Now Miranda shakes her head, trying to clear away the thoughts. She turns to Grace. “I like your new ’do.”

Grace’s hair is a bright-blue bob. It’s so obviously a wig that it looks like a happy choice. And maybe it is.

“I figure why hide it?” She smiles. “And I’ve always wanted blue hair.” Grace looks healthier than when they were all trapped in the storeroom together. Her face is fuller and there’s color in her cheeks. “They say that, after chemo, your hair can come back completely different, like another color, or supercurly if it used to be straight or vice versa. I figure that after blue hair, it won’t feel as big a change if something happens.” She takes a deep breath. “Can you guys excuse me for a second?”

Picking up the two roses, she pushes back her chair. The others watch in silence as she walks toward the hall where the hostages were penned up. Bending down, she lays one rose on the floor, at the spot where Cole took a bullet for her. A few people watch her curiously, but most don’t even notice her amid the bustle. Then she walks back to the food court, to the place where her mom’s body had lain. This time Grace goes down on one knee and closes her eyes for a long moment.

When she returns, Javier says, “I’m sorry to say this, Grace, but someone’s just gonna pick those up and throw them away. Probably the guy they hired to replace me. Management doesn’t like there to be any reminders of what happened here.”

Before they reopened the food court and the hall, the mall’s owners held an interfaith ceremony featuring everything from a Catholic priest to a local shaman. Prayers were offered, sage burned. And then the shopping resumed.

Right after the shooting, the mall had fired Javier, claiming that they had had no idea that he was undocumented. After an outcry on social media—started by Parker—he had been rehired, in an even better position.

Grace makes a face. “They can pretend it never happened, but I can’t. None of us can. What happened that day is always going to be a part of us.” Her eyes grow wet. “At least I’m still alive to remember. At first I wondered why my mom had to die when I was the one who was already sick. I’m still seeing a counselor to deal with both of those things, and she’s helped me mostly get past that guilt. And of course I’ve got my dad and my sister and my friends to talk to. But they don’t understand what it was like the way you guys do. Cole killed my mom—and then he saved me. I’m still trying to figure out how the same person could have done both.”