“I love your mother. She’s so chill.”

“Mine would be a basket case,” said Fiona. “I’d be taking care of her.”

“What happened to Billy and Carina?” I asked to change the subject.

“She got sick of waiting for him to make a move.”

“He’s got his eye on Lucy Wall now. I said he could aim a little higher on the food chain, but he won’t listen.”

“All our experience and good advice,” I murmured. “Gone to waste.” What was the point in having experience, when I wouldn’t be able to use it now?

Fiona was still standing over me. “How’s Jack, anyway?”

“Okay.”

“Just okay?” I could feel the intensity of her gaze.

“Sometimes I don’t want to see him.”

“You always want to see us,” said Vicky.

“It’s not like you have to do anything,” said Fiona. “He can just sit and look at you.”

“I don’t want him to sit and look at me!” I shut my eyes. There was a lot going on in the darkness. Pulsating lines, and tunnels inside other tunnels, and red shooting stars. “I can’t take the expression he gets.”

“Girls are stronger than boys,” Vicky said at last.

“They are?” Weak was not the word. I was a balloon all the air had gone out of. Halfway through September, we thought I might get to the first part of the march to the White House, but then I landed back in the hospital, and now I couldn’t even get to the bathroom on my own. Sometimes I couldn’t lift my arm to hold a glass. I pictured Vicky flinging her shawl of black hair over one shoulder and exchanging looks with Fiona, who had left my side and would be sitting on the desk chair, hugging her knees. “Guess what,” I said.

“You’re getting married,” said Fiona.

I opened my eyes. She was checking a handful of her pale hair for split ends.

“You’re getting divorced,” said Vicky, scrolling down her phone.

“What, then?” asked Fiona.

“They’re showing my animation at the march. Two whole minutes of it.”

They looked up together and stared.

“Wow, Maddy!”

“Oh my god. You didn’t tell us. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Miss Sedge did it all. Mom signed off on it this morning. We’re going to watch it on TV.”

“What’s the animation about? You never told us.”

“You’ll see. Promise you’ll watch? I’ll be a celebrity. For two minutes.”

“Longer than that,” said Vicky confidently.

“It’ll go viral,” said Fiona. “Eternal fame.”

Maddy,

I have not heard from you in quite a while. Is everything OK in Washington?

Antonio

Hello Maddy,