I called Dana on Monday.
"Do you want to meet at school?" she asked.
"Yes."
We sat in the same conference room. This time I brought the photograph of my mother, though I wasn't sure why. I set it beside Dana's notebook.
"I want you to write down what Wes said," I told her.
"About the kick?"
"He said he was angry and meant to get me out of the way. He said his foot hit my face. He apologized."
Dana nodded and opened her notebook. "Do you want me to include the exact words?"
"Yes."
She wrote them down, then read the statement back to me. I corrected one detail about where I'd been standing. When she finished, she asked what I wanted to happen next.
"I want to stay with June and Mark."
"Do you feel safe there now?"
"I feel safer with Wes gone. I don't know how I'd feel if he came
