The man laughed again. It was a good-natured laugh. “Dot thinks you’re going to get indigestion.”

Who’s Dot? I wanted to ask. The woman must be standing behind him. Hidden in the darkness and watching me. Or maybe he was crazy and thought his dog was talking to him? He didn’t sound crazy, though, wasn’t slurring his words or swearing and spitting. He sounded smart, like a doctor or a businessman. But a weird one.

I licked caramel off my back teeth, then pushed “Thank you” out of my mouth. I don’t think he heard me.

The dog stuck its muzzle in the wet crotch of my jeans. I lifted up my knee.

“I don’t know. Who expects to see a tiny boy standing in woods in the middle of the night? Under some misspelled sign. Where is his, his, his, urh, mother? Maybe he’s not there. He’s not there.”

The light was slicing through the air, across the trees. I wanted to tell him I was there. I was right there in front of him. And I wasn’t a tiny boy. I was a teenager and I couldn’t help it if I was shortest in my grade. But he was talking fast, and there was panic behind his words.

I was getting afraid again. Even wondering if I was the one imagining everything. Petrified inside the woods and making up a person to keep me company. But if I was doing that, wouldn’t I imagine someone normal? Someone nice? Would my tongue feel bulbs of sugar stuck on my back teeth?

I heard him breathing in and out. Slowly. “Calm down. Calm down. Girl?” The dog yipped. Then his voice, clear and loud, came directly at my face. “You soiled yourself.”

My heart smacked against my rib cage again. “An accident.”

“You’re not in trouble.” Soft now. “It doesn’t matter if you’re there or not. We still have to be ourselves, right?”

“What?” I didn’t understand. My legs were shaking and the skin behind my soaked jeans stung.

“You can come with us, if you want. Girl and I have something of a home. No one’s going to hurt you.”

I looked up at my sign. THEIF. I looked into the black all around me. Green eyes could appear at any second.

“Well?” he said.