Marcus turned back to the stove. He checked the greens. They didn't need checking. At 9:15, Clare knocked on the back door. The back door, not the front, which was something that had shifted gradually over the past two weeks without either of them formally deciding it.
Front doors were for visitors. Back doors were for people who belong. She came in carrying a pie pan. She'd said she was making it the night before with an uncertainty in her voice that Marcus found unexpectedly endearing. Because Clare Witmore was not a woman who was uncertain about many things.
But baking appeared to be one of them. "Tell me it looks right," she said, setting it on the counter. Darius got up, looked at it with the seriousness of a professional. "It looks good," he said. You're just saying that.
I'm 12, Darius said. I don't have any reason to lie about pie. Clare laughed. Marcus heard it from the stove and felt its sunlight coming through glass warm and specific and directed right at him even though he was looking the other way. Okay, she said.
Okay, I believe you. She moved to the stove and stood beside Marcus. Close enough to look at what he was doing without being in his way. And he handed her a spoon without being asked. And she tasted the greens and said, "More pepper."
And he said, "I know." And added it. And they stood there side by side in his kitchen while Darius went upstairs to get dressed. And it was so ordinary that it was almost hard to look at directly. Marcus said, "Kesha's bringing my mother-in-law."
Clare looked at him. "You told me Kesha was coming. You didn't mention your mother-in-law, Miss June." Marcus said, "Aaliyah's mother. She's she's a strong woman.
She loves Darius more than anything." And she paused. She's been the primary version of Aaliyah in this house since Aaliyah died. She brings things over. She corrects the way I fold laundry.
She comes to every one of Darius's games. Clare absorbed this. And she doesn't know about me. She knows you exist. Marcus said she doesn't know what you are.
What am I? Clare asked. He looked at her. You know what you are? She held his gaze.