Face to face, in a room, she asked.
I said, “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
And she said, “Junie.”
Then, immediately, with her eyes filling: “But I’m supposed to say Elsie.”
Elsie.
My daughter’s name was Elsie.
I didn’t sit in the chair.
I sat down on the floor of that office in front of her, because the chair was too far away and because I needed to be lower than she was.
I said, “Junie. My name is Elowen.”
And she said, “Are you the lady?”
The lady.
