Bridget watched Effie and the funny way she stood and faced the door every time she needed to go out. Argued with her body like a bird cussing itself because it couldn’t fly. Bridget had seen it once, a robin, big, with all its feathers, and the other birds from its nest catching air from limb to limb, but it was stuck on the ground, telling its dumb wings fly, fly.
Let Effie stand there all day trying to find the courage. Bridget didn’t care. Effie was the one who threw away the shoes. Effie knew how to run up to the road and keep running until she reached Bleaksville, but she didn’t know how to be in the trees and trust them. She shouldn’t be the one who got to walk Jake in the sunshine.
Carrying the rope, Effie finally stepped out and faced Jake the hesitant way she’d faced the door.
