Ask Me to Stay by Elise K Ackers

needed air to communicate properly. So he waited. Impatiently.
    Nina and Rowan wouldn’t look at one another. And Nina’s tears continued to fall.
    They charged into the house once he parked in the driveway. He switched off the engine and jogged after them. He was intercepted at the bottom of the stairs by Ethan, home for a late lunch.
    ‘Was that the kids?’ He jerked his thumb at the roof.
    ‘There was some trouble at school.’
    Furious shouting startled them both. Without thinking, they sprinted up the stairs.
    ‘Take them off!’ Rowan was shrieking. ‘ Take them off! ’
    ‘I’m trying!’ Nina’s voice sobbed. There was a strangled gasp of breath and another shout.
    Dean and Ethan exploded into Nina’s bedroom. Rowan was standing by her bed, feet planted, hands curled into angry fists. She stood by her dresser, necklaces twisted through her arms, tightening against her throat and catching in her hair. She yelped and whimpered.
    Dean fell to his knees beside her, while Ethan gathered Rowan up in his big arms.
    Very carefully, Dean began to disentangle her from the chains and beads. It took a long time, but Nina never moved. She hung her head, miserable and defeated, as he laid each necklace on her dresser, piece by piece.
    When there were no more around her neck, she crumpled. He caught her, lifted her from her feet, and carried her to the bed. Dean and Ethan sat side by side, a child in each lap. And Dean was immeasurably grateful for his brother’s support, however quiet the man had become.
    ‘What happened?’ Dean asked his son. Nina pushed her face further into Dean’s shoulder and curled her hand in his shirt.
    ‘She broke one!’ Rowan snarled. And then he recycled Dean’s words from a few nights ago. ‘It wasn’t hers to change!’
    Dean closed his eyes, understanding at last.
    Nina began to cry again.
    He tightened his arms around her. ‘This was an accident, though, wasn’t it, Neenz?’
    ‘Accident,’ she agreed, her voice thin and quiet.
    ‘She didn’t mean to —’
    ‘It doesn’t matter!’ Rowan shouted over him. ‘It’s another one! And I don’t want any more goodbyes!’
    Oh, God, what to say? Dean eased his chin onto Nina’s head and wished for the words that would make everything better.
    ‘You’re almost done with them,’ Ethan said softly. Everyone looked up at him. He swallowed. ‘Really. There are a lot of them in the beginning. That’s when it’s hardest. Goodbye, cream.’ He squeezed Rowan. ‘Goodbye, shampoo. Goodbye, Mum waiting at the gate after school.’
    ‘Goodbye, smell,’ Nina volunteered tentatively.
    ‘Right. Even goodbye, getting in trouble with Mum.’ He smiled at them. ‘But then you start to run out of goodbyes and you start to find hellos.’
    ‘Hellos?’ Rowan shifted to see his uncle better. The fire was gone from his eyes, buried, burned out.
    ‘Yeah. Hello to Mum’s favourite song on the radio. Hello to making cookies using Mum’s old recipe. Hello to . . .’ he faltered.
    ‘Mummy’s favourite flower,’ Dean finished.
    Nina looked up. ‘A daisy.’
    ‘Right.’ Ethan kept his voice light. ‘You’re still in the goodbyes. But you’ll look for a hello, won’t you? Because they’re wonderful.’
    Rowan and Nina nodded. And Dean didn’t mind at all when she scrambled from his lap to Ethan’s. She hugged him fiercely.
    Twenty minutes later brother and sister were friends again. He’d helped her put on a solitary necklace before they ran outside into the sunshine. She’d tucked it beneath her shirt.
    Ethan and Dean stood on the back verandah, leaning on the railing and letting the sun warm their tired bodies.
    ‘I saw you at Bev’s,’ Dean said. He smiled as his children blurred past. ‘I think it’s great what you’re doing. What you are.’
    He straightened. Ethan wasn’t quite ready to look at him, so he kept talking.
    ‘You do what Dad used to do.’
    Ethan’s entire demeanour changed. He pushed up from