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“Doctors are very positive that she can be treated. We have to hold on to that.”
“We don’t have a dad. What’s going to happen if we don’t have a mom either?”
“You have plenty of people who love you.”
“I wish I could call my grandpa. He loves us.”
She sat up. Morgan had mentioned her father but Hannah hadn’t heard the children talk about him before.
“Your grandpa?”
Riley nodded, her head brushing Hannah’s arm. “We lived with him after our dad died. And then my mom and grandpa had a big fight and we moved away from his house and came here. I miss him.”
Hannah frowned. What could have happened between Morgan and her father to cause such a sharp fracture in their relationship, to the point where Morgan couldn’t even lean on the man while she was fighting for her life?
None of that mattered right now, when she was responsible for easing a young girl’s fear. She scrambled for something to say that might help and landed on what always helped her when she was hurting. Music.
“Do you remember when we learned that song about how to think of favorite things when you’re scared or sad?”
Riley nodded. “I like that song.”
“Would you like to sing it with me now?”
“Sure. Okay.”
Softly, so they didn’t awaken Carter in the next room, they sang “My Favorite Things,” from The Sound of Music. By the time they finished, Riley wasn’t quite smiling but she seemed much less upset.
“Did that help?”
The girl nodded. “A little.”
“When I have trouble sleeping because my mind won’t be quiet, I go through the alphabet and think about my favorite things that start with each letter. What do you like that starts with A?”
“Hmm. I like the advent calendars you got us, with the candy behind every little door.”
“That’s perfect.”
“And for B, I like babies. They’re cute.”
“So do I,” Hannah said.
“And I guess for C, I have to say Carter, even though he can be a pain sometimes.”
She rose while Riley was coming up with a few other things she liked in alphabetical order.
“Finish the alphabet and see if that helps. And if you make it all the way to Z, you can start all over again.”
“Thanks, Hannah.”
“You’re welcome, sweetheart. Sleep well.”
She hugged the girl extra tightly then turned off her light and closed the door behind her.
She checked one more time to make sure Carter was asleep, then headed down the hall to her living room. It was snowing, she saw out the window. The tree outside that she and the children—and Wes—had decorated gleamed against the dark night and invariably made her smile.
As she went to close the curtains, she saw a vehicle parked across the street with its lights off but the engine still running. She could see by the faint glow of the interior lights that someone was inside. Probably someone visiting her neighbors, John and Mary McNeely.
The McNeelys ought to tell their visitor that it was bad for the air quality to idle a vehicle for long, summer or winter.
