A dish towel lay folded near the sink.

Nothing about the room looked threatening.

Yet I felt the same uncertainty I’d experienced when Daniel stopped me from reaching into the crib.

Something was happening that I couldn’t explain.

And each time I asked, he made the question itself seem like the problem.

That evening, Marlene came over.

Daniel’s mother visited often.

She liked things orderly and believed a well-run household reflected the character of the people inside it.