Clean white enamel underneath, and a smear of old grease where the leaves had sat since we bought the thing.

“Did you take the trash out?” I asked.

“Yesterday.”

He was already back at the sink.

I let it go, is all.

By half past five he had pulled the refrigerator out from the wall without being asked, which should have been the first thing I noticed.

He slid it out four inches, and the linoleum underneath came up gray.

“Go on,” he said, and handed me the flashlight from the junk drawer.