I didn’t ask her what was on the page.

I had nine thousand clean pennies waiting in trays on my dining room floor and a school audit clock ticking.

Back inside, Noah had already gone to bed, and Lily was asleep on the couch with the drying towel still clutched in her fist.

I wrapped until eleven, then until midnight, then until the roll of paper in my hand was used up.

When I finally stepped back, four toothbrushes lay in the green water with their bristles mashed flat, and beside them stood two thousand wrapped coins in tidy paper columns.