That Thursday, I must have looked terrible.
Mrs. Whitaker was home. She came into the kitchen
while I was mopping the checkered floor.
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“Is Willa all right?” she asked.
I stopped mopping. I hadn’t told her anything. “How did you know something happened?”
“You’ve mopped that same square three times,” she said.
I looked down. She was right.
So I told her. Not everything. Just that Willa had asthma, and we’d been to the ER, and she was
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okay now, and they gave her an inhaler.
Mrs. Whitaker listened. She nodded. She didn’t say oh, you poor thing. She didn’t offer me money. I think she knew I wouldn’t have taken it.
She just said, “I’m glad she’s all right.”