Eric had given her the cabin in the divorce settlement, though he still insisted on paying the property taxes and for all maintenance, his codicil being that if he ever needed to get away for a little while, he could use this place—providing he gave her notice of intent.

They’d had a lot of good times here—especially those nights when Eric would tell them stories of the so-called “Jersey Devil” said to roam the area. Sarah was always a little frightened by the stories, but loved them, just the same. “Spoooookeeeeee,” she’d intone, then collapse into a fit of giggling.

Staring at the cabin now, Lucy shook her head, thinking that even a legendary beast like the Jersey Devil would probably shit his britches at the sight of Mr. Hands.

She remembered the way Sarah had started creating “legends” of her own (Thank you, kairos), her favorite being the “secret-secret mountain” only she could see. It was made of gold, this mountain, and it had places in it where treasures were hidden, and dinosaur fossils, and caves full of magic. Lucy tried to pretend that she could see the secret-secret mountain, but Sarah always called her on it.

“Only kids like me can see it,” she’d said, looking out the cabin window. “Grown-ups aren’t allowed, unless I say so.”

Lucy decided to let Randy sleep while she unloaded the car, carrying the supplies only as far as the porch so as not to let him out of her sight.

She woke him later, and he helped her carry everything inside.

“This place is so cool!” he said, grinning, looking a little bit more like a child should.

Once inside, Lucy activated the security system (a paranoid carryover from city dwelling) and for the first time was glad that Eric had gone slightly overboard with it; aside from the usual alarms for windows and doors, this system came equipped with floodlights on the roof outside that were tied into a quartet of motion sensors installed on the grounds surrounding the cabin: when activated, the sensors created an invisible fence. Nothing bigger than a deer could get within fifty yards of the cabin from any direction without setting off all the fireworks.

That done, she and Randy set about putting away the groceries, removing the covers from all the furniture, getting a fire started in the fireplace (Randy only flinched once at the crackling flames, and Lucy hugged him; to her surprise and delight, he returned the hug, then kissed her cheek as if she were his own mother), then she let him open the new DVD player she’d bought and they hooked it up to the television set. She gave him a box full of DVD movies and told him they were all his and they could watch whatever he wanted.

He was so excited he actually shook. “Oh, cool! Lookit all these! Mighty Joe Young and Godzilla and...” He looked up at her, puzzled. “Barney and Rugrats?”

“I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I bought pretty much everything I could find.”