I didn’t rush to fill the silence.

Finally, Sadie asked, “Can we paint stars in the new place?”

“Every wall if you want.”

“Maybe just one.

I don’t want it to look like space exploded.”

I smiled.

“That’s fair.”

That evening we went to a hardware store, where Sadie chose a deep blue paint for one wall and a set of tiny glow-in-the-dark stars.