"You forgot to tell them?" Toni repeated.

"Well," Josie said, "Paulina went off on Rain, and..."

"Never mind," Toni said. "I get it. You were in a hurry to get Rain out of there."

"Right," Josie said, "only now it's going to be so much harder to tell them the truth."

"But you'll have to tell the truth sooner or later," said Toni.

"I know," Josie said, "but how can I tell Joe that his son is dead because his so-called best detective was careless with her gun?"

"It won't be easy," Toni admitted, "but you've made difficult confessions to Joe before."

"Not as difficult as this one is going to be."

######
Rain, meanwhile, lay in her bed. She kept seeing herself taking that gun, bringing it to school, and then... that one minute in the schoolyard.
She kept hearing Dante's "Rain, how did you get your Mom's gun? Dad NEVER lets me touch his gun."

"Do you want to touch this one?"

"No, and I think you should take that gun back to your Mom before someone gets hurt."

And then, the teacher on yard duty had approached. She was young and inexperienced, and she had let out a horrified shriek. Startled, Rain had
dropped the gun. A second later, Dante...

"MOM!" Rain called. "MOM!"

####

"I have to go," Josie said. "Rain needs me."

She went to Rain's room, took the shaking child into her arms, and held her close.

"Oh, Mom," Rain sobbed, "why can't it be this morning... before I took the gun?"

"Or before I forgot to put it away," Josie said. "Sunshine, we can't change what we did, or didn't do. Some mistakes just can't be changed."

"Mom, what if nothing had happened? What if I just took the gun and brought it back after school?"

"Or if I had discovered that you'd taken it before it was too late," Josie added.

"What would you have done then, Mom?"

"Why are you asking me this?" Josie asked

"You would have punished me, wouldn't you?"

"Yes," Josie said, "I would have punished you, because even though it was my fault for leaving the gun on the dresser, you still knew better than to touch it."

"Then how come you didn't punish me?" Rain asked.

"Because sometimes it isn't necessary."

"I wish you would, anyway."

Josie remembered the time, several years earlier, when she had confessed to Joe about tampering with the tape. He had been very understanding. No, more
than understanding, more than forgiving. He had been loving. She remembered how he had told her that whatever punishment the department decided to
hand down would be nothing compared to what she was doing to herself.

"All right, Rain," Josie said, " I will punish you... tomorrow."