Monday's Not Coming

One morning, Daddy gives Claudia a brand new iPhone. They’ve been holding off, trying to shelter Claudia, but now that she’s aware of where and when she is, he wants her to know everything. 

Claudia uses the phone to read old news reports from two years ago. Many CFSA workers were fired for failing to address Monday’s and August’s welfare. She hears Mrs. Valente’s phone conversation, pleading with CFSA to follow up. She reads interviews with Ed Borough residents, emphasizing the impact gentrification of the neighborhood had on residents’ mental health, specifically Mrs. Charles’s.

Claudia’s first phone call is to Michael. He reassures her that she was smarter than everyone regarding Monday, despite her reading difficulties. “After you put everything together, you were about to roll in that house guns blazing. I don’t know anyone who’s as smart and brave as you” (399). Claudia cries, saying she couldn’t save Monday, but Michael observes that Claudia did save Monday—for many years.

The detective Claudia spoke to about Monday, Detective Carson, showed up at her house one day, along with another police officer, Detective Woods. Detective Carson was shocked when he recognized Claudia, but he pretended they’d never met.