LILY
We’d just gotten back from the grocery store and Margaret walked ahead of us into the building.
Alice took her shoes off by the door without being asked.
She lined them up neatly, toes facing outward, then looked over her shoulder at me as if waiting for confirmation. When I didn’t say anything, she nodded to herself and padded down the hallway.
It shouldn’t have stood out. Plenty of children were taught to do that.
But Alice had never been one of them.
She usually kicked her shoes off wherever she happened to stop, laughing when I pretended to trip over them later. She liked chaos in small doses. Liked knowing she could make a mess and still be wanted.
I watched her walk ahead of me, her steps careful, measured. She kept her hands folded in front of her body like she was carr
