Chapter 26 - The Staircase
Three years after the gala, Elsa was ten.
Kane House hosted another foundation event.
Smaller.
Seventy guests.
No need to abandon the staircase forever.
Elsa wore a navy dress.
No ivory.
No deliberate recreation.
She ran upstairs with two cousins.
I watched.
Too closely.
Margaret appeared beside me.
“Stop.”
“What?”
“Your eyes.”
“She’s near stairs.”
“She uses stairs daily.”
Correct.
Then one cousin stumbled.
Elsa grabbed the railing.
Everyone fine.
My pulse still jumped.
Elsa looked down at me.
“Dad!”
“Yes?”
“Stop watching!”
Margaret laughed.
I raised both hands.
Fine.
Later Elsa came down slowly.
Stopped on the landing where I had caught her three years earlier.
Not ceremony.
She had dropped a bracelet clasp.
She crouched to look.
I started toward her.
Stopped.
She found it.
Then sat on one stair to fix it.
Ordinary.
Marcelline was not at the gala.
Different stage of contact.
No need to force the setting into reconciliation.
Elsa stood.
Walked down.
At bottom she asked:
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You do face.”
Apparently every family has one.
“What face?”
“Scared Dad.”
I sighed.
“Maybe.”
She took my hand.
“You caught me.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
Then:
“But I can walk.”
I let go.
She walked.
May you like
That was enough.
────────────────────
