Chapter 8: The First Choice
Nora lowered the phone but didn’t end the call. Her eyes stayed on Maisie.
“How many days?” she asked.
The school counselor answered. Seven full days since the start of the month.
Nora’s thumb pressed against the edge of her phone. Maisie had gone still beside her, one crayon clutched in her fist.
“Thank you for telling me,” Nora said. “I’ll speak with her, and I’ll call you back about a plan. Please don’t ask her to explain it to the class.”
She ended the call and set the phone in her lap.
“Seven?” she said, more to herself than to anyone else.
Maisie stared at the paper in front of her.
“I didn’t want you to be by yourself.”
Nora drew her closer, careful of the tubing taped to her arm.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, sweetheart.”
“I could’ve gone to school.”
“You could have. But it’s not your job to keep track of me.”
Maisie looked toward the clinic doors. “What if you need me?”
“That’s why we’re going to make a plan with grown-ups.”
Nora glanced at me. I kept my hands folded around the edge of the drawing Maisie had given me.
“Would you be willing to help me write down the school’s number and Miss Evelyn’s schedule?” she asked. “I’ll make the calls. I don’t want to forget anything.”
“Of course.”
I passed her a blank page from the clinic’s appointment packet. She wrote the names herself, then handed the pen to Maisie.
“Would you like Miss Evelyn to pick you up after school when I have appointments, or would you rather stay at school until I’m done?”
“Miss Evelyn.”
“Okay. I’ll ask her which days she can do. If she can’t, we’ll figure out another grown-up you know.”
Maisie looked at me. “You’re a grown-up.”
“I am,” I said. “But your mom decides who helps.”
Nora gave me a brief look—not approval exactly, but acknowledgment that I’d left the decision with her.
She called Miss Evelyn. They talked through the schedule, and Miss Evelyn agreed to handle pickups on Nora’s appointment days. For the days she couldn’t, Nora would speak with the school counselor about its after-school program before deciding whether it was right for Maisie.
Nothing was solved forever. But there was a person Maisie knew, a plan for the next appointments, and a promise from Nora that she would tell Maisie when the plan changed.
I wrote down the school number when Nora asked me to. Then I put the page on the table in front of her.
“Thank you,” she said.
It was a small task. I resisted the urge to make it sound larger.
The first treatment appointment came two days later. Nora asked me to drive, and I waited in the lobby while she and the care team went over the day’s plan. Maisie stayed with Miss Evelyn. Before Nora went through the doors, she looked back at me.
“Lobby,” she said.
“Lobby.”
I sat there with my phone face down on my knee and the drawing folded inside my coat pocket. When Nora returned, she looked exhausted, but she walked on her own. She asked me to take them home. I did. I didn’t ask how she felt unless she chose to tell me.
The next evening, she called.
“I have a fever and chills,” she said. “The clinic told me what to do if that happened. They want me evaluated tonight.”
“Do you want me to drive?”
“Yes. But wait for me in the lobby unless I ask you to come in.”
“I understand.”
“Maisie’s here.”
“I’ll bring Miss Evelyn’s number.”
Nora went quiet for a beat.
“Thank you.”
I called Miss Evelyn from the car only after Nora texted that she had reached her. She was already on her way to meet us at the hospital. Maisie climbed into the back seat with her coat half-zipped, her small fingers closed around the pendant at her throat.
“Is Mom going to die?” she asked.
The question landed between us with no soft way around it.
“I don’t know,” I said. “The doctors are going to check what’s happening. Your mom knows what to do, and Miss Evelyn is coming to stay with you.”
“Can you make it stop?”
“No. I can’t make this go away.”
She watched me in the rearview mirror.
“But I’m here with you right now,” I said. “And I’ll tell you what I know.”
She didn’t answer. I kept driving.
At the hospital, Nora was taken back for evaluation. She managed to tell the nurse that Miss Evelyn was coming for Maisie, then looked at me.
“Call Evelyn, please. Tell her to come to the entrance.”
That was all the permission I needed. I called and gave her the details Nora had asked me to share. When she arrived, Maisie ran to her, then stopped and turned back toward the doors.
“I want to wait here,” she said.
Nora had asked me to stay in the lobby. So I stayed beside Maisie while Miss Evelyn sat on her other side. The three of us watched the automatic doors open and close for strangers.
After a while, Maisie leaned against Miss Evelyn. Her eyes were fixed on the floor.
“Is Mom alone?” she asked.
“They’re with her,” I said. “The doctors and nurses.”
“Are you going to leave?”
I felt the answer I wanted to give rise in my throat—the easy promise, the one that would soothe her for a moment and cost nothing until it had to be kept.
“I’m not leaving this lobby without telling you,” I said. “If something changes, I’ll explain it.”
She considered that, then reached for Miss Evelyn’s hand.
My phone vibrated. Priya’s name appeared on the screen, followed by a message: We finished the review. Both payroll teams have been heard. I need to tell you my decision.
I stepped far enough away not to make the call part of Maisie’s waiting. Priya answered on the first ring.
“Are you somewhere you can talk?” she asked.
“Briefly. Is everyone safe?”
“Yes. The review is complete. The teams agree the current launch date is too tight. I’m moving to a phased rollout, adding training, and delaying the first group by three weeks. It costs more, but it reduces the staffing risks we found.”
She had listened to both payroll teams. She had documented the cost, risk, and staffing impact. She had done exactly what I asked.
“Then that’s your decision,” I said. “You have the authority. Send it to the chair, and I’ll stand behind it.”
There was a pause.
“You don’t need to review the numbers first?”
“No. You reviewed them. I told you I’d stand behind your decision.”
“All right,” she said. “I’ll send it.”
When I ended the call, the hospital doors opened. A nurse came out and asked for Maisie. She spoke gently and didn’t offer a conclusion—only that Nora was stable, that the team was still evaluating her, and that Maisie could see her briefly if Nora was comfortable.
Miss Evelyn asked Maisie if she wanted to go.
Maisie looked at me first.
“I’ll be right here,” I said. “Your mom decides who goes in.”
A nurse came back a few minutes later and nodded. Nora wanted Maisie.
Maisie rose and went with Miss Evelyn. At the doorway, she paused.
“Come too?”
“I’ll wait until your mom says.”
She seemed to understand, though her face tightened. Then she went inside.
I waited. My phone stayed quiet. Priya sent a short confirmation that the decision had gone to the board chair. I read it once and put the phone away.
When Miss Evelyn came back out, Maisie was asleep against her shoulder. Nora was resting, the nurse said. I sat at the far end of the waiting room, where I could see the door without standing over it.
Hours later, a nurse called my name. Nora was awake. Maisie remained asleep with Miss Evelyn, her pendant tucked beneath her collar.
I went to Nora’s bedside but stopped several feet away.
“Do you want me here?”
Nora looked at me for a long moment. Then she glanced toward the doorway, where Maisie slept out of sight.
“You stayed,” she said.
“You asked me to wait.”
May you like
Her eyes closed briefly. When they opened again, there was fear in them, and something harder to name.
“Leave before Maisie mistakes fear for a promise of forever.”
