Sarah finally pulled away. “You were my best friend, too.” When Kiki laughed, Sarah didn’t. “Did you think I was going to leave without saying that?”

“I did, actually.”

“Well, you were wrong, all wrong.”

Matthew put his hand on Arman’s shoulder and told them, “I’ll be in touch. Please don’t worry.”

When Leda had done her first cartwheel on that deserted beach in Baja, the sun had blinded Sarah as her daughter flipped upside down. During the second cartwheel, Sarah felt one moment of pure relief when Leda’s pink T-shirt fell over her head and revealed not only a cute yellow bikini top and a fleshier but still-thin belly but also no more belly-button piercing. In that moment of dumb relief that her daughter no longer had a belly piercing, Sarah came closer. She couldn’t take her eyes off Leda: young, lovely, no longer sick with addiction. Then she caught her breath.

Sweetheart, what is that?

Leda was out of breath, smiling. What is what?

Did you get burned?

Leda’s expression changed. She held down the hem of her threadbare shirt. Why are you scrutinizing me?

I’m not. Did you get burned?

No.

Above your hip?

No.

Is it a tattoo?

No.

Let me see it.

Why? You’re being creepy.

Sarah came closer. Behind her daughter, the crashing waves. The nearly blinding sunshine. Leda lifted her shirt with an extravagant gesture. Whether she was being defiant or carefree was impossible to tell.

A square of raised pink skin, a small square, looked—on closer inspection—like two snakes or maybe someone’s initials.

She’d been branded.

SARAH LOOKED OUT the window of the moving car. She remembered again the day she got glasses. A child with a blue suede case. Don’t worry, Matthew had said to Kiki and Arman. It was what he always said. She’d taken off the glasses. She’d returned them to their case.

She wondered what had happened to that woman by the lakeshore. Would she ever learn to swim?

Should Sarah have confronted the man? Told him to stop?

To stop what? Teasing?

Outside: the trees, their blurry green leaves, the endless nothing sky.

There were so many things they didn’t talk about anymore.

seven

MONDAY EVENING

“I’ll make dinner,” she said.

He shook his head. “We’re out of everything.”

“I’ll shop. It’s not that late. I’d really like to cook.”

“I just—”

“Unless you’re starving.” Please don’t leave me. “Are you starving?”

“I’m not starving.”

“Can I have the new house keys?”

He looked at her blankly.

“You changed the locks. I forgot to take a set.”

“Oh, right, of course.” He fished around in his pockets and took out a key ring.