into the shadows where he belonged.
Gracie put the dryer on the lowest setting and in no time at all Sophie's hair was a mass of shiny sweet-smelling curls. There had always been a sadness about Gracie even during her happiest moments but the air of sadness about her that night was almost palpable. The look in her eyes when Sophie took her hand for the walk from the bathroom to the bedroom would stay with Noah for a long time.
"You look beautiful, mademoiselle," Gracie said as Sophie did a pirouette in her pink terrycloth bathrobe.
"Okay, Soph," he said, as he slipped her prettiest nightgown over her head, "time for bed."
"No!" She stomped one tiny bare foot on the thick pale pink carpet. "Not yet!"
"It's late," he said, "and you've had a long day."
"No, I haven't."
"Sophie, I'm telling you—
"No!"
Gracie quietly went into the bathroom and when she came out she was wearing her big floppy coat.
"Don't go!" Sophie cried out. "I don't want you to leave."
"And I don't want to leave," Gracie said calmly, "but if you and your daddy are going to fight, I think I'll go home."
"I don't want to fight with Papa."
"Remember when we talked about how sometimes grown-ups talk real loud because they think that's the only way they can be heard?"
Sophie nodded.
"That's what you were doing."
Sophie looked up at him with big teary blue eyes and he was tempted to run out to Toys R Us and buy her a dozen Barbie's Dream Houses to make her smile again.
"Gracie's right, Soph," he said instead. "But we're both learning, aren't we?"
Sophie was quick to anger but equally quick to forget what she had been so angry about. A moment later he had her laughing again and she was still laughing when he tucked her into bed. He read her another scene from a Harry Potter book while Gracie gently stroked her hair. Then it was Gracie's turn and she told Sophie a story about her brand new cat Pyewacket and his adventures on the road from New York City to Idle Point that actually had Noah sitting on the edge of his seat.
Sophie's eyelids fluttered closed. They waited a moment and then when they were sure she was asleep, starting to tiptoe from the room.
"Does Pyewacket ever go home to New York?" Sophie called out as they reached the door.
"I don't know yet," Gracie said, glancing at Noah. "Pye will have to let me know."
Sophie yawned. "What about my seagull? Did you and Doctor Jim make him all better?"
#
Gracie's heart sank to her feet. She had been waiting for this question and when it hadn't come by lights out, she'd thought they were home-free.
"Did he—?" Noah whispered.
"Yes," she said. "I don't want to lie to her."
"I don't want you to either."
It was a small thing but she deserved the truth.
"The gull was hurt very badly, honey," Gracie said, crouching down at the side of Sophie's bed. "Doctor Jim and I did everything we could to make him comfortable."
"Is he all better?"
"We lost him, Sophie. I'm so sorry. We tried our best but he was hurt too badly for us to be able to save him."
"You mean he's gone?"
"Yes, honey."
"Then I should go find him."
"No, Soph, you don't have to do that," Noah bent down to talk to her. "What Gracie's saying is that the gull died."
Sophie thought about that for a moment. Neither Gracie nor Noah knew just how well she understood the concept of death.
"Where is my seagull now?"
"Doctor Jim has him," Gracie said. "He'll take him back to the beach where he belongs." Nature was unforgiving, at best, but there was comfort to be found in the notion of life renewing itself. At five-and-a-half, Sophie was too young to understand that concept but in time she would.
They waited until Sophie's eyes grew heavy a second time, then slipped from the room. Sophie's pink nightlight was on. Its faint glow spilled out into the darkened hallway. The house seemed very quiet after the Thanksgiving Day commotion.
"Listen," Gracie said, tilting her head to the right. "Not a sound. She's out like a light."
His face was inches away from hers. The look in his eyes was filled with both pain and wonder. "You were great with her."
"I think we speak the same language."
"She's had it rough," he said. "She's been passed around since the day she was born then some guy from another country comes along and says, 'I'm your father, kid,' and takes her across the ocean."
"She's