Page 19

She’s tiny.

I knew that intellectually. Seeing it is different.

She clutches a stuffed rabbit by one ear. Its fur is graying from love. Her hair is half slipping out of two uneven braids, and her eyes, Maggie’s eyes, big and brown and too expressive, look at me without any of Maggie’s warmth.

No smile or curiosity. Just assessment.

I assess her right back and immediately feel like a monster.

“Hi, Lucy,” I say, stepping down from the porch.

She shifts behind Sophie’s leg.

Excellent start.

Sophie’s face crumples slightly. “She’s had a hard morning.”

“I understand.”

I say that a lot lately for someone who understands almost nothing.

Mick opens the trunk and lifts out a small suitcase, a backpack shaped like a fox, and a plastic grocery bag full of what looks like random child supplies.

“I packed what I could,” Sophie says. “Some clothes, pajamas, her toothbrush. Her school things are in the backpack. She has pre K Monday through Thursday, eight thirty to noon. We thought it’d be best if she kept going. Routine, you know.”

“Yes.” I latch onto the word like a lifeline. “Routine is good.”

Lucy looks at me then. I may have said it too intensely.

I soften my voice. “I mean, if you want to.”

She says nothing.

Sophie kneels carefully in front of her. “Sweetheart, Aunt Laurel is going to take care of you for a little while, okay?”

Lucy’s fingers tighten around the rabbit. “How little?”

Sophie’s mouth opens but nothing comes out. I step in because silence around children seems dangerous. “Until your mom comes home.”

The two adults look at me like I’ve committed a crime.

Lucy stares. “When?”

There it is. The impossible question. My planning brain reaches for a timeline. A date. A milestone. Anything.

There's nothing.

“I don’t know yet,” I say, and the honesty tastes awful. “But a lot of people are looking for her.”

Lucy looks down at her plush. “She forgot Bun.”

Sophie inhales. “Oh, baby.”

I look at the rabbit. “That’s Bun?”

Lucy nods once.

“Then she didn’t forget Bun,” I say. “Bun is here.”