“Did he take his green suitcase?”

“Yes.”

I did not tell him his father had lost or that I had won him.

He was a child coming home from school, not something either of us had purchased through a court order.

I took his backpack when he allowed me to.

It held a pencil case, half an apple, and his spelling notebook.

No ledger.

“Will we still go to the park on Saturdays?” he asked.