“All the other teachers say you’re going away,” the girl says. “Miss Palmer says so, and so does Mr. Montgomery.”
“Yeah, I am.” They are sitting on the swings during recess on Callie’s last day at Perry Hills Elementary.
“When will you be coming back?”
“I don’t know yet. Maybe in two or three months.”
“Are you going to Japan so you can make that bad woman go away?”
Callie considers this carefully. “I don’t know how to do that yet. But I’ll do what I can to make sure that she’ll never hurt anyone else.”
The little girl reaches over and takes Callie’s hand.
“I hope you do,” she says, and she is both worried and frightened. “I don’t want you to die.”