CHAPTER 20: THE SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR
At the spring science fair, June presented a project about how astronomers detect planets they cannot see directly. She explained that a star’s tiny wobble can reveal an unseen companion. I listened from the back of the classroom, thinking about all the small changes I had overlooked in my own home. Her teacher praised the clarity of her diagrams. June won a ribbon, then immediately asked whether we could stop for ice cream. We did. She chose mint chocolate chip and got it on her sleeve. On the drive home she asked if I thought people could change. I told her some could, if they admitted what they had done and worked consistently to behave differently. “What if they just say sorry?” she asked. “Then you can listen,” I said, “but you don’t have to trust them right away.” She nodded as if that answer fit into a puzzle she was assembling. I hoped it would serve her better than the lessons I had learned growing up, when politeness was sometimes treated as more important than safety. At home, we hung the science ribbon beside a photograph of her first day of school. I noticed that she had begun humming while she worked again. I had missed that sound more than I knew.
