possibility. It was a system built to eliminate unknown variables. In her work life, she had never felt more prepared and ready to face disaster.

But all Frances had to do was kick her in the shin, and Joan had no idea what to do.

She bent down to Frances’s eye level as Frances continued to scream.

“I want my mom! She knows how to do it! You don’t know anything!” Frances began to flail her arms around and shoved her homework folder onto the floor.

Joan did not know what to do except lean over and put her arms around Frances, holding her tight against her body.

“Stop it!” Frances screamed at her. “Let me go.”

Joan didn’t. She held Frances as Frances thrashed against her. Joan was quiet and steady. Eventually, Frances relaxed into Joan and stopped yelling. She began to cry into Joan’s shoulder. When she finally stopped, Joan pulled back and looked at her tears.