Three Weeks After Lucas Was Gone, Charles Claimed the House on Maple Street

She laid the request form on top of it.

“Sign again, right there, and date it.”

I signed.

She stamped the request twice, and the sound traveled through the counter into my wrist.

“Five hundred even,” she said.

“You’re paid.”

Then she pushed a glass dish of hard candy toward me with one finger.

“Take one.