Operational pilot 6 months. I'll present the business case to the board in December. Complete silence. Then Victoria, it makes sense operationally. She said, I have programs running in central Georgia.
I need proximity, Victoria, he said again. Quiter this time. She stopped. Are you doing this because it makes sense operationally? He said.
She held the phone in both hands and looked out at Atlanta and said, "No. Then say the real reason," he said. She breathed in. She said, "Because I'm done spending 482 mi worth of Sunday nights must driving away from where I want to be. " The silence that followed was the most complete silence she'd heard in her life. Longer than the silence on the county road in the early morning, longer than the silence in his living room the first night.
This was a silence with a decision inside it. Then Marcus Carter said, "Okay, just that, just okay. " But she knew what okay meant in his language. She knew it was the first word of something, not the last. She knew it was the word he used when something landed exactly where it should. When the thing he'd been careful about had proven worth the care, she said, "Tell Ava a pause. " Then she heard him move his footsteps.
Down the short hallway, a knock on a door. Aa's voice. Dad, I'm reading. I know, Marcus said. Victoria wants to tell you something.
Rustling. Then hi. Hi, Victoria said. What did you want to tell me? Ava said with the frank directness of someone who had been mid chapter and wanted to know if this was worth it.
I'm going to be around more, Victoria said. A lot more. A pause. How much more? Ava said.
Enough that you won't have to wonder. Victoria said. Another pause. Longer. In it.
Victoria could hear the specific quality of an 8-year-old making an assessment. Then Ava said, "Okay, but you still have to learn how to properly categorize the Cretaceous period. You keep mixing up the early and late stages. I'll study," Victoria said. "I'll make you a guide," Ava said with beat.