Yeah. So, you better know it all the way down. She paused. Not just in your head. All the way down.
He pressed his palm flat on the kitchen table, the same table where he and Isabel had sat that morning and said true things out loud for the first time. All the way down, he repeated. Yeah, I know it. Okay then. His mother's voice settled.
Get some sleep. I will. And Ethan, yeah. Stop calling Camille's voice your truth. What she said about you, that was her limitation, not your definition.
You understand me? He closed his eyes. Yeah, he said. I'm working on it. Work faster.
Good night. She hung up. He sat with the phone in his hand for a moment. Then he set it on the table and looked at the hallway and thought about the fact that 10 ft away, separated by a wall and a door and 26 months of carefully maintained distance, was a woman who had written rule five on a yellow legal pad and then looked at him like she was done being careful. He went to bed.
He didn't sleep for a long time. Neither did she. The next 9 days moved the way time moves when something enormous is approaching fast in the day, slow at night, with occasional moments of terrible clarity that arrived without warning and left a mark. On day four, Nadia asked at dinner why Isabel looked worried. Isabel said she wasn't worried, she was just thinking.
Nadia said, "You think with your eyebrows. " Ethan looked down at his plate to hide his smile. Isabel pressed her lips together. "There's something happening soon. " Isabel said carefully. "With some paperwork. " "But it's okay. " "It's going to be okay. " Nadia looked at her for a moment. Then she said, "Is it the thing that decides if you get to stay? " The table went very quiet.
Ethan looked up. Isabel had gone still. "What do you know about that? " Ethan said, keeping his voice very even. "I heard you talking. " "Not on purpose. I wasn't trying to listen. " Nadia looked at her plate.
"I know that Isabel had to get married so she could stay. I figured it out. " A pause. "I'm not dumb. " "Nobody said you were dumb. " Ethan said. "I know. I'm just saying. " "I figured it out a while ago. " She looked up.
First at Ethan, then at Isabel. "I don't care why it started. I just care if she gets to stay. " Isabel's expression shifted. That wide unguarded thing again, the one she only wore when she forgot to protect herself. "I'm trying to stay. " She said.