I take a bite of my toast. “So, what’s going to happen on your second day of school?”

“I don’t know.”

“You gonna learn how to be a rocket scientist?”

“Dad, I told you I want to work with animals.”

“Rocket animals?”

“What are ‘rocket animals’?”

“I don’t know. I guess today, you have to learn how to build them.”

“They don’t teach you how to make rocket animals in second grade.”

“Einstein made rocket animals when he was in second grade.”

“Who’s ‘Einstein’?”

I’m clearly failing as a parent.

“Are you gonna make some friends?” I tentatively ask. I want to nudge her in the direction of making some real friends as opposed to the imaginary ones.

“I don’t know.” She shrugs with a little more uncertainty than I’d like.

“You should try,” I say, attempting to be encouraging without being pushy. “It’s exciting, getting to meet all these new kids. A lot of them probably like the same things you do.”

“Maybe,” she replies, looking down at her glass of juice. “What if Peter Sanders makes fun of me, again?”

“Hey, pumpkin, look at me.”

She does.

“You don’t worry about what Peter Sanders says, okay? He’s just a bully. Bullies try to make other people feel bad and do you know why?”

“No.”

“Because they feel bad about themselves. You are amazing, Caitlyn Nicole Price. Peter Sanders ain’t got nothing on you.”

She smiles.

“And, if you work hard this week and we get your homework done right when you get home, we’ll go swimming in the pool this weekend.”

“The pool?”

“Yeah,” I say with a nod towards the window.

“You mean the lake?”

“I thought you said it was a swimming pool.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“I’mmmmm pretty sure you did.”

“No, I didn’t!” she laughs.

“Oh, no. You called it a puddle.”

“Dad!”

“Okay, okay, okay. Fine. Let’s finish up breakfast. The bus is on its way.”

*

I close the front door as the bus pulls away.

After talking and joking with Caitlyn over breakfast, this morning is a lot easier than yesterday.

Before getting to writing, I grab the necklace off my notebook in the Writing Room. Finding it there when I thought I had taken it upstairs last night had really messed with my head, so I decided to have nothing more to do with it.

I carry the necklace up the stairs and into Caitlyn’s room.

The place is a mess, again. All it took was one day for some dirty clothes to find their way back to the vanity. I pick them up, taking a second to check my reflection in the mirror, and then toss the clothes into the closet.

Holding the necklace in my hand, I scan the room.