I held her so close. Her hair spilled over my arms, silky and long. I decided never to make fun of musicals again because I totally felt like singing.
She gazed up at me. “You’re exactly as I remember.”
“I’m so glad nothing happened to make you forget.”
We had very little time, so we made the most of it, kissing and holding each other tight, things that weren’t possible whispered over the phone or through texts.
Way too soon, she pulled away. “I have to go. This is risky. But I’m glad you did it.”
“What do we do now?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to get my window to open. I have to be careful Mother doesn’t notice.”
“Let me know when you do. We’ll sneak you out.”
“We?”
“Me and my friends. You can meet them.”
She nodded. “I have to go.” She pressed one final kiss to my lips, then hurried toward the main part of the store.
I watched her retreating figure with a sense of loss. I needed more.
I sat with Gram after dinner a couple of weeks after the grocery store outing, staring at my phone, willing Ava to write me.
She had to wait until it was completely safe. If her mother caught her with the phone, it was toast.
Gram picked up the plates. “Will you set that down long enough to help with dishes?”
I shoved the phone in my pocket and collected our glasses. “Yes, Gram.”
As we washed our plates and set them to dry in the nonfunctioning dishwasher that now served as a drying rack, she asked, “You going to see her again?”
“She’s been trying to sneak out, but every time she walks down the hall, her mother shows up to check on her. She’s had to drink like ten cups of tea, pretending that’s the reason she left her room.”
“That mother sure does have a firm grip on her.”
I passed her the dirty forks. “We did a video chat the other day so she could show me her window, but it’s like it doesn’t even have cracks around it to open.”
“Did it have a latch?”
“Sure, but there was no way to lift the window.I saw it. It was like the wall and the edges around the glass are one solid piece.”
“Is it a rental?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure if Ava would know.”
“Most rentals I’ve seen have been painted so many times that the window is plumb painted shut. But she should be able to cut through the paint with a box cutter, if she’s got one.” She passed me a glass and I rested it in the dishwasher.
“I didn’t think of that.”
“That’s because our windows aren’t painted shut.” She chuckled. “I lived with your grandpa in a place like that off Riverside. If you wanted some fresh air, you best opened the door.”
That night, I told Ava what Gram had said. She didn’t have a box cutter, but she took a butcher knife to the window and slowly carved her way through decades of lacquer so it would open.
It took a week, but she got it done.
Since I couldn’t drive, Bill came up with the idea for a double date. We waited for Ava to come up with a time she thought she could get away. It took patience and several false starts, but finally a couple of weeks after she freed the window, she gave us the all clear to come get her.
