Skye would have wanted to believe one, and it might have made the later disappointment harder.
Instead, they continued together.
The badge remained against her uniform, a reminder of where she should have been.
She did not take it off.
Missing the event did not mean the year of work had vanished, even if she could not yet feel that distinction.
Her hands were tired, and she paid attention to where she placed her feet.
Each short stretch required another effort.
What later sounded like one generous choice was, while she was doing it, a sequence of smaller choices to keep going.
She made them without knowing who would hear about the morning or whether anyone would understand how much she had wanted to be somewhere else.
Eventually, adults reached them and took over helping Eleanor.
Skye could finally stop pushing.
Once Eleanor was safe, the disappointment she had set aside caught up with her.
Her school and family learned why she had been late.
People praised her, but praise could not immediately replace the event she had spent so long preparing for.
Eleanor, as she recovered, spoke with Skye’s family.
She was grateful and careful about what that gratitude asked of a child.
Skye had helped when someone needed her; she should not come away believing that an adult’s safety was hers alone to manage.
Nor did she have to pretend she was pleased to miss the championship.
Once the urgent part ended, people naturally wanted to tell her she had done the right thing.
Skye listened, grateful that Eleanor was being looked after, and still felt miserable about the competition.
Those feelings seemed difficult to admit together.
She worried that saying she was disappointed would make her help sound less sincere, as though kindness counted only if she had not wanted anything for herself.
Eleanor’s conversation with her family helped make room for both truths.
The child had chosen well under difficult circumstances, and the circumstances had still cost her something important.
She did not need to smile through every mention of it.
Adults also needed to take responsibility for the help that followed.
Skye could tell them what had happened and then let them handle what was theirs to manage.
Her arms could rest.
She did not have to remain alert for every need Eleanor might have afterward.
That permission allowed her to feel how tired she was.
