Page 115 of What Doesn't Kill Her

“Our daughter,” Kellen corrected.

Into the phone, Rae said, “That’s pretty close. How soon?”

Verona looked between her son and his fiancée. “He said they were negotiating.”

“Negotiating what?” Max’s voice got louder.

Verona lifted her hands and her shoulders in a massive shrug.

“It sounds pretty. She would like it there.” Rae frowned deeply. “How long can she stay?”

Pause.

“When can she come back?”

Pause.

“Why can’t she stay there forever?”

Pause.

“That’sbullshit!”

Verona turned in her chair. “Rae!” She turned back and glared at Kellen. “And you!”

Kellen wanted to protest she hadn’t taught her that. But she had taught Rae to wipe her nose on her sleeve, so she kept quiet.

“No.”Rae spoke into the phone, and her childish indignation was emphatic and massive. “She needs to be someplace high and pretty where she can see and at night when everybody’s gone she can wander around!”

Kellen looked at Max, who looked at Verona, and they all shrugged, without a clue about what was being discussed.

“You can do that,” Rae said into the phone, her voice a stern imitation of her grandmother’s. “You should do that. Let me know—but I expect you todo your best. Bye-bye.” She came back, sat down in her chair and, without a word to them, started eating again.

When Rae looked up, Kellen said, “So...what did Mr. Brooks want?”

“When we were in the helicopter, I wanted him to give me the Triple Goddess. He said he couldn’t, she’s too important and someone mean would take her from me.” Rae stuck out her lip, not pouting, but thoughtful. “So I told him about how the goddess is our talisman—” she pointed at Kellen and at herself “—and he said he would fix it so we could see her sometimes. But I want her to be able to see us, too. You know?” She went back to eating.

Kellen reflected that most of the time she didn’t know what Rae was talking about; half that time was because Rae was being a seven-year-old, and the other half was because Rae was being a genius.

“The Triple Goddess can’t see you because she’s stone. You know that, right, Rae?” Max sounded honestly anxious, like he was worried Rae was confused.

“Really, Max? That’s what’s bothering you about all this?” Kellen rolled her eyes at him, then turned back to Rae. “I understand why we want to see the Triple Goddess. And Nils Brooks is arranging to put her into a museum somewhere close?”

Rae nodded and kept eating.

“Where’s he going to put her that she can see us?”

Rae pointed up. “He says there’s a big house in Portland on top of a hill and he’ll arrange for guards and stuff. But he says she can’t stay there forever. I said that was bull—” She pulled herself to a stop and looked up guiltily.

Three pairs of adult eyes scrutinized her.

Rae shrank down in her chair and bent back to her plate. In a tiny voice, she said, “Pucky.”

“Rae!” Verona said.

“Sorry, Nonna.” Rae slid a sideways conspiratorial glance at Kellen.

Kellen pretended not to see it.

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