“Which is what the filings before me have been suggesting for nine weeks.”

“Your Honor,” Robert’s lawyer said, “we would ask the court to take the daughter’s military absence into account.”

“The court has taken it into account,” Judge Whitfield said.

“It counts in her favor.”

He called a recess at eleven forty, and the hallway smelled of coffee from the machine by the staircase.

Helen Vance, my neighbor across the street, stood by the window with her pocketbook pressed to her chest.

“I signed that petition,” she said.