The chart described the identical abdominal and flank pain that had brought them in today, and it carried, in unambiguous clinical language, a recommendation: an urgent follow-up with a pediatric urology specialist, and advanced imaging, to be completed within ten days.

Ten days.

Five weeks ago.

Martha read the entry, and then she read it again, and then she read it a third time, and the room seemed to tilt very slightly, the way a floor does on a boat when a wave passes under it.

Chapter 6 — His Name on the Log

“I knew nothing about this,” Martha said.

Her voice came out strange to her own ears, thin and far away.

“I didn’t know she’d been here.