“This is Detective Reynolds. The police had to be called. Can you tell him what you know about what happened?”
“How’s Mother? Did Dr. Moffet get her to wake up?”
Daddy shook his head. “She’s gone, honey. I’m afraid we’ve lost her.”
“I made her a better sandwich,” I said. “I thought if she ate something …”
I felt a trembling in my face. It was as if my body was in its own earthquake. Daddy sat on my bed and embraced me. He rocked me, and my tears flowed over my cheeks onto his shoulder. Then he lowered me to my pillow again and wiped my hair back from my forehead just the way Mother would.
“Can you tell Detective Reynolds what you remember, Semantha?” he asked. “Tell him what happened.”
I took a deep breath.“I don’t know what happened. I was downstairs waiting until it was two o’clock before I went up to see her.”
“Why did you wait until two?” Detective Reynolds asked.
“We didn’t want Mother to know I was home.”
“But why not, Semantha?” Daddy asked.
Before I could answer, Cassie came to the doorway and stood looking in at us.
“I waited until two, just as Cassie told me to,” I said. “I did, Cassie.” I looked at Daddy. “Cassie said it would upset Mother if she knew I hadn’t really gone to the gala, and she would call you, and you would be upset, and you had so much to do.”
“I didn’t mean for you to neglect her so long,” Cassie said. “I just told her to stay away long enough for Mother to think she had gone, Daddy.”
“But you said … I thought you said to wait until two, Cassie.”
“She’s just confused, Daddy.”
“Oh, God,” Daddy said, bringing his right thumb and index finger to his temples. “I should have insisted we have someone here.”
“It’s not your fault, Daddy. It’s mine,” I said.
“No, no, it’s not your fault or Cassie’s, Semantha. Both of you were doing what you thought best,” Daddy said. “I was simply too distracted with this opening.”
“And when you finally came up and looked in on her, what did you see?” Detective Reynolds asked me.
“She hadn’t eaten her sandwich. She hadn’t eaten much of her breakfast or her dinner the night before, so I tried to get her to eat something. I thought …” I looked past him at Cassie. “I thought maybe she didn’t like the sandwich Cassie had made, so I went down and made her a new sandwich with fresh chicken. I cut it in four equal parts. That’s the way Daddy likes his sandwiches, and sometimes Mother does, too.”
“She was talking to you?” he asked.
“No. She was just looking up at the ceiling and not moving.”
“Then how did you know she didn’t want the first sandwich?” Detective Reynolds asked me.
I started to cry again.“She wouldn’t eat it.”
“She’s not making any sense,” Daddy muttered. “I’m sure she’s in a bit of shock. Let her rest. I’ll bring her around, or you can return if necessary,” he told Detective Reynolds.
He nodded and turned to leave.
Daddy stroked my hair and smiled. “You stay here and rest a while, Semantha. Cassie will stay with you. I have things to do.”
He followed the detective out, and Cassie came in and stood by the window looking out.
“You did tell me to stay away from her until two o’clock, right, Cassie?”
“It was such a wonderful day for us,” she said instead of answering. “Daddy has the DVD to play back, so you’ll see. How horrible for this to have happened today of all days. She just couldn’t let him have his day.”