Sarah blinked, then blinked again; she needed to take out her contacts. She remembered being fitted for eyeglasses in the fifth grade. The case was blue. She wore them on the trip home. While sitting in the back seat of the car, she looked out the window. It was as if the world had suddenly announced itself in every leaf on every tree. She hadn’t realized that one could actually see the shapes of leaves, that it was even possible from a distance. The ordinary view was crystalline suddenly and all too much. She remembered now the sound of her father’s gravelly voice and the static on the radio; she remembered returning the glasses to their blue suede case. She’d closed her eyes for the rest of the trip. This, she realized, was how she felt just then.

“Sarah? Did you hear what I said?”

She nodded. “I’ll be right back.” Then she got up and walked upstairs.

Kiki was on the window seat, surrounded by books. She had enormous headphones on, plugged into her phone. From the way her whole body was vaguely grooving, Sarah imagined she was listening to music, but Kiki looked like that even when she was making a list of errands. For all Sarah knew Kiki could be tuning in to a political podcast, a Spanish lesson, white noise.

She registered Sarah standing there and didn’t appear surprised. She took a moment before removing her headphones.

“Sylvie’s sleeping?”

Kiki nodded. “She was exhausted.”

“All that sun,” Sarah said dumbly.

Kiki nodded, unplugging the headphones and wrapping the cord around and around until it was neat and secure.

“And all that tension,” Sarah added. “Of course you’re right about that. I’m sure she felt it.”

Kiki nodded again.

“I’m sorry. And I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to understand why you got in touch.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m sorry. I understand now. I spoke to Arman and I get it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I guess I was so happy when you reached out that it didn’t occur to me to think about why. I’d always wanted to contact you again, but it felt like the window had closed. I was just happy to hear from you. To be honest, I was exceptionally happy. It was overwhelming.”

“What are you talking about? I told you why I finally got in touch. Because we had Sylvie.”

Sarah shook her head.

“Leda was the first kid I’d ever really spent time with. I loved her. I loved being around the three of you. Even if it took me too long to understand this, being around you and Matt and Leda made me think differently about having a family. Why don’t you seem to want to hear that?”

Sarah couldn’t stop shaking her head.

“What are you thinking?”