For falling?”
Owen shrugged.
“No,” Nathan said. “Grass gets lonely. Sometimes people visit.”
Owen stared.
Then he laughed.
Lily dropped beside him dramatically. “I’m visiting too!”
Nathan fell back on the grass with an exaggerated groan.
Soon both children were laughing on top of him, and Marco looked away quickly.
I pretended not to notice his eyes had gone wet.
That afternoon, Owen handed me a dandelion.
It was half crushed.
“For your office,” he said.
“My office may not deserve something this nice.”
“Then put it somewhere else.”
“Good advice.”
Lily ran up with three more. “You need a family of flowers.”
I took them carefully.
That night, I placed all four dandelions in a glass of water on my kitchen island.
They looked absurd there beneath the modern pendant lights, surrounded by marble, steel, and silence.
They also looked like the first honest decoration the place had ever
