The swings hung straight and listless on their heavy chains. Hannah sat down on the highest one. Some were lower for smaller children and one was a baby swing with a little seat, two leg holes, and a strap to hold a small child secure. Since Hannah was tall for her age, her feet dragged a bit when she tried to swing on the smaller swings and the big swing, the one she had now, was almost always taken by someone else. At last she had it all to herself, but the thrill she’d thought would be hers when she swung high on the big swing wasn’t nearly as thrilling as she’d imagined.

It was no fun swinging alone, not even on the big swing, and Hannah let the chains slow their back and forth motion and eventually come to a stop. She hadn’t expected kids in the park, but she’d thought that there might be people sitting on the benches reading newspapers or flipping pages in a magazine. No one was here, not a single soul, not even anyone cutting through the middle of the park on their way to somewhere else. There weren’t even any cars on the street. She was all alone and she suddenly missed her classmates. Playing hooky was no fun if you had to do it alone.

She had glanced at the watch her grandparents had given her for her birthday. Only five minutes had passed since she’d left Doc Bennett’s office and it seemed much longer than that. Maybe she should go back to school. At least she wouldn’t be lonely there and it was a little strange here, all by herself. It was so quiet, it was almost scary.

Hannah came out of her trip down memory lane with a snap when she turned into her condo complex. She used her key card, waved at Norma, the guard in the kiosk who kept solicitors out and made sure that nonresidents had permission to visit, and drove down the ramp that led to the underground garage.

The garage was mostly deserted. The only other car in her section belonged to Phil Plotnik, her downstairs neighbor, who worked the night shift at Delray Manufacturing. Phil would be getting up in a couple of hours to go to work, but since it was summer, he’d actually get to wake up and see the sun. This didn’t happen in the winter because Minnesota was a northern state and the days were shorter in the winter. Then Phil would have to drive home from work in the dark, get up in the dark to go back to work, and only see the sun on the weekends.