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Sienna sat cross-legged on her bed and opened the sketchbook to an earlier section. I pulled her desk chair closer and sat facing her.

For the next several minutes, she showed me drawings she’d made over the past year.

Some were costume ideas, with notes about colors and materials. Others were rooms and scenery, including a haunted library where the books appeared to move when someone entered.

She’d sketched faces from different angles and practiced shading them to look older, thinner, or more frightening.

On one page, she’d drawn a woman’s face with a jagged scar across the cheek. Beside it was another version of the same face, with the scar shaded instead of outlined.

I pointed to the second drawing.

“What made you change this one?”

“The first scar looked like a line somebody drew on her face. I wanted it to look like it was part of her skin.”

I nodded. “That’s the right thing to think about. If you want a scar to look convincing, you have to pay attention to how the skin around it would change. The light and shadow are just as important as the line.”

Sienna studied me for a moment.

“You really think they’re good?”

“I do. I think you have a lot of talent, and I think you’ve been working hard at it. I should’ve asked to see these a long time ago.”

She ran her fingers along the edge of the page.

“I tried to show you some of them before. You said you didn’t want more scary things in the house.”

I remembered the evening she’d brought me a drawing of a monster with too many arms while I was making dinner. I’d barely looked at it before suggesting she draw something else.

At the time, I’d thought I was steering her toward something less frightening. I’d never considered that she might hear it as a criticism of what she’d made.

“I remember, sweetheart. I’m sorry. I should’ve looked at your drawing instead of deciding I wouldn’t like it because it was a monster.”

She turned another page but didn’t say anything.

I leaned forward and rested my forearms on my knees.

“There’s something else I need to apologize for. What happened at the festival today wasn’t fair to you, and it wasn’t fair to Goldie. You asked me to look at your costume design, and I refused before I understood what you wanted to do. Then I accused Goldie of going behind my back when she hadn’t.”

Sienna looked up immediately.

“I told you she didn’t.”

“You did, and I should’ve listened. Goldie never gave you permission to do anything I’d said no to. She encouraged you to show me your drawings, which was exactly the right thing to do.”

Sienna’s eyes filled again.

“She was nice to me, Dad. She didn’t make fun of my monsters.”

“I know. And I was wrong to speak to her that way. I’m going to apologize to her too.”

She wiped her cheeks with the tissue.

“Is she going to come back?”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I hope she’ll want to see us again, but she’s upset with me, and she has every reason to be. I need to talk to her and let her decide.”

Sienna nodded slowly.