did not, that night, ask. She had decided, before the summer had begun, that she would do this the long way. She would wait for the phone to ring. She would answer it. Then — and only then — she would ask her grandmother questions.
She would do, that is, what fourteen-year-old Esme was good at: she would notice first. She would explain second.
The first three nights, the phone did not ring.
🤖 The author declared this story as written with the help of AI.