“Where’s Grandma Patricia?” I asked, keeping my voice soft against her ear.

Lily didn’t look at the measuring cup.

“Grandma said big girls don’t make noise when the sun goes down.”

My fingers went stiff against the cotton of her shirt.

“Did Grandma come inside the house on Tuesday?”

“She had her shiny shoes on,” Lily murmured, saying the words in the flat rhythm of a lesson memorized in the dark.

“She said Mommy went far away because Mommy likes the soldiers.”

I rubbed the brass button on my cuff, feeling the raised anchor dig into the pad of my thumb.