Aria grabbed him and ran as fast as she could. She knew there would be no way for the man to catch up to her, given his weight. But she felt his words again skewer into her back. “You stay the hell out of here!” And then, more faintly, “If you come back here, next time I’m calling the cops.”

She rounded the corner into the alley of a nearby building. She was out of breath and the shoe that was missing its laces was only halfway holding on to her foot. Her heavy breaths quickly became the doorway for suppressed tears. She was crying. Smothering Clifford’s bulk with her arms, she could feel nothing but his resistance to her. Having ended up in this touch-and-go hostage situation, he looked as aghast as a cat could ever look.

The close call with the Pizza Hut manager was what it took to corrode Aria’s denial of the situation at hand. She could not keep Clifford with her. In that moment, she felt herself splitting in two, torn between her need to keep him with her, and her need to know he was both safe and happy. After she had been taken away from Lucy, he was the only living thing she had felt true belonging with. She held him there against his will, letting the gravity of the awareness sink in until it broke her heart. By the time it was successfully broken, she knew what she had to do.

The public park was bleak this time of year. Still it was an oasis of calm, fenced in from the bustle of the rest of the city. She had returned to the familiarity of the public subway station bathroom by the museum and had spent most of the night there. Having locked herself into a stall, trapping the now collarless Clifford in her lap, she had successfully managed to go unnoticed. Upon waking, she was so tired; she began to wonder if she could still consider herself sane. As if on autopilot, she joined the citizens of the city, making their way by foot on their morning commutes. She stopped with them at stoplights and moved with them when they became fluid again. She spent the day at the public park, sitting and walking through the dappled, swaying light, worrying about the greasiness of her hair and letting Clifford sun himself while watching out for dogs, who frequently showed both shock and hysteria at his being there.