Everything got extremely quiet and extremely simple, and there was a list, and the list had four items on it, and I started doing them.

I stood up.

I took Daisy into our bedroom and I put her on the bed and I got her dressed — thermal top, sweater, snow pants over the pajamas, her coat, hat, mittens — and it took about four minutes and she did not let go of my sleeve for any of it.

I put our passports, her birth certificate, my laptop, the folder with the mortgage documents, four days of clothes and her rabbit into a suitcase.

I carried the suitcase and the child down the hallway.

Beatrice was standing in front of the front door.