“Happy is not the point,” she snapped. “Order is the point.”
“You planted them on the wrong side,”
I never argued.
Since losing my husband, I had learned that keeping the peace cost less.
So I smoothed things over.
I told myself it was easier that way, for me and for the children.
But standing at that window, watching Katherine watch us, something cold settled in my chest.
“Mommy, is that lady mad again?” my daughter asked, climbing out of the pool.
I had learned that keeping the peace cost less.
I turned quickly and grabbed a towel.
“Don’t you worry about her, baby. Just have fun.”
“She always looks mad,” she said, shivering.
“Some people carry a lot of frowns,” I told her, wrapping the towel around her shoulders. “That doesn’t have to be our problem.”
She giggled and ran back to her brothers.
“She always looks mad,”
But when I glanced up again, Katherine had not moved.
I told myself it was nothing.
Just Katherine being Katherine, obsessed with boundaries and order and the way things were supposed to be.
“Come on, kids, ten more minutes!” I called, pushing the unease away.
Their laughter answered me, bright and careless.
I did not yet understand that Katherine had already decided our peaceful summer days were about to end.
I told myself it was nothing.
I was slicing sandwiches at the kitchen counter when the shouting reached me.
It was not my children’s laughter.
It was an adult voice, sharp and furious, cutting through the afternoon.
I dropped the knife and hurried out the back door.
Katherine stood beside my pool, her arms crossed, leaning over my youngest with a scowl.
The gate in my fence hung open behind her.
It was an adult voice, sharp and furious
She had walked straight into my backyard without asking.
“What’s going on?” I asked, moving between her and my kids. “Did something happen?”
“Your kids are TOO LOUD,” she snapped. “I want some peace and quiet. Is that too much to ask?”
I looked at my four children, dripping wet and frozen in place.
Their faces had gone pale.
“Your kids are TOO LOUD,”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I’ll ask them to keep it down.”
