Page 81 of Never Alone
We could hear the low murmur of voices through the walls. Indistinct. No words coming through. Cole sat with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped between them. I sat with my hands folded in my lap.
After a minute, he said, "She's good."
"You think?"
"She didn't write anything down. That's a person who's been doing this long enough to know what she's looking at."
"That makes me more nervous."
"It shouldn't."
He looked at me. I looked at the wall.
After a few more minutes, I stood up.
"I need the bathroom."
He looked up. Nodded. He didn't ask if I was okay. He had stopped asking that this morning, after the second time, when he had seen on my face that the question was making it harder.
I went out into the hall and closed the bedroom door behind me.
The bathroom was three steps down the hall on the left. I went in. I closed the door. I ran the water for a few seconds without doing anything else. I looked at my face in the mirror. I looked away.
I opened the door and stepped back into the hall.
Noah's door was four feet to my right, cracked the way Suzanne had left it. I had been planning to walk past it.
I stopped.
The voices were clearer here. Two feet from the door, I could make out the words.
I should have walked back to the bedroom.
I stood in the hall instead.
"...do you feel safe here, Noah?"
"Yeah."
"What does safe feel like for you?"
A pause. He was thinking about it.
"Quiet. Nobody yells."
I closed my eyes for a beat. I made myself open them again.
"Tell me about Cole. What does he do with you?"
"He picks me up from school. We work on the model planes after I finish my homework. He's teaching me how to use his tools."
"What tools?"
"Drill. Saw. He let me use the level. He says I have a steady hand."
"That's wonderful."
A small pause.
