His tear filled eyes remained locked onto Rebecca and the sleeping boy resting against her shoulder, as if he were trying to fathom the reality that a loving family had been waiting to embrace him all along.

I could not have known then how much work lay beyond that hearing.

We had told the truth, but restitution, reliable help, and the harder task of accepting one another would take time.

PART 4

The next morning, I woke to the kind of silence that usually means a storm is building.

My coffee maker clicked off at seven, and outside my kitchen window the leaves along Maple Street hardly moved.

I could see Clarence’s porch from my sink.