He asked about my animals and we chatted, and I insisted that he have a piece of marionberry pie, and I had one, too, and we ate in the café and drank blackberry tea. I hoped he would try to look down my low-cut embroidered shirt, but he didn’t.

I told myself that this pie would not replace my evening pie, as pie is a fruit, therefore, nutritious, and I don’t like to upset my nightly routines. Then he left and I went to my office overlooking the bay, knowing my employees could handle everything. I sank into my seat at my desk, pulled my arms over my head, and moaned.

I wanted that man, I did.

No, I told myself. You may not have him.

* * *

When I was ten years old I had a premonition about a morbidly obese woman on our street in the suburbs of DC who was always screaming at her husband and six kids. Three times I saw Gloria Yateman slap her kids across the face. I told my parents, and they called the police and Children’s Services. The police and Children’s Services did nothing, despite repeated calls from other neighbors/teachers who saw her hitting her kids, chasing them, wielding a belt like a lasso, and observing the obvious neglect when the kids were at school.

One time I saw Gloria try to run over her husband with their old clunky car. He was a beaten-down, exhausted man. I saw her slug him in the gut, and he bent over, not moving.

I knew the kids. The second oldest was named Coraline. She was in my class. She would come to school with bruises on her face. I heard her tell the teacher that she fell on the sidewalk or she crashed on her bike or she fell out of a wagon her brother was pulling.

They were all lies. The kids didn’t have bikes. They didn’t have wagons. They were all pale, unsmiling, scared, bruised kids. Especially Toby. He was in kindergarten and he still didn’t speak. He had a dazed expression and clung to Coraline and her older brother, Rhett. Rhett was a super nice kid. One time someone was bullying Coraline, calling her “skin and bones” and “dumb dumb dumb!” and “retarded,” and Rhett shoved him straight into the brick wall of the school and calmly told him he would beat his brains out if he picked on his sister again, and the bullying stopped. Rhett was a gentle but angry kid because of what was going on at home.