“James is fine.”

Clara thanked him and began to apologize for what he found at the house.

“You needed care,” he said.

“We were there to give it.”

He answered her questions about the parts she could appropriately be told.

He did not dramatize the scene or describe her condition in a way that would frighten the child listening beside her.

Chloe asked whether the wheelbarrow was still at the hospital.

“It has been kept for you,” he said.