Not my hand.

My thumb, in her whole fist, the way she had done as an infant and had not done in two years.

And I lay in the dark next to my daughter with my hand where she had put it and I did the thing Dr.

Mbeki had told me I would do, at about ten past two.

I thought: you have taken a child out of her home at night.

I thought: you could have waited until Mitchell got back on Sunday.