On Saturday, when he had finished his assignments, he sat at the dining table and began drawing a safer layout for a bicycle repair shop.

The plan included exits, storage, adult workstations, and a prominent box marked FIRST-AID KIT.

At the bottom he wrote, in large letters, ASK BEFORE YOU ACT.

He showed it to me without embarrassment.

I pinned it to the refrigerator, next to the grocery list and the school calendar, where reminders of ordinary life had always belonged.

PART 13

The Photograph at the Door

On Tuesday afternoon, a woman I had never met knocked on our front door.