“We have our own home now, and nobody from that house will ever come into it.”

Toby nodded once and looked back down at his page.

“I like our new house a lot better,” he said.

He dipped his brush into the yellow paint and added bright sunlight along the top edge of his painted stone arch.

We stayed on the wooden bench for thirty minutes while the water turned silver under the darkening sky.

Toby rinsed his brush in the water cup until the water ran clear.

He carefully laid his painting pad on top of his backpack so the wet paint wouldn’t smudge.