Chapter 6Jesse
The apartment felt especially quiet when Jesse crawled out of bed. Muffled somehow. Jesse’s throat was dry and she went to the kitchen for a drink. Her mom was stirring something on the stove.
“Why aren’t you at the kindergarten?”
“Because it’s Saturday?”
“Oh.”
“I let you sleep in, in case you haven’t noticed.” Petra nodded toward the clock. “I figured since you didn’t even go to bed until three-thirty…”
They’d met in the hallway last night when Petra had gotten up to use the bathroom and Jesse had been counting her steps. It had been step 14,567, then 14,585 when Petra reemerged after using the toilet.
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, well, but I really wish you would reconsider. It is such an opportunity.”
“I told you I wasn’t going.” Which she had, somewhere around step 14,590 o
