Author's note: I just finished writing chapter 16 and it's really good! Like just fantastic. This chapter is good too, though. Enjoy!
Disillusioned
I wish you'd see things my way
…
The room felt colder and wetter than usual. Maddie groggily sat up in bed and noticed that Jack was once again not beside her.
She checked the time and sighed. Eight o'clock. Jack used to stay in bed until she got up. He would wrap his arms around her for a morning snuggle.
But not lately.
She went to the windows and opened the blinds to let in grey sunlight filtered through the clouds. A few drops of water clung to the glass, and the pavement below was dark with rain.
She scanned the neighborhood, the curbside as far as she could see. No police cars, no news vans.
She breathed out in relief. Maybe things would really, finally start to calm down and go back to how they were.
Footsteps coming from down the hall, too light to be Jack's. Danny? Her heart pounded as she waited.
Jazz appeared at the door, holding a tray table of breakfast food and a small vase of flowers. She was dressed for the day with her long hair gathered into two bunches behind her head. She pouted when she saw Maddie by the window. "Aw, you're already out of bed."
Maddie quickly put together what day it was. "Oh! I was just opening the blinds. I can get back in bed!"
Maddie bounded to her side of the bed and hopped back in, propping herself up against the headboard with a pillow behind her back. She pulled the covers over her legs and smiled at Jazz. "Ready!"
Jazz laughed and approached with the tray table, setting the legs on either side of Maddie's lap. "Happy Mother's Day!"
Maddie looked down at the freshly prepared breakfast items on the tray: a plate of bacon and fried eggs seasoned with salt and pepper; another plate of pancakes shaped like generic ghosts; a bottle of maple syrup; and a glass of pulp-free orange juice. A small vase held a fragrant spray of colorful flowers, red and yellow and a splash of purple. She could feel the warmth wafting off the food against her face.
"I tried to find a recipe to make green syrup for the pancakes," said Jazz. "You know, to look like ectoplasm. But I didn't think you'd want syrup that tastes like apples."
"No, no, this is perfect." Maddie reached out an arm to pull Jazz close and kissed the side of her face. "Thanks so much, sweetie."
Jazz beamed and took a seat on the edge of the bed. Maddie drizzled syrup over the ghost pancakes and cut off the arm of the first one. She placed the bite into her mouth and hummed with satisfaction as the sweetness swelled over her tongue.
"Mmm, that's good." Maddie cut off another bite, part of the ghost's tail this time. "Did Danny help you make all this?"
Maddie glanced out the door into the hallway, hoping to see Danny lurking there somewhere. Jazz played with one of her hair bunches, bringing it over her shoulder as she chewed on her bottom lip.
"Um…no, it was just me." Jazz also looked out into the hallway. "I was going to ask if he wanted to help, but his door was closed; I didn't want to bother him. But I did send him a text." Jazz took her phone out of her pocket and tapped the screen to life. "He still hasn't answered."
"Oh." Maddie tried to look at only Jazz and not the hallway. "Well, that's okay. It's been a rough week for him."
She forced a smile, wondering how many more times she could get away with making that excuse for Danny. Would it ever not be true?
"Right, yeah, I know," said Jazz. She paused. "Um, speaking of that, did the guidance counselor say anything? I mean, did she give you some kind of report about what she and Danny talked about this week?"
"Oh." Maddie hunched over, shoveling a large bite of egg into her mouth to give herself some time to think. "Hmm. Yes." She swallowed. "The counselor thinks that Danny is still trying to—er—process the time he was away from home." She took another bite, bacon this time, swallowed again. "She—Ms. Epps, is that her name?—she doesn't get the impression that Danny experienced any kind of trauma when he was gone. She thinks he just needs time to work things out on his own."
"'Things'?" echoed Jazz.
"His overuse of painkillers, dealing with the police and the media and everyone knowing about it, you know." Maddie lifted her glass of orange juice. "Things like that."
She tilted the glass to her mouth, gulping down half the juice. But her eyes were on Jazz the whole time.
"Yeah, that makes sense," said Jazz with a quick nod. "I mean, I know Dad thinks something traumatic did happen to Danny. And the cops are still investigating. But—um—yeah, I think Danny will start feeling like his normal self again when people forget what happened and move on."
Jazz looked at the floor as she played with one of her hair bunches, threading and combing her fingers through the red strands over and over again. Maddie set her glass on the tray and wondered what Jazz really knew, or rather, what she thought she knew. Danny had supposedly told her, Sam, and Tucker some lie about what happened to him when he went missing, but when Maddie tried to ask him about it, he refused to tell her any details. Because why did she even need to know? She shouldn't know, right? Wouldn't it be easier for her to keep up this charade if she really just didn't know?
"You really don't think something bad happened to Danny while he was gone?" asked Maddie softly.
Jazz turned to look at her, her eyes wide. "No, of course not. I mean, I think he would've told us if it did." She ducked her head just a little. "Do you?"
Maddie stared at her, wondering just how many times Jazz had lied in the past to protect Danny.
"No," she said.
A smattering of raindrops hit the window.
"Well, um…" Jazz stood and moved all of her hair behind her shoulders. She gestured to the tray. "I hope you liked your breakfast."
"Oh, yes, it's delicious!" Maddie smiled. "Thank you, sweetie."
"I should probably finish my valediction," said Jazz. "I'm supposed to submit it for approval by tomorrow."
"Let me know if you want me to look over it, dear. But I'm sure it will be very inspiring."
"Thanks, Mom."
Jazz turned to leave. Maddie glanced down the empty hallway.
"Before you do that, do you think you could send Danny in here?" Maddie asked quickly.
Jazz turned back to her, blinking. "Oh—yeah, sure. I'll see if he's up yet."
Jazz disappeared down the hallway. Maddie busied herself as she waited, finishing off the eggs and bacon, sipping at her orange juice.
Outside, the rain began to fall harder, winding down the window in wet streams.
She could hear low voices speaking in the hallway. A few moments later, Danny appeared at her doorway, dressed in his sleep clothes and barefoot, his eyes lidded as he stepped into the room.
"Jazz said you wanted to see me?" he said, his voice dull and raspy. He cleared his throat, massaging the front of his neck with one hand.
"Were you still sleeping?" asked Maddie with a small tilt of her head.
"Trying to." Danny's hand moved over his shoulder to scratch his back. "Didn't get much sleep last night."
Maddie wanted to ask why, but she hesitated instead, watching Danny's face for some kind of clue. But his expression remained tired and droopy, and Maddie decided it was best to just drop it.
"Um…well." Maddie used her fork to point to the unfinished pancakes on her plate. "Jazz made me these pancakes shaped like ghosts. Aren't they cute?"
Danny squinted at the tray in front of her.
"She made them for Mother's Day," said Maddie with a tiny smile.
Danny hummed, folding his arms and raising his eyes to her face.
"She said she tried to see if you wanted to help," continued Maddie, "but your door was closed, and she didn't want to bother you."
Danny thinned his lips and tightened his arms against his middle. Maddie tried to widen her smile but she could feel only one corner of her mouth obeying, the other corner twitching but refusing to move.
She stared at him with her lopsided attempt at a smile. Danny stared back. The rain outside slowed, making the silence in the room even more uncomfortable.
"Are you waiting for me to wish you a happy Mother's Day?" Danny asked at last, his eyes narrowing into slits.
Maddie felt a stabbing pain in her chest. Her crooked smile completely fell away.
"Close the door," she said in a low voice, peering into the hallway.
Danny reached back and pushed the door closed behind him.
"And can you come a little closer?" asked Maddie. "So we can talk quietly?"
Danny's arms were folded again as he came closer, stopping right next to the foot of the bed. Maddie picked up the tray table and set it on Jack's side of the bed.
"You can sit if you want," said Maddie.
Danny's eyes moved to the edge of the bed, his lips rounding and puckering as if he were considering something. He then turned so his back was toward the bed and sat near her legs.
Maddie waited for him to look at her, but he was staring straight ahead at the closed closet holding all of Maddie's and Jack's many jumpsuits. Maddie took the opportunity to study him closely, noting the dark circle under the one tired eye she could see from this angle, the sharp but handsome jut of his cheekbone, the masculine definition of his jawline that had no lingering traces of the baby fat she used to see. His dark hair was a tousled mess of cowlicks sticking out in all directions, falling over his ears and eyebrows, the sort of bedroom look that Maddie knew would drive any teenage girl wild.
Not that she really liked the idea of Danny dating anyone.
"Did I do something wrong?" blurted Maddie.
Danny turned his face to her. "Did you do something wrong?" He placed a finger to his chin, his brow dramatically furrowed as he looked up at the ceiling. "Hmm."
Maddie's jaw clenched, her nose wrinkling. "I don't mean that. I mean, did I do something recently? In the past couple days?" She held out a hand in a vague gesture. "You've been completely ignoring me all weekend. Every time I've tried to talk to you, you've just brushed me off, shot me down and locked your door."
Danny shrugged. "Why do you think we need to talk at all? Seems like you'd rather just do whatever you want without asking me about it anyway."
His voice warbled, a noticeable quaver of emotion. Maddie frowned and cocked her head.
"What are you talking about?" she demanded.
"Don't act like you don't know."
Maddie stared at him in silence, thinking back to Friday afternoon when Danny came home from school. It was the first time she noticed that something seemed different, a shift in his energy, more hostile than usual.
But what had happened that day? Danny had his last meeting with the guidance counselor, Jack insisted on driving to the school and picking Danny up, Maddie called Vlad as soon as Jack left and asked him to overshadow Jack, please, it was an emergency, they couldn't let Jack speak to Danny alone because there was no way Danny would be able to keep it together if Jack started hitting him with the hard questions.
Maddie focused on Danny's face again, the hardness in his eyes, and she knew exactly why he was angry.
"I told Vlad not to make it obvious," she muttered irritably.
Danny scowled. "So you were just hoping I wouldn't notice Vlad was overshadowing Dad? You weren't even going to tell me?"
"No, of course I was going to tell you. I just didn't want you hearing it from Vlad; I wanted to tell you myself."
"When? When were you going to tell me?"
Maddie glanced over at the tray table beside her, wishing she hadn't moved it so she could have an excuse to not look at Danny, pick at the unfinished pancakes, place them in her mouth and chew to give her more time to think before answering.
"Ah—well, I would've told you this weekend if you hadn't kept avoiding me," she stammered.
"So it's my fault you didn't tell me sooner?"
"Danny, keep your voice down."
Danny looked at the closed door. He turned back to her. "You should've told me," he said, quiet and low. "No, you should've asked me first if I was okay with Vlad overshadowing Dad at all."
"Asked you first?" Maddie pursed her lips. "Did you ask Dad if he was okay with it before all the times you overshadowed him?"
Danny shut his mouth.
"What about me?" continued Maddie. "Did you ask me if I was okay with it before you overshadowed me?"
"That's different. I did that to protect myself."
"Really? Overshadowing us to make us buy you a new Xbox was protecting yourself?"
A heated blush glowed in Danny's cheeks, angry tears shining in his eyes. Maddie waited for them to fall, but they never did.
"This is also to protect you, Danny," said Maddie more gently. "Vlad and I were discussing what to do about Dad being very persistent about figuring out what really happened while you were gone and making you talk to a therapist. We decided that overshadowing him was the best way to keep his suspicions under control."
"You and Vlad decided that?" Danny's voice cracked. "When?"
"Uh—" Maddie's eyes rolled up to the ceiling as she pretended to think, not wanting to admit that she had been keeping this decision secret from Danny for almost a week now. "I don't really remember what day it was."
"You don't remember," said Danny, narrowing his eyes.
Maddie shrugged.
"Vlad can't be trusted, Mom." Danny turned to face her more fully, his right hand pressing into the mattress near her legs. "Don't you remember what he did to us when he made us jump off that jet and stranded us in the mountains? And then he tried to come on to you?"
Maddie recalled the way Vlad leered at her as he brought her and Danny into his mountain chalet, the way he actually dropped to one knee and begged her to leave Jack for him.
"I do remember that," murmured Maddie.
"And don't you know he's tried to kill Dad multiple times so he can have you for himself?" asked Danny, holding up one hand to emphasize his point.
"That is unforgivable, but—"
"It's one thing for him to overshadow the cops or therapists, but Dad?" Danny huffed. "I mean, what if he tries something with you? What if he's overshadowing Dad and you don't even know? My ghost sense can't detect Vlad, you know. It doesn't work on half-ghosts."
"Danny, keep it down," hissed Maddie.
Danny pressed his lips and lowered his head.
"I've thought about that, too," said Maddie. "I definitely wouldn't put it past Vlad to be that much of a creep."
He had looked at her with such longing in that lab, the day of her anniversary when she was supposed to be in Jack's arms but instead she was alone, jilted.
But Vlad still wanted her, even after all the times she spurned him and spat venom at him. He still admired her mind and her body and—
And she missed that, being desired, when was the last time Jack desired her?
Heat rose up her neck. Maddie pretended to shudder in an attempt to shake it off.
"That's why I spent all week designing a watch-sized ghost detector that's keyed in to Vlad's ecto-signature," said Maddie. "I'll know if it's him or not."
Danny glanced at her bare wrist.
"It's down in the lab," said Maddie, somewhat sheepishly. "I haven't finished it yet. But I made Vlad promise that he wouldn't overshadow Dad without my express permission."
Danny narrowed his eyes at her, sucking the inside of one cheek. Maddie opted not to tell him that even if Vlad did overshadow Jack to try to sleep with her, she would know it wasn't really him. Jack had been refusing all of her advances lately.
But she couldn't let Danny know just how much her relationship with Jack was deteriorating. No, her sensitive boy couldn't possibly handle that wound right now.
"Vlad is the only person who can help us, Danny," said Maddie. "We have no choice but to trust him. We need him; you know that as well as I do."
Danny scowled at her for a very long moment, his lips tight together as he exhaled sharply through his nose.
And then he relaxed, turning away and shaking his head.
"I still don't understand why you didn't ask me what I thought about it first," he said. "Why you just made that decision without me."
"What would you have said?" asked Maddie. "Can you think of a better way to get Dad to drop his suspicions?"
"It doesn't matter. You should've included me in the decision."
"We couldn't wait for you, Danny. Something had to be done about Dad right away."
Danny said nothing and stared ahead at Maddie's closet.
"I know things have been tense between us," said Maddie in a low voice, "but I am still your mother, and I made the decision that I thought was best to keep you safe."
Danny's head snapped back to her. "I am not a child anymore. You can't just make big decisions like this without me."
"You are still a child, Danny. And you're my child."
Silence, heavy and strained. Danny glowered at her fiercely. Maddie held his gaze, unwavering.
"I guess it's just more of the same, isn't it?" said Danny darkly. "You do what you want and I just have to take it." He shrugged. "Just like in the lab."
Maddie's throat closed up. She sucked in a deep breath, attempting to reopen it. "That. Really. Isn't fair," she managed to force out.
"Sorry. Am I ruining Mother's Day for you?"
Danny's eyes were comically wide with mock naivete. Maddie blew her breath out hard and shifted her position in bed, sitting up straighter.
"I don't expect you to wish me a happy Mother's Day," she said. "I know I don't deserve that. I hurt you, Danny. I recognize that."
Danny's expression fell, his eyes lowering. He crossed his arms and scratched at both elbows as he turned away.
"But if you really, seriously want to cover this up, you need to change your attitude," continued Maddie. "You need to pretend like nothing is wrong between us. Especially since we have family coming into town this weekend for Jazz's graduation."
Danny grimaced but still didn't look at her.
"You know why Dad is still suspicious? You know why the police aren't just dropping it?" Maddie used one hand to gesture toward her door in an indication of all the people on the other side. "It's because you keep raising red flags, Danny. Your hostility, locking yourself in your room all day, taking all your posters off your walls—how do you think that looks to people, Danny?"
Danny hunched over, his eyes squeezing shut.
"Our family all know you were gone for three weeks; they're going to be looking at you very, very closely," Maddie went on. "And if you don't want them to see anything they shouldn't, then you need to start acting right."
She threw her arms out, letting them fall to the bed with a thud.
"Because I can't keep doing damage control on my own, Danny. You wanna know why I didn't ask you before I let Vlad overshadow Dad? Because you're a mess!" Maddie attempted to keep her voice down but her words were coming out in a snarl. "I did what had to be done to keep this cover story going, to keep you safe. Because you keep closing yourself off and having meltdowns in class and people are noticing. And I'm the one who keeps having to explain your behavior and make up excuses for you and I just can't hold off Dad on my own anymore."
She pressed one palm to her chest. Her heart trembled beneath her fingertips.
"You have to help me out here, Danny." She dug her nails into the collar of her nightgown. "I can't keep making excuses for the way you're acting."
Danny cradled his head in his hands, his elbows propped just above his knees as he curled in on himself.
"I know, I know," he gasped. "I—I'm—"
He jumped to his feet, pacing the floor a few times before turning to face her from the other side of the bed's footboard.
"I'm trying, okay?" His voice was tight. "I'm trying to act like me, but it's just—I can't sleep at night because I keep having nightmares. And during the day, things happen that—I mean, things just remind me of—"
He gripped the footboard with both hands, his arms shaking. Maddie could see tears glistening in his eyes before he closed them and bent his head down.
"And you're right, they're all noticing." Danny's voice was now swollen. "Dad, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Lancer—and they don't like this person I am right now, I can see it. They want me to be Danny again, but I just—I don't know how."
The shaking in his arms moved up into his shoulders and through the rest of his body as he continued to hold the footboard. His bangs hid the upper half of his face as his head sank even lower. Maddie waited for the sound of sobbing, the same sound she had heard from Phantom that night she gave him the chance to win his freedom in a one-on-one fist fight, out in the open air just outside the lab, surrounded by a ghost shield.
She remembered the crunch of her boot slamming into his head, the feel of his bones cracking and muscles spraining and flesh bruising as she beat him into the ground.
But most of all, she remembered his sobbing. Harsh tears gushing down his face, soaking his skin, falling falling falling and never stopping.
And the sound of it, the wailing spasms in his throat as he heaved and gasped for air. So much agony and misery in each violent shudder of his chest, emotions that were supposed to be impossible for ghosts to feel.
She waited to hear it now as Danny clutched at the footboard. But even as she watched his entire body convulse, she heard nothing more than a few soft whimpers.
"I mean, what do you want me to do?" he asked in a tortured whisper. "This destroyed me."
The word hit Maddie hard. Destroyed, she destroyed him—
Her—she did that, she destroyed him—
They hadn't gotten a chance to really talk about it yet, about what happened, about what she did to him. Or rather, he refused to talk about it. And she never pushed it because she didn't actually want to know just how much she hurt him, didn't want to know exactly how he felt being chained to that metal table night after night after night after—
Maddie breathed in, then let it out in a deep sigh. "I know it's not fair for me to ask or even expect you to act like everything's okay. But that's why we have to let Vlad overshadow Dad. You see that, don't you?"
She watched him closely. His head was still bent down but she thought she saw him give just the tiniest nod. The entire bed frame shook as his trembling hands continued to grip the footboard.
"Danny," said Maddie.
Danny lifted his head. Though his eyes were very wet, no tears were running down his face.
"You don't have to hold it in," said Maddie. "You don't have to be strong right now."
Danny stared at her a moment before straightening and tilting his head up toward the ceiling, blinking rapidly. "No. No, I'm not crying in front of you," he said, though Maddie wasn't sure if he was talking to her or himself.
He still had a hold on the footboard, looking up toward the ceiling with heavy tears in his eyes, the muscles in his temples and jaw and neck visibly twitching.
"Danny." Maddie held out her arms to him. "Danny, come here."
Danny's head came back down, blood rushing to his cheeks in a burst as his brows angled over his hardening eyes. "No." He jabbed one finger in her direction. "You don't get to do that."
Maddie lowered her arms, wounded. "Then what can I do to help you? How can I help you feel better?"
"Help me feel better?" Danny scoffed, then sniffled. "Weren't you the one saying my feelings aren't real? That my tears are just an imitation? That ghosts can't experience real emotions?"
He ducked his head, more shaking and shivering. "Do you still think that's true?" he asked in a fragile whisper. "What I'm feeling right now, is this not real?"
Maddie didn't speak for a moment as she tried to gather her thoughts, find the right words. She wondered what answer Danny was hoping to hear.
"Your DNA is human," said Maddie at last. "I saw it myself. DNA doesn't lie."
Danny's eyes widened, his lips parting slightly.
"But it is strange," Maddie went on, cautiously. "Your DNA makeup, its molecular structure—I've never seen anything like it." She sighed. "There's so much about you that I don't understand. And I wish I could."
"How?" asked Danny, almost breathlessly. "More experiments?"
Maddie held his gaze, so much despair and doubt in his ice blue eyes.
And then she inhaled sharply and looked around for something, anything, a distraction. Because she was sure her own eyes would betray her if she stared at him a moment longer. And she couldn't let Danny know that she had already been secretly experimenting on him again, that bits of his skin and hair and saliva were scattered on the counters in Vlad's private lab, various machines analyzing parts of his body at this very moment.
She grabbed the tray table and set it in front of her again, sitting up a little straighter as she used her fork to cut into her ghost-shaped pancakes, syrup squelching out of the soggy batter bread. She slipped a bite into her mouth, sweet and spongy and cold.
Danny lowered his head again, leaning over the bed with his elbows propped on top of the footboard. Maddie busied herself with eating, one bite after another, cut, stab, lift, chew, repeat.
After a few minutes, Danny lifted his head. Maddie caught his bleary gaze and gave him a tentative smile.
"Do you want a bite?" she asked, holding up a small piece of pancake on her fork.
Danny's eyelids fluttered. "No," he said, hushed and tired.
Maddie lowered her fork.
"Is there anything else you haven't told me yet?" asked Danny.
Maddie tensed, remembering Vlad and Elsie encouraging her to take advantage of the perfect alibi and tell the police that she was having an affair with Phantom all the nights she was actually going out to torture her own son.
But she didn't need to tell him about that. Because she was definitely not going to do it.
"No," said Maddie, looking down at her plate. She could feel Danny's eyes on her as she picked and stabbed at the remaining pancakes.
"Can I go now?" he suddenly asked, letting go of the footboard.
Maddie raised her eyes and nodded. "Of course, honey."
She watched him turn, watched him walk to the door and open it. He stood there for a moment, his hand still on the doorknob, his back facing her. Past him, Maddie thought she could see movement in the hallway, a shadow disappearing into darkness.
"Happy Mother's Day," he murmured, not turning around.
Maddie stared at his back, too stunned to respond. Danny let go of the doorknob and left the room, becoming part of the shadows in the hall.
Later, Jack entered the bedroom just as Maddie finished getting dressed. She zipped up her jumpsuit and closed her closet before turning to him more fully. Jack was also dressed in his jumpsuit, a pair of teal goggles resting on top of his head.
"Roy was just texting me," said Jack, holding up his cell phone.
Roy, Jack's older brother. Maddie only ever spoke to him when they visited Jack's parents for the holidays. "Are he and Lisa going to come for Jazz's graduation after all?" she asked.
"Lisa still can't get off work, but Roy says he can make it," said Jack. "He's wondering if we have room for him to stay with us."
Maddie glanced in the direction of Danny's room. "Normally we would have him take Danny's room and set up the couch bed for Danny." She bit her bottom lip. "But I don't think we can do that to Danny this time."
She waited for Jack to gripe, to protest, to insist that Danny was still a child and that an adult like his brother should definitely be given a proper bed. But to her surprise, Jack nodded.
"I agree," said Jack. "With everything going on, the last thing Danny needs is to be forced out of his own room for a couple days." He paused. "Although it hardly looks like his room anymore. I still can't believe he took down all his posters and got rid of so many of his collectibles."
Maddie stiffened but tried to answer nonchalantly with a dismissive flick of her hand. "He's just growing up, Jack."
"I know he is, but this was just so sudden." Jack stretched the thumb and middle finger of one hand across his face to massage both of his temples. "I'm second-guessing my decision to not find a therapist for Danny. I'm not even sure I remember why I changed my mind on that."
"Because you felt that Danny just needs time to adjust," said Maddie firmly. "You felt it was best that we don't make him feel like something is wrong with him."
"But is that really a good reason to forgo getting him a therapist?"
Maddie fought the urge to look back at her phone on her nightstand. She would have to text Vlad about this, let him know that Jack's resolve was already starting to creep back into his brain and that a ghostly intervention would be needed to subdue him again.
"I think it's the right decision, Jack," said Maddie. "Therapy isn't what Danny needs right now. He just needs our understanding and patience as he works through this on his own."
Jack blinked several times, no nodding. His eyes moved from her to the bed, and Maddie's heart beat a little faster. She imagined him throwing her onto the bed like he used to, tearing off her jumpsuit even though she just finished putting it on.
But then she followed his gaze and could see that he was actually looking at the tray table now perched in the middle of the unmade bed. The food was all gone now, nothing left but syrup and yolk stains and bacon crumbs. The flowers were already showing signs of wilting, splaying apart from each other in the vase.
"Jazz made me breakfast," said Maddie.
"I had some of the pancakes she made downstairs," said Jack.
Maddie rubbed her palm with one thumb and pulled her lips in, pressing them together and then releasing them with a tiny pop!
"Are you having a good Mother's Day so far?" asked Jack.
Maddie hesitated, unsure how to answer. Jack left before she could.