The house did not look like a home her family should live in—but then, no home that didn’t include Allie would seem right. As she approached the front door, she double-checked her dowdy clothes, and her newly styled hair—now auburn instead of the salt-and-pepper it had been. If she didn’t know better, she really would think she was her fourth-grade teacher.

She stood at the front door for what felt like forever, reaching for the doorbell, then pulling her finger back, reaching, then pulling back, until finally she pulled back a little too late, and succeeded in ringing the bell anyway.

Footsteps from inside. The door opening. A familiar face. A little careworn, a little tired, but Allie still knew that face. After three years Allie was standing in front of her mother.

“Mrs. Wintuck, I’m glad you could make it.”

Allie had to keep from hurling herself into her mother’s arms. She had to remember she had a role to play. She was Allie pretending to be a cat woman pretending to be a teacher from New Jersey.

“Please, call me Sarah,” Allie said, and stepped into the house. The foyer opened right into the living room. All their old furniture was there, with a few new additions.

“Make yourself comfortable,” her mother said. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Some water would be nice.”

Her mother went off to get some water, and Allie went to work looking around the room, searching for any sign that her father was still part of this picture, but there was so much to take in, she didn’t even know what she should be looking for. He was in photographs, but then so was she. A high school graduation picture sat on the mantel. It hadn’t even occurred to Allie that her sister, April, would now be away at college. While time had stopped for Allie, everyone else’s lives had moved on.

“I’ve ordered Chinese food,” her mother said, coming back from the kitchen with some bottled water. “I hope you don’t mind; I didn’t get home from work in time to cook.”

“That’s perfectly all right, I’m just glad to be here.”

“We’re glad to have you.”

We! Her mother said we! “So … your husband …”

“He’s picking up the food on the way home. He should be here soon.”

Allie practically collapsed into the sofa, full of sweet relief. So he had survived! If nothing else came from this meeting, at least she would have that! But then—what if it was a new husband? What if her mother had remarried? A sister in college, a new house—a lot can happen in three years. She had to know.

“Was he … badly injured in the accident? I hope not.”

Allie clenched her toes, preparing for the worst of all possible news. Then her mother said.

“It was a difficult rehabilitation, but he pulled through.”