“Take her into your house, Mary.”

“I’m stepping out onto my porch now,” Mary said, the crunch of frozen snow and mud clear over the phone as she crossed the dark street.

“Nobody leaves a child outside in twenty-two-degree weather while I’m still breathing.”

I heard Mary’s voice drift away from the phone’s microphone as she reached our back driveway.

“Sadie, honey, come here to me,” Mary called softly across the snow.

“Come on over to Mrs.