“I’ll need the court packet sealed,” the manager said, “before I put a date on this hold.”

Douglas took a small brass stamp out of his case and lined the packet up against the edge of the desk.

He brought it down with the heel of his hand hard enough to make the manager’s pen jump.

“It’ll be filed by Friday,” Douglas said.

Evelyn set the teapot on a cork mat and pushed a plate of toast toward me, and the phone buzzed before I could touch it.

“Hannah dear.” Patricia, my mother-in-law, said my name the way she smoothed out a bedsheet.