“You know, we carry around burdens for other people all the time, and we give people our burdens to carry around for us. We do it for many reasons—for friends, for family, for school, for religion. But very rarely do we ask—why am I doing this? I bet you’ll find you weren’t alone in not knowing why you hung on to your flour bag. Most people don’t ever question it; they just do it. Maybe they feel guilty, or like they owe it to you, or maybe they just don’t like confrontation.”

I’d carried around Kori’s, no one even had to ask me, but I also realized I’d been dumping my burdens on others.

I let out a sigh; it was time for that to be over.

“Doc, I am officially turning in my assignment. I got it.”

He nodded, taking Baby Maru, and then he held up Baby Charms. “So what would Kori have done with hers?” His expression beckoned me to conspire with him. “She would’ve done something crazy, don’t you think?” he asked.

I smiled as his eyes encouraged me to share in the excitement. Was I really ready to let go of the last tie I had to Kori?

“Well, come on. What would she have done?”

I laughed trying to think of all the options. I thought of all the fates of flour babies everywhere. There were the ones that had been forgotten in the shopping mall, or dumped with paid-off nannies, or dropped off tall buildings, or left on the roof of a car, or worse. But only one right answer existed for Kori’s.

“I think I know. But I need to do this myself.”

A camel never sees its own hump.
—African proverb

thirty

I walked down the hallway past Dick Click’s classroom; Kori’s bust watched me with a naive calm the entire way. Oh, yeah, this was definitely what she would’ve done. I set down my messenger bag and lifted out Baby Charms. I pressed my lips to it and apologized, then stretched back and let her fly.

It sailed through the air in a graceful arc before smacking straight into the pretty and perfect Korianne’s face. I’d assumed the memorial statue was bolted to the pedestal, and the bust would be solid and able to handle the impact with the grace of someone taking a pie in the face. But when the hallway filled with noise and an explosion of white flour, I knew my fate had been sealed; there was no wussing out now.

One confrontation with Dad coming up, Kor.

When the cloud of white flour cleared, it revealed the damage. Chunky pieces of Korianne’s bust lay at my feet in ruins.

Oops.