Detached

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Authors: Christina Kilbourne
room. Then I went back to my bedroom to wait.
    Anna was in the shower for twenty minutes but I didn’t once knock on the door to see how she was doing. It took a lot of restraint. I thought about calling my husband or Joe, but until I found out what had happened I didn’t think I should worry either of them. Finally Anna emerged from the bathroom and scuttled into her room. I heard her moving about and then everything was quiet. When I couldn’t stand waiting another minute, I knocked on her bedroom door.
    â€œAnna?” I said quietly. She didn’t answer so I knocked again and walked in. She was tucked deep under her covers with her back to me.
    â€œAnna, I need to know what happened tonight.”
    â€œCan we talk in the morning? I’m beat.” She didn’t roll over to face me.
    â€œI won’t sleep if I don’t find out what happened. Why are you coming home so late soaking wet and smelling of beer? I thought you were sleeping over at Mariam’s?”
    â€œI changed my mind,” she said.
    It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about what happened, but I couldn’t let it go.
    â€œI want to know why you changed your mind and I suspect it has something to do with you coming home wet, so stop avoiding my questions and just tell me.”
    â€œI’m not avoiding anything.” She sighed deeply, as if I was being a huge pain in the butt and she wanted me to know. “The girls started drinking beer and getting rowdy, and I just didn’t feel comfortable, so I came home.”
    Her explanation was so mature it winded me, and for a moment I sat on the edge of her bed trying to sort out my thoughts.
    â€œWere you drinking?”
    â€œNo, but someone spilled some on me. Can I go to sleep now?”
    â€œHow did you get home?”
    â€œI took a cab.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you call me? You know I’d have come over no matter what time it was.”
    â€œI didn’t want you to know they were drinking.” She rolled over on her back and stared up at me. She looked embarrassed and I suddenly felt bad for making her tell on her friends.
    â€œI’m glad you came home, but I really wish you’d called for a ride.”
    â€œI was okay.”
    â€œStill,” I said. “Parents want to do those sorts of things for their kids.”
    â€œI’m sorry. I’ll remember for next time.”
    â€œHow did you get wet, anyway?”
    â€œThe girls threw me in Mariam’s pool.”
    â€œI didn’t know Mariam’s family had a pool. You poor thing. You must have been freezing. Why didn’t you change before you left?”
    â€œI only had my pajamas with me and I just wanted to get home.”
    â€œWas Aliya drinking?”
    She paused. “No, it wasn’t us. Some other girls showed up. Some girls from BHS that Mariam knows. She wanted them to leave but they wouldn’t.”
    â€œWere there boys?”
    â€œNo, just these girls. About seven or eight of them.”
    â€œAre they still over there? Should I go over and see if everything is okay?”
    â€œNo, no.” Anna said quickly. “I think it’s probably under control now. Can I please go to sleep? I’m so tired.”
    â€œOf course,” I said and stood up. I tucked the comforter tight around her the way I did when she was a little girl and kissed her on the cheek. “Sleep tight.”
    I made sure the front door was locked then went back to bed. It took me a long time to fall asleep, and as I did the questions I should have asked scrolled through my mind. Why didn’t she borrow some clothes from Mariam before she came home? Why were her shoes covered in mud and leaves? If she got thrown in a pool, why didn’t her clothes smell like chlorine? Where did those girls get the beer? Would she have minded if I’d lain with her awhile, just until she fell asleep, the way I did when she was little?
    There was

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