“What do I think I found, Lucas?”

He didn’t answer.

Behind him, as clear as a bell, Beverly said, “Ask her about the list.”

The list in the wastebasket under my sink, with a room crossed out twice and one name missing from the bottom.

“Please,” Lucas said.

“You tell your mother-in-law,” I said, “that she can come and ask me herself.”

“Mom.

Mom, if you hang up they’re going to put us out on the street, they said they would.