“Fourteen months,” he said.

“She’s in a group placement in Colfax.

She’s been there her whole life, basically.

Since right after she was born.” He was quiet for a moment.

“They take good care of them there, I’m sure.

But it’s not a home, Julian.

Fourteen months, and it’s not a home, and I keep thinking about that, about how a kid that age doesn’t know what she’s missing but is missing it anyway, every single day, while people like us look at a file and decide we can’t.” Fourteen months.

I did the arithmetic without meaning to.