“You know how we’re the ones who have to reach out?”
“Yeah.”
“She reached outfirst.I didn’t even have to ask questions. She did most of the talking, as usual.” The girls broke into a complicated amalgam of laughter and tears and grabbed one another’s hands. Finn couldn’t help but feel a prickle of envy as she watched them. They had found their mom. She was still looking.
Finn backed away to give them some space. She watched them from the maple as they dug two more holes. By the time all three of them had slipped their feet into the soil, Finn was gone.
When Myron’s truck pulled up to the house, Zadie spotted Finn sitting on the porch steps, squinting in the sun. “Hey,” she said as she dropped down from the cab, “how was the hike?” Zadie, of course, knew there’d never been any hike, but she wasn’t going to askso what did the trees have to say?with Myron in earshot.
“Good” was all Finn said in return. She had that distant look in her eyes again, the one she’d had when they’d arrived the day before.
Myron had climbed into the truck bed with the fishing gear and was handing a tackle box down to Joel. “Will you take that inside for me?”
“Sure thing,” Joel answered.
Myron turned to Finn. “The girls in the house?”
Finn shook her head. “No, they wanted to keep hiking.”
“Hazel and Juniper, too?” He sighed, then grumbled, “I guess I’ll brush the goats myself.”
By the time they’d finished unloading the truck, Zadie heard excited whispers coming from the woods. When the Van Houten girls stepped out of the trees to find their dad glowering at them, their chatter swiftly abated.
“Juniper, I wasn’t joking when I said you have chores to do.”
“I know, but—”
“Why can’t you just do what I ask you to do, instead of turning it into an argument every time?”
“But, Dad! We talked to Mo—” Rowan shot her sister a warning look, and Juniper bit her lip. Zadie thought she saw the girl trembling—from fear? Excitement? It was hard to tell.
Myron’s face was hard. “Hazel, take Juniper inside. I need to talk to Rowan.”
Hazel and Juniper scurried away, ostensibly grateful not to have to face what was likely about to be an unpleasant conversation. Finn quietly excused herself as well and made her way toward the barn. Zadie was about to do the same when she remembered her phone was still in the truck.
Myron trained his eyes on his daughter. “Were you talking to that tree again?”
“That tree?” she snapped. “She has a name.”
“Just answer me.”
Rowan’s eyes glistened. “It’sher,Dad! She wasn’t in the maple, she was in the pine, the one she used to sit on. I talked to her. We all did.”
As quietly as she could, Zadie stepped up into the cab of the truck, but her phone wasn’t on the seat where she’d left it.
Myron closed his eyes and threaded his fingers behind his neck. “Dr. Mallick—”
“Dr. Mallick doesn’t know anything.”
“She said you need to grieve, honey.”
“Why would I need to grieve? She’sright there!” Rowan pointed accusingly up the hillside. “It was her, Dad! How else would she know that Mom’s favorite ice cream was cookie dough?”
“Rowan—”
“Or that she used her fingers to wet envelopes because she was scared of getting a paper cut on her tongue?”
“Rowan, please—”