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Stephanie sat cross-legged on top of her bed clutching Mr. Bear.
“Are you okay, Steph?” her older sister asked as she came into their shared bedroom.
“DJ, can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can! What’s wrong?” DJ tilted her head in concern as she noticed that Stephanie’s eyes had grown glossy, and her bottom lip was beginning to quiver.
Stephanie blinked a few times and swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. “Earlier today, when we didn’t know where Dad was or why he didn’t show up to either of our schools, were you thinking the same thing that I was?”
DJ nodded solemnly. “It felt a little too familiar, didn’t it?”
“Yeah. It did.”
DJ walked across the room and took a seat next to her little sister, wrapping her up in a hug.
“Part of me was hoping that you would have been too little to remember.”
“I don’t remember very much,” Stephanie admitted with a shrug. “I remember you running out of the room crying and I didn’t understand why.”
“You had no idea why I was so upset and kept insisting that the doctors would make Mom all better and she would come home tomorrow.” DJ bowed her head. “I shouldn’t have left you alone like that.”
“I wasn’t alone. Dad and Grandma were with me.”
“But I still left you when I knew you needed me the most,” DJ said. “And I'm sorry I did.”
Stephanie shrugged again. “It’s okay, Deej.”
DJ stared off into the distance.
“You know, I’ll never forget the look in your eyes when you told me that the doctors would fix mom and make her all better. You were so innocent and so hopeful! That’s part of the reason why I ran out. I knew that once Dad explained to you what had actually happened, your eyes would never quite look the same. I just wanted to remember my innocent little sister who believed that doctors could fix anything. I wanted to bottle up that sparkle in your eyes and somehow keep you that way forever, but I couldn’t! And then this afternoon, when we didn’t know where Dad was, your eyes didn’t have that innocent sparkle anymore. You knew exactly what was happening, or what could have happened.”
DJ shuddered and looked back at Stephanie, wiping her tear-stained cheek with her palm.
“I had never felt more scared in my entire life, but then I realized you would remember being that scared the night Mom didn’t come home from the store.”
DJ nodded. “Yeah. Dad kept trying to convince me to go to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I was too worried. Eventually, he just gave up and let me stay up with him. Though now I really wish I hadn’t. I’m glad you slept through all of that.”
They sat quietly for a minute, Stephanie resting her head on DJ’s shoulder.
“I’m just glad that Dad’s okay,” Stephanie said just above a whisper. She breathed out through her nose, finally releasing the tension that had been building up in her chest since that afternoon.
“Me, too, Steph. Me, too.”