They Were About to Split Up Five Kids Under Seven. The One Man Willing to Take All Five Knew Exactly What That Does to a Child

I understood it better than they knew.

They already had the placements sketched out, because that’s the job, and the job doesn’t wait for a woodworker to have a feeling.

Two homes for the older ones.

Two more for the toddlers.

And a fifth, separate, for the six-month-old — the baby split off from every face he’d ever known before he was old enough to hold the memory of them.

I sat in that office and let myself picture it, all the way, because I make myself look at hard things instead of around them.