“Finish your chapter practice problems.”

She lingered by the kitchen table for a long moment, staring at the bare concrete where my car normally sat, before she turned and went back down the hall.

By seven that evening the sun had sunk behind the Oak Creek ridge, casting long gray shadows across our back lawn.

I stepped out onto the kitchen patio to check the wooden support stakes holding up our new lilac roots along the property line.

Emily pushed open the screen door behind me, holding a green plastic pitcher of tap water for the soil.