She didn’t want an arcade party or a house full of classmates.

She wanted chocolate pancakes for dinner, a plain cake with white frosting, and a few specific people. Mrs. McDaniel, Jackson, Detective Davies, and Beverly Bennett all sat around our dining table, eating and telling stories.

It was an odd assortment of people. To Chloe it was a family.

For her birthday I gave her a telescope.

After dessert she carried the tripod out to the back patio and aimed it at the moon.

“Daddy,” she said, working the focus dial, “do you think people who act really mean can ever learn to be good?”