If you can get your daughter out without crossing his path, do it now, and stay on the line.

Mrs.

Harris was already at the low place in the fence with a step stool, reaching for Maya, and between the two of us we got my daughter over and into the old woman’s arms without her small bare feet ever having to climb.

Chapter 8 — What Frightened Her

The police came fast — I will be grateful for that as long as I live — two cruisers and then an ambulance, filling that quiet street with light, and everything after that happened in the strange slowed-down way that emergencies happen, where each moment is very clear and none of them connect.

Paramedics wrapped Maya in a blanket and crouched to her level and talked to her in the low kind voices that good paramedics have.