“Cassidy is handling the decorations for the gym this year,” Mrs. Dalton said, leaning in slightly as a group of third graders shuffled past us. “She’s planning some sort of silver balloon arch. She asked if you’d be willing to help with the ticket table.”
“The ticket table?” I asked.
“Just to greet families as they come through the lobby,” Mrs. Dalton said, her eyes wandering to the school board display on the wall behind me.
A sudden distance opened up between us, cold as the draft coming from the double doors at the end of the hall. I knew Cassidy’s husband was on the school board, and I knew how much Cassidy liked to keep things orderly.
“I’ll have to check our schedule,” I said.
“Of course,” Mrs. Dalton said, her hand reaching out to touch my arm. “We just want everyone to feel included, Jill. Especially this year.”
The school secretary called out from the front desk, interrupting us before I could ask what she meant by that.
The living room was dark when we got home, the only light coming from the streetlamp outside the front window. Keith’s worn leather boots still sat by the door, exactly where he had left them on his last leave, the black leather dulling under a thin layer of dust.
“Mom?” Katie called from the hallway. “Where is Dad’s coat?”
I found her in the hall closet, standing on her tiptoes under the heavy winter parkas and raincoats.
At the back of the closet, sealed in a heavy plastic garment bag, hung his dress blue uniform, the brass buttons catching the hallway light through the dust. Right next to it was my own dry-cleaned dress, the dark green silk one I had worn to the officer’s ball three years ago, still smelling faintly of lavender.
