Chapter 17 — Into the Sunlight

When the cruisers had pulled away and the house was finally, completely quiet, I walked back down the hallway to the storage room.

I opened the door gently.

My wife was sitting up on the thin mattress in the dark, her eyes wide, having heard the sirens and the shouting and not knowing what any of it meant, braced, the way she had learned to brace, for the next bad thing.

I did not say anything at first.

There was nothing to say that my arms could not say better.