“Immediately,” I said.

Seven

Of course, immediately with a toddler isn’t quite the same thing as immediately for an unencumbered adult. It took me half an hour to pack all the paraphernalia I thought I might need for a car trip with Timmy.

Diapers. A change of clothes for Timmy. A change of clothes for me, in case we had any more unfortunate food or diaper incidents. Baby wipes. A cooler containing a couple of sippy cups of milk, a couple of bottles of water, and some dried fruit, along with one of those blue ice things to keep it all from spoiling. A sandwich bag of Cheerios and another of trail mix. Toys. Books.

Kiki and Blanky, of course. I’d initially assumed that they were along to provide nighttime companionship, and perhaps to soothe an occasional moment of stress, but I’d now realized they were Timmy’s constant companions. Though perhaps despite his cheery demeanor, Timmy’s entire stay at our house had been one prolonged stressful experience. He’d stopped asking about Mommy, but that might be a bad sign rather than a good sign. I pushed that alarming thought out of my mind.

I also took along a first aid kit—not the little one I usually kept in the car, but the big, industrial one I’d bought after the last time we had unwisely let Dad get his hands on a chain saw.

Michael and I had taken less baggage on our honeymoon.

It took another twenty minutes to get Timmy safely confined to the car seat, partly because the thing seemed to have at least half again as many straps as it needed and partly because although Timmy was quite happy to climb all over the front and back seats of my little Toyota, honking the horn whenever he could get near it, he wasn’t all that keen on sitting in the car seat and began squirming incessantly as soon as I tried to strap him in, with the occasional ear-splitting shriek of protest. I finally had to get Rob to hold him down while I did up the buckles, and by the time we finished, my ears were ringing and I was more than half convinced that Child Protective Services would show up at any moment to arrest both Rob and me and confiscate Timmy.

“Want stay here,” Timmy sobbed, once we had him in the car seat. I suddenly realized that maybe he wasn’t just being obstreperous. The last time he’d been in the car seat, his mother had dumped him at my house. Did he think I was going to haul him off and leave him with yet another stranger?

“But I have to run some errands,” I said. “And I thought you were going to come with me. Would you rather stay here with Rob?”

Rob looked panic-stricken. Timmy considered it.

“Come with you,” he said, and settled back in his car seat. Rob breathed a sigh of relief.

“So, hold down the fort,” I said to Rob. “And if Karen calls, find out where the hell she is. And if she shows up, call me and don’t let her leave till I can get back.”