“Is Zoe all right?”
“Well, that’s why I’m calling. I understand she was back at school this morning, but I checked today’s register and it seems she didn’t attend any of her afternoon classes. I wanted to check everything was okay.”
“She didn’t attend afternoon classes?”
“No, not according to my records.”
“Well … perhaps she wasn’t feeling well?” Alice suggested, to herself as much as Mrs. Hunt, although that didn’t totally explain it. If she were ill, surely she’d be home by now?
“Yes, I’m sure it’s something like that. I just thought it was worth double-checking, especially after last week.”
Alice gave herself a couple of seconds to scan her brain, but she couldn’t come up with anything. “What happened last week?”
“The debate?”
She spoke as though Alice should know what this meant. Should she?
“Er … when Zoe … urinated on the stage?”
Alice thought she might faint. She let her head drop into her hands.
“Ms. Stanhope? Are you there?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice sounding thick and foreign, “you said my daughter urinated on the stage?”
A pause. “You didn’t know?”
“No,” Alice replied, her voice rising. “Can you explain why didn’t I know? Surely you would think to inform the parents when—”
“We called you immediately, Ms. Stanhope. I spoke with a woman named…” Alice heard the ruffle of papers. “Kate Littleton. She said you were unable to take the call. When she came to the school—”
“Kate came to the school?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, I thought you knew this.” Mrs. Hunt sounded flustered. “I did call you, last week, to check up on Zoe, and I left a message on your voice mail.”
Alice thought of all the messages stockpiled on her message service. She hadn’t felt well enough to check them.
“Wait, did you say Zoe hasn’t been at school? Before today, I mean?”
There was a long pause. “Well, after the debate she wasn’t at school for, let’s see … over a week. I assumed you’d allowed her to take some time off.”
Alice heard the keys in the door.
“All right,” she said to Mrs. Hunt. “Thank you for letting me know.”
“Once again, Ms. Stanhope, I’m very—”
Alice hung up the phone as Zoe appeared in the living room.
“Uncle Paul?” she said, blinking as if her eyes were deceiving her. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes found Alice’s. “Mom? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. How about you?”
Paul instinctively retreated to the kitchen.
Zoe sat on the edge of the sofa, cagily. “I’m okay. Who was that on the phone?”
“Mrs. Hunt. She says you weren’t in school this afternoon.”
Somewhere in the back of her mind, it occurred to Alice that she’d dreamed about conversations like this. Having a daughter doing normal, irresponsible things like skipping school and lying about it. She had not, however, dreamed about the reason for the skipping and the lying—something about urinating on a stage.
“I was at Harry’s,” she said guiltily, clearly knowing the jig was up.
“And the last week, when you said you were going to school? Where were you then? At Harry’s?”
Zoe turned crimson, looked at her hands.
“Zoe?”
“I … was at Kate’s.”
Somehow, even after what she’d learned about Kate’s involvement, Alice hadn’t expected this. It was a punch in the stomach. “What?”
Just like that, Zoe burst into tears. “I wanted to tell you but you’ve been so sick and I didn’t want to give you anything else to worry about. It was so awful, Mom. The class had to do a debate. I was freaking out, but then I decided I should do it … I should challenge myself, you know … I actually got kind of excited about it.” Zoe broke into another short burst of sobs. “Then when it was my turn, I froze. I was trying to talk myself out of a panic, trying to remember what I had to say, and suddenly I was peeing my pants. In front of the whole class.”
Alice’s anger was already gone. “Oh, no.”
“I ran out of the school. Kate found me walking down the street. She already knew what had happened by the time she found me—she had your phone when the school called. I didn’t want to worry you but I couldn’t go back to school. I turned up at Kate’s place the next day because I didn’t know where to go.”
The anger came back with a vengeance as she pictured Zoe at Kate’s house.
“I know you are mad, but Mom, it wasn’t her fault, it was mine. And she … she was great. She was the one who convinced me to go back to school.”
“Well, good for her,” Alice said sulkily. “I should have been the one to do that.”
“I like her, Mom. I really like her.”
“I don’t care. This is nothing to do with her. This is our business. She shouldn’t have had anything to do with it.”
Zoe looked at her, head-on, in a way that Alice hadn’t seen before. “But Mom,” she said quietly, “what would we have done without her?”
51
Kate was used to dealing with upset people. Patients who’d been given bad news. Families of patients who’d been given bad news. Doctors who were overworked and on a short fuse. But as Alice hurled abuse down the phone line, it felt different. Because this time, it wasn’t Mother Nature that had betrayed Alice, it was Kate.
“I understand why you’re upset,” she tried after five full minutes of uninterrupted shouting.
“Do you? Do you really? I’ve spent my whole life trying to protect my daughter and I’ve done a pretty good job of it. And during the one period I wasn’t able to be there for her, you’ve swooped in—a stranger—and started making decisions for my daughter.”
“You’re right,” Kate said. “I’m so sorry, Alice.”
“You should be. You had no right.”
Alice was right, of course. But it didn’t change the fact that some part of Kate was glad she’d been able to be there for Zoe. And no matter how she tried, she couldn’t regret it.
“How is Zoe?” Kate asked when there was a lull in yelling.
She heard Alice exhale. “She’s all right.”
“Good.” Kate felt a small knot in her belly release. “You know, Alice, she’s a—”
“Don’t you tell me anything about my daughter!” Alice interrupted, instantly incensed again. “Don’t you dare do that! I’m her mother.”
“I’m sorry,” Kate said quietly. “I was just going to say she is an exceptional girl.”
There was a short pause. Kate took a steadying breath, ready for a new torrent of abuse. But this time, when Alice spoke, her voice was calmer.
“Look, I appreciate everything you’ve done, Kate. I really do. You helped us out when we needed it, and I can’t thank you enough. But from now on, if Zoe needs something she can come to me. Do you understand?”
All at once the knot in Kate’s stomach was back. “Yes. I understand.”