ARRvol34 master reduced - Flipbook - Page 38
very lovely, still trusting and delicate. That was enough. He followed
her into the cluttered kitchen.
“I can do lots of things,” Lucy said, almost defensively, “I’m not
helpless.”
He gave her a sardonic smile, but said nothing. He liked the way
her face scrunched up in childish fury, her cheeks reddening. No
matter what they did, they could never be menacing. He liked that
about children.
Like his house from childhood, the kitchen fed out from the
living room, which was lit by a few dim tealights. Lucy left the door
separating them ajar and began bustling in the cabinets, a skip in
her step. She was humming something under her breath. It sounded
terribly familiar, like something he might have heard as a lullaby, or
something at church.
“How old are you?” he asked, scanning the living room as well as
he could in the dim light.
“Five.”
And then he saw it. The ceiling.
“Five,” he chewed on the word thoughtfully, his eyes trained above
him, trying to see it again. “You’re five and your mom left you here?
All alone?”
He felt Lucy stiffen, even all the way across the room. She stopped
sifting through the cupboards. His eyes fell from the ceiling and
wandered towards her face.
30
“Are you alright?”
