Brandy Colbert: Pointe

“I think I need to go back to Juniper Hill.”

THE HOUSE LOOKS COZIER WHEN WE PULL UP THIS TIME, BUT maybe it’s because of the snow blanketing the peaks of the Victorian architecture like a real-life gingerbread house.

It’s strange to walk up the steps in snow boots, to stamp the soles on the rough fibers of the welcome mat as we wait for someone to come to the door. Last time the air was thick and hot, the landscape buzzing with insects and fat bees that swooped in front of our faces. This time I can see my breath.

The check-in process is the same. Dr. Bender is there to greet us in her grass-green tunic with a purple shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Then she whisks Mom and Dad away while a counselor I don’t know shows me to my room and checks my bag to make sure I haven’t smuggled in something from their forbidden list.

My parents look sad to leave me a half hour later, but they have to be relieved. Even more so than the last time. I feel guilty thinking about what they’ll go back to, because I know the reporters and paparazzi won’t give up that easily.

I’ll finish out the school year through a tutor who comes to the house three days a week.

Just like last time, I get letters from Phil. Every week without fail a flat, business-sized envelope is waiting for me in the mail slot with Phil’s boxy handwriting on the outside. I can tell he’s trying not to talk too much about all the fun he and Sara-Kate are having without me, but the happiness practically leaps off the pages of his handwritten letters, and I smile when I finish reading them. He deserves to be happy.

Sara-Kate’s emails mention Phil, too, but most of the time she writes me poems. Long ones, short ones. Sad and silly and serious. They’re beautiful. All of them, and she writes them just for me. I don’t always understand what they mean, but I appreciate them. They’re about us and they’re not about us. I know they’re the best way for her to deal with me keeping so much from her. She’s been nothing but kind, yet I know how much I’ve altered the trust in our friendship and I hope she can forgive me.

One day, about six weeks after I’ve been at Juniper Hill, Diana pokes her head into a group session. They aren’t supposed to be interrupted for any reason, so I’m pretty worried when she looks around the circle until she finds me.

She assures me that everything is fine as we walk down the hall and up the maple staircase toward Dr. Bender’s office. It’s remarkably similar to being escorted to the principal. I try not to worry as I watch her curly black ponytail swing in front of me. I have to say, I was kind of excited to see Diana that first day. She looked happy to see me, too. She’s my primary counselor again. It only makes sense; she knows the first part of my story better than anyone, even if it wasn’t the whole truth.

Dr. Bender’s office is empty. I expect Diana to follow me in, but she hovers in the doorway as she points to the phone on the desk, tells me to push the button next to the blinking red light. Says she’ll be right outside as she gently closes the door.

I wonder if anyone has ever been allowed to sit alone in Dr. Bender’s office. I make sure not to knock over anything on the desk as I reach for the phone, put the receiver up to my ear and push the red light winking at me.

I say hello softly, almost too softly.

The voice on the other end is deep as it says hello back to me. Unrecognizable, and a little cautious, as if I was the one who called. I curl the phone under my chin as I look out the window of Dr. Bender’s office. It overlooks the backyard: the art shed, the garden, the river birch trees that dry clothes on a line in the summer.

It’s snowing again. The country air whirls fat flakes against the window, pressing complicated patterns into the glass. I watch as I wait for the other person to speak, as I wonder if we’ll just sit here and breathe at each other for the next few minutes.

The voice is stronger this time as it says hello again. As the person says he is Donovan.

My whole body goes cold.

“Donovan?”

He doesn’t say anything, but he clears his throat, and I wonder how long it will take me to process that he has a deep voice now.

I squeeze my fingers tight around the receiver. Shut my eyes as I open my mouth. “I . . . Donovan, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

I can tell someone is in the background. Not speaking, but there for support. His mother, I’m sure.

Then I hear a long, loud breath. A sigh. It sounds like relief. It makes my eyes fill.

“I, um.” He pauses. Clears his throat again. I imagine his mother touching his shoulder, encouraging him to go on. “I wanted to say thank you, for . . . Thank you, Theo.”

The whole room is a blur as I stop trying to fight the tears.

But I feel light inside, like a three-ton weight has dislodged itself from my body.

I can finally breathe.

Christopher Ryan Fenner was found guilty.

After my testimony, Donovan cracked. Just a little. He gave a written statement, but our stories combined were enough to put Chris away for multiple life sentences with no chance of parole. He was charged with corruption of minors, dozens of counts of rape against a child, and transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity. He’ll never see the outside of a prison again.

My name shows up in the news less frequently but it’s still there more often than I’d like. Along with this year’s school picture, stacked up against one taken of Donovan in court and Chris’s mug shot. I know some people think I ran away until things die down, but there’s no escaping this. Even with the limited Internet access and the absence of a daily paper, I can’t forget that the whole world knows who I am now.

Chris broke up with me and disappeared, but all the while he was hiding out in a shabby hotel at the edge of town, waiting to make his move on Donovan. The city had thawed out by then and he’d called Donovan, invited him to come along on a fishing trip with him and his friends. He asked him not to tell me; he said he hadn’t been sure how to break up with me and that I’d be upset if I knew they were hanging out.

There was no fishing trip. There was just Chris and his car and Donovan with the comic book and pile of snacks he’d picked up along the way.

A few days after Donovan’s call, I swing by the mail room on my way to the house library. There’s a package in my mailbox. A small, padded white envelope with no return address. It’s been slit open because they check all the packages here before we get them. I shake it. Something plastic clacks inside but I wait to open it.

The library is a room on the second floor filled with books we can borrow and computers we can use for a limited amount of time each day. Pete is hanging out behind the desk near the door, pecking away at the keyboard in front of him and stopping every few seconds to stroke at his patchy blond beard. He looks up but doesn’t even make me sign in before I head to the computer farthest away from him.

I set the package next to the keyboard, but decide to check my email first.

There’s one bolded message at the top. It’s from Marisa.

It’s long, and it sounds so much like how she talks that I can picture her sitting down to type it out after a long day of teaching. She says everyone misses me, and not to worry, that summer programs will still be around next year and I’ll still have her full support.

But the part I read over and over is the paragraph where she says it took courage to do what I did, and she admires me for being so strong. That a professional company would be lucky to have me one day.