“I want to look really pretty,” she said. “Can I have a new dress? A fancy one?”
“You can have any dress you want.”
She hugged the invitation to her chest. “Claire’s going to be so beautiful.”
For the next three weeks, that wedding was all she talked about. It was like a light had switched back on. She asked me about the dress every day. She wanted to know what Claire would wear, who’d be there, if there’d be cake, what kind of cake, could she have two pieces. My silent, folded-up girl was unfolding, one question at a time, and I would have driven that wedding to the ends of the earth if that’s what it took.
I called Claire to tell her how excited Mia was.
Claire got quiet on the phone, and then she said, “Oh, that makes me so happy I could cry. You know what? I’m going to do something special for her. I don’t know what yet. But that little girl is going to feel like a queen at my wedding, I promise you.”
