Kate could hear the television in the family room. It blared out the bleep-thump of video games. She let go of her husband and went to the corner, by the hall. “Boys, come on out here.”

“Aw, Mom,” Lucas whined, “we’re watching a movie.”

She wanted to say, Keep on watching; forget it, so badly it actually hurt to say, “Come on, please. Now.”

Behind her, she heard her husband go into the kitchen and pick up the phone.

“Downstairs, Marah. Right now. No, I don’t care who you’re talking to.”

Click.

Kate heard him hang up. Instead of going to him, she went to the couch and sat down, perching stiffly on the cushion’s edge. She wished suddenly that she’d put on a heavier sweater; she was freezing.

The boys rushed into the room together, fighting with plastic swords, laughing.

“Take that, Captain Hook,” Lucas said.

“I’m Peter Pan,” William complained, pretending to stab his brother. “En garde!”

At seven, they were just beginning to change. The little-boy freckles were fading; baby teeth were falling out. Every time she looked at them lately, some baby trait had been lost.

Three years from now they’d be almost unrecognizable.

The thought scared her so much that she clutched the sofa’s arm and closed her eyes. What if she weren’t here to see them grow up? What if—

No bad thoughts.

It had become her mantra in the past four days. Johnny came up beside her, sat down close, and took her hand in his.

“I can’t believe you picked up the phone,” Marah said, coming down the stairs. “That is so totally an invasion of my privacy. And it was Brian.”

Kate counted silently to ten, calmed herself enough to breathe, and opened her eyes.

Her children were in front of her, standing there, looking either bored (the boys) or irritated (Marah).

She swallowed hard. She could do this.

“Are you gonna say something?” Marah demanded. “Because if you’re just gonna stare at us, I’m going back upstairs.”

Johnny started to come out of his seat. “Damn it, Marah.”

Kate put a hand on his thigh to stop him. “Sit down, Marah,” she said, surprised to hear how ordinary she sounded. “You, too, boys.”

The boys plopped onto the carpet like marionettes whose strings had been cut, landing in side-by-side heaps.

“I’ll stand,” Marah said, flinging her hip out and crossing her arms. She gave Kate the old you’re-not-the-boss-of-me glare, and Kate couldn’t help feeling a pinch of nostalgia.

“You remember when I went into the city on Friday?” Kate began, feeling the acceleration of her heartbeat and the slight breathlessness that accompanied it. “Well, I had a doctor’s appointment.”

Lucas whispered something to William, who grinned and punched his brother.

Marah looked longingly up the stairs.