They stayed until Audrey's teacher released her. No one cried in a way the pavilion could use. In the parking lot the wind came off the river and made the flags snap. Patricia unlocked the car. Willa got in the back. She put her feet on the mat and did not hide them. Audrey sat in front with the folder of headshots and, after a block, slid one photo out, looked at her own face, and put it back as if the face had become slightly unfamiliar and she was willing to let it.
Halfway home, Patricia said, "The coach was right about the shoes. I don't enjoy saying that in my own car. I'm saying it once."
"You can say it once," Willa said. "I'll remember."
"I may still flinch when people look down. The flinch is mine. I will try not to hand it to you."
"Try is a real word," Willa said. "Skip was a real word too. I heard both."
Patricia nodded at the windshield. "Both stand."
At the house, the gray box was still on the bench, tissue disturbed, one white shoe tipped on its side from the morning's display. The hallway was warmer than when they had left it, or Willa was. She took the brown sneakers off and set them on the rack in their empty space, salt and all. The canvas looked worse in the indoor light and also correct, the way a tool looks correct when it has been used for the thing it was for.
Audrey picked up the white shoe and put it back in the box. "These hurt her," she said to no one in particular. "They're my size, not hers. They were never a gift. They were a costume for a child who didn't ask for a costume."
"I'll return them if the store still will," Patricia said.
"Or give them to the church box," Audrey said. "Someone they fit can be popular in them. I'm going to ice my knee. If you need me to say something else, write it down. I'm out of brave for today."
She went upstairs. The puffer stayed on the hook, shining, a little ridiculous now that the day had ended, still hers.
Patricia stood with the box. Willa stood with her socks, the left heel showing the edge of the bandage. They listened to the ice tray crack in the kitchen, Audrey doing what she had said she would do.