THE MOMENT
“It's going to be okay,” Karin commented to her mother. The family of four sat around the dinner table, the way they always did, but it was rare Karin added anything to the conversation. She enjoyed the closeness of family without the pressure of small talk, and they mostly, lovingly, ignored her.
The subject of the next day came up when Karin made her comment. There was a brief moment of stunned silence before Bonnie, the mother, recovered. The hard part was going to be keeping her emotions hidden. She was thrilled that Karin said anything during the meal that wasn’t directly related to it.
“Well, it sounds interesting,” she said with a nod at Karin. “I know how much you girls love cars,” she added to bring Davina, Karin's sister, into the conversation. “Your team captain sounds like she's got an interest too, for arranging the excursion,” Bonnie added with her focus on Davina.
“Oh, totally,” Davina nodded. “She already showed us some we'd never seen, and when I said we wanted to see more, she put this together,” she grinned. Both twins were excited, but Karin rarely showed it, and she felt like it was up to her to be excited enough for both of them.
“Bring back pictures,” Devon, their father, added. “A whole day visiting car shows from other universes sounds like the perfect day for you two.”
“Right? I can't wait,” she beamed. “It's gonna be so fun!” Karin was excited too, in her own way. The fact that she commented at all proved that to her family, but it almost floored them when she repeated the sentiment again in agreement with Davina. She was obviously thrilled about the next day’s adventures enough to comment on it twice.
“It's going to be okay.”