“Where’s Daddy?”

Lily pointed a grubby finger at the driveway window.

“Daddy left in the big blue car with the shiny suitcases.”

“When did he go?”

“When the sun was up,” she whispered into my collar.

“And then it got dark two times.”

I got to my feet slowly and looked over the kitchen counter.

Three open cans of navy beans sat by the stove, their jagged tin lids bent back, a butter knife still standing in one of them.

A box of saltine crackers lay crushed on the floor by the baseboards, ringed with scattered white crumbs.

I opened the refrigerator and found half a carton of curdled milk and a jar of mustard, while the compressor underneath coughed with a rattling metal sound.

I pressed my hands flat on the laminate counter to keep my wrists steady.

“Did Miss Evelyn come over from next door to stay with you?” I asked.

Lily shook her head once, her thumb sliding into her mouth.

“Daddy said if I went out on the porch, the bad men would take my bear away.”