I looked at the stove clock because I was standing right there stirring cabbage for my brother, who won’t eat it without kielbasa, so I was in my kitchen at eight forty like a fool with a wooden spoon.” Her chin went down.

“She asked me if she could sleep on my couch, Valerie.

A twelve-year-old girl asked me if she could sleep on my couch.”

I made the next question come out slowly.

“What did you tell her?”

“That I would call her father first.

That was the rule I set for myself when she started walking over here alone.” Elena turned the cap over in her fingers.

“I called his cell twice.