Change Places with Me(48)

Evelyn reached over and picked up the bald elephant. “It made me . . . sick at heart. I worried that I was as bad as Phil, unable to say no to you. But it was the first thing you were ever willing to try. . . . I had to admire you for that.” She put the elephant down. “I admire you still.”

It came to the girl then, out of the blue.

Cora.

Clara had never given any thought to her name. Rose had picked a name that fit like a second skin, but maybe that meant a name you put on or slipped into, something added to the outside. This one seemed to come from deep inside. “Cora,” she said, placing her hand on her chest. “My name.”

Evelyn turned on her lamp and studied her carefully. “Cora it is.”

Cora sat on the edge of the bed. “Dad used to sit on the side of my bed when he read to me.”

“So patiently. He always read ‘Snow-white’ like it was completely new, even though the two of you already knew every word.”

“That reminds me. There’s this old movie based on ‘Snow-white,’ a screwball comedy. I might go see it Sunday—I have to talk to someone about that—but there’s something else I’d like to do this weekend. With you, if that’s okay.”

“What’s that?”

“Come on—I’ll show you.”

Evelyn got out of bed and took a moment to put her kimono on Cora’s shoulders. Then they went to the desk, where Cora sat in the chair while Evelyn stood beside her. Cora tucked her hair behind both ears. She opened Evelyn’s laptop and typed in “Australian cattle dog rescue.”

“I only just heard about this kind of dog,” Cora said. “I saw one, and then I saw another.”

It turned out there were quite a few rescue centers up and down the East Coast, some not too far away, in New Jersey and Connecticut. Evelyn seemed interested. She went to the kitchen to grab a chair and bring it back with her. In the moonlight, they continued looking at the computer for some time, reading about the breed—highly intelligent, tenacious, needing lots of activity. And fiercely loyal, and protective of the people they live with.

Evelyn offered to borrow a company car to make the trip, and said, “We could make a day of it.” Or several days, she added, to find the right dog.

Exactly, Cora thought. There was time.

?





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


This book is dedicated to my awesome and insightful editor, Jordan Brown, with much gratitude and appreciation.

Many thanks to the excellent team at Balzer + Bray: Alessandra Balzer, Donna Bray, Renée Cafiero, Sarah Creech, Valerie Shea, Viana Siniscalchi, and Caroline Sun.

Special thanks to my wonderful agent, Susan Cohen at Writers House, and to others at Writers House, past and present, who were so generous with their help and suggestions: Trisha de Guzman, Brianne Johnson, Kelly Riley, and Kevin Webb.

Thanks to Jacob Hiss for a terrific book trailer, to Annie Farkas for lessons in stage makeup, to Dr. Ann Wayne Lucas and the staff at the Washington Square Animal Hospital, and to Dr. Gail Monaco for talking to me about grief in childhood.

Thanks to friends who heard me out: Marisha Chamberlain, Liz Rosenberg, Amy Tonsits, and Edra Ziesk.

Thanks to Tony Hiss, without whom . . . and for the best writing advice ever: “There’s always a way.”