CORA
As quickly as the moment comes, it vanishes. One uttered word, Cora’s nickname from her childhood and always. Mom’s eyes glisten, then fade. She’s gone again. But her whispered words stay with Cora.
Don’t let him see your pain.
Cora rises and pulls Harry Potter from her mother’s bookshelf and opens it to page one. She reads all the way to Harry’s arrival at Hogwarts. Mom listens, her misty eyes on Cora the entire time. Cora smiles at her. She smiles back. And when it is time for Cora to go, her mom asks her to keep reading.
“I’ll come by tomorrow to read some more,” she says and pats her mother’s shoulder.
“You are so kind, dear. Your mother raised you well,” Mom says.
Cora lets out a cool laugh. “Yes, she did.” She kisses the top of her mother’s head and takes the long way home
