Odessa placed another bird on the table. ‘They kept rehearsing outdoors for a week. Then the weather turned, and one by one the families stopped bringing them. I thought if you heard what they had written, you might help. You wouldn’t answer me.’

Harper looked at the little wings. ‘You could have sent the script.’

‘I did. It came back.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Your email said the attachment was too large. You never replied to the message after it.’

Harper remembered deleting hundreds of messages without reading them. She did not explain; the explanation would have sounded like another excuse.

She reached toward a cardboard bird. Nell moved it away.

‘Not yet,’ the girl said.

Harper withdrew her hand. ‘All right.’

‘Grandma says you used to tell us we were allowed to disagree with you.’

‘I meant it.’

‘Then I’m disagreeing. We don’t need you to save our show. We need you to stop making decisions for us and then disappearing.’

Harper had prepared herself for accusation from Odessa and condescension from Julian. She had not prepared for the quiet precision of Nell’s disappointment.

She said, ‘Would you all talk with me tomorrow? Not your parents first. You. I can borrow the recreation-room tables at the library.’

Nell glanced at Odessa. The older woman offered no guidance.

‘We can decide,’ Nell replied. ‘Not you.’

‘Yes.’

Odessa rose to get another chair. Harper stopped her.

‘Before we make plans, we need to talk about the pool.’

The older woman sat again.

‘You frightened me,’ Harper said. ‘You crossed my yard, made a mess I had to pay to clean, and stood there daring me to react. It didn’t matter that you were trying to help the children. You could have hurt somebody.’

‘I understand.’

‘You keep saying that. Understanding isn’t the same as repairing it.’

Odessa reached into her cardigan and drew out a folded bank envelope. Inside was cash, counted carefully in worn bills. ‘This is what I have. I’ll pay the rest from next month’s pension.’

Harper did not take it. ‘You don’t have to hand me cash on the porch. I’ll give you the bill. And I want you to apologize to the children for making their work part of an attack.’

Nell stared at her grandmother. ‘You put our things in the pool?’

Odessa lowered her eyes. ‘Some of what was thrown away.’

‘You said you were collecting it.’

‘I was. I lost my temper with the adults. I thought if Harper saw how badly it had been treated, she would understand.’