They sat there some more, saying nothing in a companionable way. These quiet moments are the mortar that holds families together, yet they often pass unnoticed. Frances reveled in them; it was her superpower.
“Do you ever feel like running away?” Ava asked her.
Frances shook her head. “Where would I go? Everything I love is here.” She rested her cheek against Ava’s hair, smelling—yet again—her shampoo on someone else’s head. “Do you?”
“Yes and no. Yes, because I’d like to be somewhere else or someone else or sometime else. But no, because you’d just come after me.” She looked at her lap, to hide the happiness she felt at that fact.
“I’m afraid so.”
Ava straightened up and looked at Frances. “You know, I was worried about Theo until I knew he was with Milo. That meant they’d gone under their own steam, rather than being snatched by some asshole, right?”
“Sure. At least, more likely that.”
“And Milo knows what I know, which is that you would never stop looking for him. You told us that all the time when we were little.”
“I did?” Frances pulled a cushion over and hugged it, still a little freaked out by this day, despite her apparent calm. Luckily, Ava seemed sanguine, so that made one of them.
“Yeah. You said it over and over: If you get lost, stay where you are and wait. Daddy and I will be looking for you and we will never stop. If someone takes you, keep fighting, keep making noise and kicking them in the nuts, because we will be hunting for as long as it takes, and we will never stop.” Ava smiled to herself. “I’ve never been scared of being alone, which I guess is a good thing because the chance of anyone wanting to date me with these eyebrows is remote.”
Frances ignored the eyebrow comment. “Did I literally say nuts?”
Ava shrugged. “You may have. You must have told us five hundred times. Ask Milo. You also went on and on and on about paying attention in parking lots, do you remember that?”
Frances ran her hand through her hair, which made it stand up like a radio antenna, unbeknownst to her. “I sound very boring. What did I say about parking lots?”
“You said,” Ava mimicked her mother’s voice, which was apparently like Daisy Duck’s, “they’re looking for spaces, not children, so be careful.”
“Did I sound like I was on helium?”
“No, only in my head.”
“OK.” Frances had a headache. She couldn’t believe she’d been so rude to Anne. Suddenly, though, she started laughing.
Ava looked at her. “Are you hysterical? Do I need to slap you?”
Frances laughed and shook her head. “No, I’m just laughing at the memory of your father’s face.”
“When you yelled at Anne?”
“No, just in general.” She giggled. “His face makes me laugh. That’s why I love it.”
Ava raised her eyebrows, but her mom was still laughing, so she let it go.
• • •
Richard happened to be looking at the boys when the car pulled up in front of them, and when he saw the relief in their shoulders he suddenly got a memory of seeing his mother approaching the school gate at the end of the day: I’m not forgotten. It’s OK now. A tall man got out of the car and came over to him, holding out his hand. Richard, still feeling about eight years old and strangely close to tears, managed to smile at him.
“I will never be able to thank you enough,” Michael said. “I am so grateful.”
Richard shrugged. “It takes a village, right?” He watched the man bend to hug his son, and then pull the other boy into an embrace, too. “Besides, it’s nice to do something helpful for a change.”
The man stood up and smiled at him as he shepherded the boys into the car. “My name’s Michael Bloom,” he said. “If you ever need anything . . .” He handed Richard his card.
Richard grinned at him. “Thanks,” he said. “Glad I could help.”
The car pulled away, and Richard watched it go. Then he turned and walked away himself, tucking Michael’s card in his pocket, where it would be forgotten and washed away into fluff.
• • •
The smell of his mother’s perfume always made Theo feel small. Throughout his life elements of it would drift across his path and take him right back to this moment and others like it, when the soft skin of Anne’s neck felt more like home than anything ever would again.
He’d been worried his parents would be furious with him, but they seemed just very glad to see him, and even Kate had cried and held on to him as they sat together on the sofa. After a while his father pulled out of the snuggle and looked at him.
“Why did you run away, Theo? Will you talk about it?”
Theo nodded. A policeman had talked to him briefly, outside, after he and Milo had returned. He could tell the man was annoyed with Milo’s dad for going to fetch them without telling the cops, but Michael had just shrugged and said he’d had no other thought but to get to them as quickly as possible. The man had looked at him thoughtfully and for a moment Theo had felt uncertain, but then the cop’s face had cleared and he’d just led the two boys a little way away and squatted down.
“Is everything OK?” he’d asked. “Are you scared at home?” They’d both shaken their heads. “Why did you run away?”
“I wanted to
