Chapter 101
The Copies of Claire
The copies sat along the hallway.
Eight-year-old Claire held a prescription bottle. Twelve-year-old Claire carried a school report. Seventeen-year-old Claire wore a hospital bracelet. Twenty-three-year-old Claire held Mara's hand.
Each version was a witness to a different family rule.
“Which one is real?” Ada asked.
The little girl answered, “The one who remembers being asked.”
Claire approached the youngest copy.
“Did you want to watch Lena?”
The child shook her head.
“Did you want to be responsible?”
Another shake.
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because Mother looked tired.”
The hallway changed.
Claire saw her mother sitting at the kitchen table, unable to open the prescription bottle. Lena cried in the next room. Claire reached for the bottle instead.
The first witness was not chosen because she was strong. She was chosen because an adult had run out of strength.
Mara's model appeared at the end of the hall.
“You made the same choice with me,” she said.
“I was a child.”
“So was I.”
The copies began to speak at once.
“I remember.”
“I told her.”
“I did not tell her.”
“I kept the secret.”
The house filled with overlapping voices.
Claire stood in the center.
“No one child is responsible for the whole story.”
The voices stopped.
The copies vanished.
The hallway door opened onto the kitchen.
On the table lay her mother's locked prescription drawer.