For a moment, I almost walked away.
Whatever mystery I had created in my mind suddenly felt intrusive.
Maybe the dog belonged to an elderly person.
Maybe someone simply let him roam.
Maybe there was nothing unusual about any of it.
Then I heard movement inside.
A floorboard creaked.
The dog stood.
My stomach tightened for reasons I couldn’t explain.
The door slowly opened a few inches.
And I stopped walking.
Standing in the doorway was someone I never, in a hundred years, expected to see.
“Ms. Diane?”
I stared at her.
It took several seconds before I recognized the face.
“Sadie?”
Her eyes widened.
Sadie had dated Caleb during his final year of high school.
She had been 17.
Caleb had been 18.
For almost a year, she had been everywhere.
At our dinner table.
On the couch during movie nights.
Sitting beside Caleb on the back steps while they whispered about whatever teenagers believed adults could never understand.
Then they broke up.
Caleb barely talked about it.
A few months later, Sadie disappeared from our lives completely.
Now she stood in front of me.
She was three years older than when I
had last seen her, thinner than I remembered, with her dark hair loosely tied behind her head.
The dog pushed past her legs and walked inside.
Sadie looked from him to me.
“What are you doing here?”
I swallowed.
“I followed your dog.”
Her expression changed.
She looked toward the house.
Then back at me.
“You followed Jasper?”
“Is that his name?”
She nodded slowly.
I almost laughed from sheer confusion.
“He’s been sitting at Caleb’s grave.”
Sadie’s face went pale.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she opened the door wider.
“You should come inside.”
Every instinct told me something was wrong.
Still, I stepped onto the porch.
The front room was small but clean.
A worn couch sat against one wall.
Children’s books were stacked inside a plastic crate near the television.
I noticed them immediately.
Then I saw the tiny blue sneakers near the hallway.
My chest tightened.
“Do you have a child?”
Sadie froze.
Jasper walked toward the hallway and disappeared around the corner.
Before she could answer, a small voice called from another room.
“Mommy?”
I looked at Sadie.
She closed her eyes briefly.
Then a little boy appeared around the corner.
He looked about three years old.
He wore dinosaur pajamas even though it was the middle of the afternoon.
His brown hair stuck up on one side.
I forgot how to breathe.
There was something about his face.
Something painfully familiar.
His eyes.
The shape of his mouth.
The way one eyebrow sat slightly higher than the other.
Caleb used to make that exact expression whenever he was confused.
The boy pointed at me.
“Who’s that?”
Sadie’s voice shook.
“This is Diane.”
The little boy smiled.
“Hi.”
I couldn’t answer.
I looked at Sadie.
“No.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Diane.”
“No.”
“
I wanted to tell you.”
My hands began trembling.
“Tell me what?”
She looked at the little boy.
“Beau, sweetheart, can you go play with Jasper?”
He hesitated.
“Can I have crackers?”
“Yes.”
“Two?”
Sadie managed a weak smile.
“Two.”
He disappeared toward the kitchen, with Jasper following closely behind him.
I waited until he was gone.
Then I faced Sadie.
“Tell me.”
Sadie slowly sat down.
I remained standing.
“Beau is Caleb’s son.”
The room seemed to tilt beneath me.
I grabbed the back of a chair.
“What?”
Sadie wiped her face.
“I found out I was pregnant after Caleb died.”
I stared at her.
Every sound around me suddenly seemed distant.
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