“Just now.” He glances at me.

“Well,” Mom sighs. “I’ve been talking to Dennis. And to add to all this…mess,” she pauses. “I’m afraid he’s due to leave the country tomorrow.”

Oliver and I exchange glances.

“Well…he’ll have to cancel, won’t he?”

I mean, he obviously can’t leave Sam right now…

“Well, he really can’t,” Mom says. “You know how important his work is, Gillian.”

Granted, Dennis’s work is pretty important. He does something—I’m not quite sure what, I just know he’s pretty high up the ladder—in the humanitarian field, and every now and again he’ll have to fly at short notice to Haiti or Afghanistan or South Sudan or somewhere. It kind of reminds you to put things in perspective—I mean, this guy literally saves lives for a living.

Even so, on this particular occasion…

“You’ve seen the news, Gillian,” Mom says. “What’s going on in Myanmar, it hardly bears thinking about. His experience is needed on the ground.”

“But…what about Abigail?” I say. “What about Sam?”

Mom shakes her head. “You know your sister, Gillian. She’ll be back in a day or two, expecting us all to get over it and act like nothing happened.”

I sure hope so, I think. I can’t help but feel Mom’s reconciled herself to this latest stunt of my sister’s quicker than I have. She’s still taking it seriously, right?

“And, well,” Mom goes on. “We were thinking, since it’s the school holidays…maybe Sam could come up here for a few days.”

I feel my eyes widen, and across from me Oliver’s do the same.

“Up here? Sam?”

“Well, I’d thought perhaps I could go down to Westchester,” Mom says, “but that drive really takes it out of me, with my back how it’s been lately.” She looks between Oliver and me. “And to be honest, I think it would be better for Sam this way—getting him out of that house altogether, you know. More of a distraction.”

“Right…” I say, absorbing all this. Because here’s the other thing: Mom’s been doing renovations on her kitchen for the last six weeks, and keeps talking about how her house is a building site. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t intend for Sam to stay with her.

Mom eyes me. “Your sister will have to start answering our calls sooner or later.”

I wonder then if that’s part of her plan; that Sam being up here will coax Abigail home faster, hostage-style.

“I mean—” I glance at Oliver. “We’d love to have Sam, but…”

Mom nods rapidly.

“Oh good, good. Dennis will be so relieved. And that poor boy—it’ll be much better for him up here. That big house in Westchester, it’s so cold, you know.”