Arthur’s heavy footsteps moved off from the door, back toward the kitchen table.

I stood on the bare concrete floor at exactly five o’clock.

The single bulb overhead threw a dull yellow circle across the middle of the bay.

Frost had climbed halfway up the small rectangular windows along the top of the car door, building thick white ice crystals against the glass.

My toes had gone numb inside my canvas shoes before I’d taken three steps.

I went to the corner next to the old workbench and set the heavy cardboard box on the cold floor.