Sophie was holding her gray stuffed rabbit by its left ear, its hind legs dragging across the dark hardwood floor.

I looked down at her little pink cardigan and saw that the top wooden button had been forced into the second buttonhole, bunching the wool neckline tight against her collarbone.

“We had to stop at the pharmacy on Main Street for children’s fever medicine,” Margaret said.

She smoothed the lapels of her lavender jacket with both hands before setting her leather shoulder bag on the hall table.

“Her face was bright red the whole way home from school.”