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you’ve been quiet as a mouse. What delightful piece of gossip do you have for us today? You’ve always got some tasty morsel.”
    She cleared her throat, set down the fork, swallowed with difficulty her last bite, and said, “I think I’m getting a divorce.”
    Five pair of eyes stared without blinking, forks went down, friends made little humming noises in their throats.
    “And if you believe that,” Katy Lynn whispered after an appropriate time of silence, “I’ve got a wonderful little plot of land to sell you off the coast of Africa!”
    The girls relaxed and laughed, pursed their lips, jabbered back and forth. “Honestly, Katy Lynn, why we ever take you seriously, I don’t know!” Giggled. “You are always trying to shock us, but I didn’t buy it for one second.”
    She relaxed and smiled. “Of course not. I didn’t think you would.”
    Keep up appearances. Play the game. The expression on each face was priceless. They had no idea.

CHAPTER THREE

    WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
    “Lissa! Time to go!”
    “Coming, Dad!” She hurried out the front door, a brush in one hand, a bagel in the other, then stuffed the bagel into her mouth as she opened the car door and sat down. She pulled on the seat belt, then brushed her hair into a ponytail, wrapped it around her fingers, and secured the makeshift bun with a clip.
    “Ready for another day of work?”
    “Yes, sir.” She took a bite of the bagel.
    “And you’re having another driving lesson after you finish up?”
    “Yes, sir.” She chewed slowly, swiped at a few crumbs.
    “Need me to take you there—over by Fort Oglethorpe, isn’t it?”
    “No, you don’t need to drive me, Dad. The instructor will pick me up at school around five. He’ll let me off there too, after the lesson—at six thirty.”
    “Then I’ll be waiting for you at six thirty.”
    “Thanks.” She took another bite of bagel and stared out the window until she found the courage to speak. “Dad, I don’t know if you saw it, but we got word about Caleb. I was wondering if maybe we—”
    “Lissa, we have talked about that subject enough. I thought I told you not to bring it up again!” Her father’s face reddened, his voice boomed through the car.
    She flinched. “But, Dad, we’ve never settled anything, and I have to give an answer… .”
    “You know good and well that I have already given an answer. It is settled.” His eyes had that familiar, furious look.
    Lissa shuddered. “Yes, sir.”
    Silence reverberated throughout the car for five minutes as her father drove down the winding road taking them from Lookout Mountain into Chattanooga. Then, as if his outburst had not occurred, he turned to her, smiling, and said, “Did you see the mail I put on your desk yesterday, Liss? Three more colleges. Good offers.”
    “I saw, Dad.”
    “Well, I hope you can find some time in your busy schedule”—he glanced her way and chuckled—“to fill them out. That’s what that little counselor told you, wasn’t it? Set some goals, have a routine. Movin’ forward, girl. That’s what we gotta do.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    He let her off in front of the school building, and she pecked him on the cheek—like a five-year-old.
    She watched the children getting out of cars, waving, rushing with their books to the elementary school. She smiled to herself as Amber, her favorite third grader, blew three kisses to her mother and then ran toward Lissa, calling, “Miss Randall! Miss Randall!”
    “What is it, Amber?”
    “I finished it! I finished A Little Princess, and you were right. It’s the best, best book I’ve ever read.”
    “I knew you’d like it. Sarah is a wonderful girl.”
    “She’s courageous.”
    “That she is, Amber.”
    Lissa watched the little girl disappear down the hall. Precocious, eager Amber. And Sarah Crewe, the little princess. Sarah, the girl with everything. Sarah, who lost it all and kept her dignity and compassion.
    She had wanted to be like Sarah when she