“Sure could, sir!” Peter said. Jesse kept his head down, focusing on the screw he was turning into place. Martin lowered himself to the floor and held the two lengths of wood steady for him. Anna watched for a moment as the three of them worked together and she gradually shifted from annoyance at Martin’s arrival to gratitude. The boys could not easily manage the stretcher alone. She turned back to the cartoon and let the boys and Martin work on their own.

Did Martin’s wife know he was at the warehouse? she wondered. Did she know he’d stopped in last week as well? Did he go home and tell her he’d helped Anna Dale make the grid lines on the cartoon? She doubted that very much. They’d be divorced by now if he had. She remembered the angry woman on the library steps, how she’d clutched Anna’s arm. How afraid she’d seemed over the family finances, with Martin’s design not being accepted for the post office. He shouldn’t be here in the warehouse, Anna thought, working for free. He especially shouldn’t be here with her.

It would be best if he didn’t come again, but as she watched him working side by side with the boys, giving directions she might not have known to give, she was very glad that he had come.

Chapter 31. Morgan

Chapter 31

MORGAN

July 9, 2018

I heard sirens the moment I stepped out of Lisa’s house for my walk to the gallery. The sound didn’t slow or stop; instead, it built on itself, one siren on top of another on top of another. The sounds alone were enough to take me back to the accident and set my heart racing. I stood paralyzed on the sidewalk in front of the house, trying to decide if I should go back inside and wait it out or start walking toward the gallery. Get a grip, I told myself, beginning to walk again. I was not going to live the rest of my life in fear.