Ali was glad to go if it meant not being in the same room as Andrew Sloane. She leaned over the banister and watched him follow her mother downstairs. But yelling at Andrew Sloane hadn’t made things better. Her anger was replaced by shame and regret. Alfie wouldn’t want her to be mean to his grandfather. Maybe she wasn’t so different from Andrew Sloane after all.

Forty-Four

Ali was five years old before she understood that not everyone’s father could change into other things. She and Digger had gone to the park on a hot July day to cool off in the wading pool. When they’d arrived, no one was around, so Digger had changed into a short-haired terrier—it was too hot to be his usual collie/black Lab self—and romped with Ali in the shallow water. They splashed and chased each other for twenty minutes, until a mother and her little boy appeared and caught Digger unaware.

Digger couldn’t change back into himself in front of them, so he scampered off behind a stand of pines. The mother was horrified to find Ali unattended; when Digger emerged from the trees seconds later, she berated him for ten minutes, threatening to call the police and child protection, telling him what a horrible father he was. Digger didn’t defend himself, just let her work through her righteous indignation.

“But Digger was here,” protested Ali on his behalf. She didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

The mother patted Ali on the head. “A little girl can’t be cared for by a dog,” she said, which confused Ali, because she was cared for by a dog all the time.

Ali sat on the edge of the wading pool and drew figure eights in the cool water. “What does your mama turn into?” she’d asked the little boy, who’d taken a seat next to her. He was chubby cheeked and sprinkled all over with freckles.

“Nuthin’,” the boy said, “’cept sometimes she changes from nice to mean.”

“Not good,” Ali had said, upset on his behalf.

The boy shrugged. “Nope.”

Later, when Digger carried her home on his shoulders, Ali asked why the little boy’s mother couldn’t change into something fun, like a dog or a bird or a horse.

“Some people have special abilities and some people don’t.”

“She was mean.”

Digger shook his head. “She was a good mother. She was worried about you. If everybody worried about other people’s children like she worried about you, this would be a very different world.”