Chapter 65 - The Work Without My Name
Six weeks after I stepped aside, the company continued operating.
Invoices were paid.
A contract was renewed.
A disagreement I would once have spent three days controlling was resolved without consulting me.
I found that reassuring.
I also found it difficult.
Lena appeared to believe both reactions could exist without requiring a crisis.
One morning, Dana sent an update.
The review was continuing.
Several procedures would change immediately. Other recommendations would wait for completed findings.
There was no date for my return to executive duties.
I read the message while standing beside the school bags.
Then I put down the phone.
Nico was waiting.
“You said we could walk.”
“I remember.”
Outside, he carried his model in a box.
It was part of a classroom project.
A small structure with supports he had adjusted repeatedly after the first version collapsed.
At the school entrance, he asked me to stop.
“I can carry it from here.”
I let go.
He took three careful steps.
Then turned.
“You can still come in.”
“Thank you.”
His presentation was not effortless.
He lost his place.
Asked for a moment.
Looked at the card Ms. Ellis had helped him prepare.
Then he explained why one support needed to move.
A classmate asked whether he had built it alone.
“Not all of it,” he said. “Daniel showed me something, and Dad held parts.”
I sat in a small chair and accepted my accurate share of the credit.
That afternoon, Ava called.
She had completed her first assessment.
“Passed,” she said.
“That’s wonderful.”
“Not the highest score.”
“Did you learn what you need to work on?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m listening.”
She told me.
I asked questions.
None concerned whether she had impressed the right people.
Later, Thomas sent Rebecca a brief update that he agreed she could share.
He had attended another interview.
The document brought to his home remained with the investigators.
There was no dramatic conclusion.
He and his wife had also spent a day visiting their granddaughter.
I found myself relieved by that detail more than anything else.
At dinner, Isabel asked what my job was now.
“Some of it is answering questions.”
“That sounds like school.”
“A little.”
“What else?”
I looked around the table.
There were business matters I still handled within the agreed limits. Records to provide. Decisions about my own future that would have to wait.
But tonight, there were also plates.
A school form.
A cupboard door I had promised to tighten.
“I have several things to do,” I said.
After dinner, I found the screwdriver.
Nico watched from the doorway.
“Do you need help?”
I looked at the loose hinge.
“Yes.”
May you like
He came to hold the door steady.
We finished before bedtime.
