Justine
The school gym was too small. It was filled with metal chairs, but still people stood in the back and along the sides, clustering around a holiday bake sale by the door. Justine and Maurie found a place to stand along the left side of the chairs. Maurie looked stiff, the skin around her mouth tense. The gym was an annex to the main school building, and the dedication above the door said it was built in 1945. Justine tried to imagine her mother as a girl here, in gym class or maybe a school play, but she couldn’t.
A woman Maurie’s age was staring at them from her seat three rows away. She said something to the man next to her, and he turned, too.
‘Do you know them?’ Justine asked.
‘No.’ Maurie looked the woman square in the eye. She turned back around.
Justine didn’t know anyon
