LOGINHANNAH'S POV: "My project is about sleep and bacteria," Andrew said. "Which is not about her directly. But she is the reason our family has been through everything it has been through, which is the reason I was in this competition." He said this with the careful logical sequence of someone who had worked out the chain. "So indirectly she is connected to everything I do." A pause. "Yes," Amelia said. "Of course you can put yours there too." I got up and went to look at the mantelpiece properly. The photograph had been there since Adele had sent us a print, a few months ago now, and it had become part of the room. She slid off her stool and went to the mantelpiece where the framed photograph of Mirada lived, the one from Adele's album that we had printed and framed, the one where she was smiling in the full warm way of someone in the middle of being happy. Amelia set her trophy beside it. Came back for Andrew's certificate. "Andrew should put his," I said. He got down from his st
HANNAH'S POV:We were home by six fifteen.The four of us in the kitchen, the twins were still in their competition clothes because neither of them had changed yet and I had not pushed it because there was something I wanted to preserve about the day for a little longer.Jacob called first.He called before we even had our coats off and the conversation was Jacob's way of conversation where he kept saying wait wait wait and making us repeat things he had already heard because he wanted the full version. Cherry was beside him, we could hear her, and she kept asking questions in the background which Jacob relayed with his own commentary attached."She is asking if Amelia cried," he said."I am asking if Amelia performed or if she ascended," Cherry's voice said, clearly having decided to stop letting Jacob relay things."She ascended," I said. "She wrote a monologue and she performed it and the adjudicator said she had rarely seen that level of original writing at this age."Cherry made
ELIJAH'S POV:The panel chair went through the placings from third upward. Third place was the water filtration project. I watched Andrew register this without any expression on his face. Second place was the light spectrum project. I watched him register this too, still without expression.The results took time. The panel chair went through the categories methodically and there were several before Life Sciences and Andrew waited through all of them without fidgeting.I watched him while he waited. He was watching the panel and reading their faces, not anxiously but with the data-gathering attention he brought to everything. At one point he leaned slightly toward me and said, very quietly, "The grey-haired judge spoke more extensively about the projects she responded to. I counted the questions." I looked at him. "She asked me three questions," he said. "She asked the other projects one or two." He said this without triumph. Just as information."How many questions did the other judge
HANNAH'S POV:"No," she said. "Mine are right for my piece. But hers are right for hers. I am just saying it is good. You can appreciate something without wanting it for yourself.""That is a very mature observation," I said."I know," she said, and went back to watching.We sat together in the green room while the remaining performers finished and the audience waited for the results and Amelia was very calm.I sat beside her and I thought about the monologue. About her writing it thinking about Mirada. About a girl finding a photograph of a woman who was a dancer before she was anything else.My mother would never know she had a granddaughter who had written something beautiful about exactly that. But in some way I could not explain properly and did not try to explain to anyone but understood in my own chest, I felt certain she knew anyway.* * * * * * *The results for the junior solo category were announced at half past three.The adjudicator was a small woman with a clear voice wh
ELIJAH'S POV:The morning was the set-up and informal viewing period where parents and other students could look at the displays. Andrew stood at his table and answered questions from people who wandered past with the confidence and precision of someone who had answered every version of these questions in his own head already and was not going to be thrown by them in the real world.A girl from another school stopped and read his methodology section carefully."Did you actually collect sleep data from your classmates?" she asked."With their consent and the school nurse's oversight, yes," Andrew said."How many participants?" she asked."Fourteen," he said. "Over three weeks. With a control period and an intervention period where participants received a standardized probiotic supplement for comparison."She stared at him. "How old are you again?""Eight," he said.She stared for another second and then walked away without saying anything else. Andrew watched her go and then looked at
ELIJAH'S POV:In the car on the way to the fair, Andrew was quiet for most of it, which I did not try to fill. He was looking out the window with the expression he had when he was running through things internally, not anxiously, just methodically, the way a pilot might run through a checklist not because they expect problems but because thoroughness is the habit that prevents them.About fifteen minutes in he said, "What if a judge asks me something I have not considered?""Then you tell them you have not considered it yet and you say what you think the answer might be based on what you know," I said. "And you tell them you would want to investigate further before committing to a conclusion."He thought about this. "That is what I told the judge this morning about the limitation of my dataset.""I know," I said. "And it was the right answer.""It felt risky," he said. "Acknowledging what I do not know.""The judges know what you do not know," I said. "Acknowledging it yourself is wha
HANNAH’S POV:THREE DAYS LATER:“No! No! No!” I screamed as I jolted up and I took in deep breaths. “What’s going on? What happened? Are you okay?” Elijah wrapped his arms around me and asked in the space of a second.I glanced back at him and leaned on him which led to him to wrap his hands aroun
HANNAH’S POV: Thankfully. the traffic was merciful that evening. I arrived at Elijah’s office building earlier than expected, the sky painted in soft hues of gold as the sun began to set. I pulled into the parking lot, stepping out with excitement already fluttering in my chest. My phone rang ins
HANNAH'S POV: A FEW DAYS LATER:"Where are we going?" I asked, laughing and trying to calculate my steps as Elijah guided me with his hands over my eyes.He didn't answer. He only chuckled under his breath, warm and teasing, the sound vibrating close to my ear as he walked behind me. I could feel
ELIJAH'S POV:Someone had hurt her. I'd seen the hair. The way her phone was thrown. The open car door.She'd fought. I knew she had. Hannah wouldn't go quietly.The thought made my chest feel like it was caving in.Police sirens had started approaching from every direction within minutes. Red and







