Chapter 22 - The first meeting
Silas decided whether contact restarted.
Not in the legal sense.
I remained the parent.
But practically, his comfort mattered.
At seven and a half:
“I want to see Grandma.”
“Why?”
“I want Astro fixed.”
The astronaut.
Still one-armed.
We arranged a therapist-guided meeting.
Millicent entered quietly.
Silas sat beside me.
The broken astronaut on his lap.
She looked at him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
Long silence.
Then:
“Why did you break him?”
Straight.
Millicent swallowed.
“Because you kept asking to go home.”
“That’s dumb.”
“Yes.”
“Did you think breaking stuff would make me not miss Dad?”
“I thought it would make you stop asking.”
“Same.”
Fair.
Millicent nodded.
“You’re right.”
Then:
“Why did you put my room in your car?”
“I was taking things to the place I wanted you to stay.”
“Forever?”
“No.”
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
Silas’s eyes widened.
“That’s forever.”
At seven, correct.
Millicent started crying.
He looked uncomfortable.
She noticed and stopped wiping theatrically.
Good.
“I’m sorry.”
Silas held out the astronaut.
“Can you fix it?”
“I can try.”
They used glue at Dr. Ellison’s table.
The arm ended slightly crooked.
Silas examined it.
“Bad.”
Millicent laughed cautiously.
He smiled.
Available joke.
Twenty-seven minutes.
Then he said:
“I want to go home.”
The room changed.
Millicent looked at me.
Then him.
“Okay.”
May you like
We left.
That was the first test she passed.
