Clara looked at the paper.

“I don’t know.

I kept thinking I would be better in a little while.”

The answer was painful because it was small.

There was no grand decision to leave a child in charge.

There had been an illness, an expectation of recovery, and a household without someone able to recognize quickly enough that waiting was no longer safe.

The next plan would have to be better than that expectation.

PART 5 — The Plan Beside the Bed