I was sort of enjoying my peace and quiet, and I had no idea when Momma and Leslie were coming back. I should have known the peace wouldn’t last too long. The next morning I was cleaning up my breakfast dishes and I heard the front door open and slam shut.

“Miss Holly! Miss Holly! Where are you?”

It was Tyler and Hunter, of course.

“In the kitchen!” I called back.

“I just can’t take it anymore,” Tyler said and burst into tears. “We can’t stay long because she just went to CVS.”

“I can’t take it, either,” Hunter said and started to cry.

“Come here, you two.” I put my arms around them and let them cry it all out. What had happened? When I thought they were winding down, I said, “All right, now. Tell me what’s the matter.” I reached for a box of tissues and gave them both a couple. “But first, blow!”

They blew their noses and their breathing gradually returned to normal. They handed me their tissues and I threw them in the garbage. I poured two glasses of apple juice and put them on the table in front of them.

“Okay, sit down at the table and talk to me. What’s going on? It’s a gorgeous day and you both should be outside! Why aren’t you over at Matthew’s swimming? Or down at the playground?”

“Because she won’t let us. Her parents and her aunt and uncle came on Sunday and she didn’t like how we behaved. We’re on restriction again! We didn’t do anything wrong. I promise! We didn’t!”

“All Tyler did was ask her old aunt if she had brought him a birthday present. And she didn’t. And so we both got in trouble.”

I noticed suddenly that Hunter had some pretty good-sized bandages on his shins. These were not ornamental. And his elbows had huge bandages on them, too.

“What happened to you?”

“I fell off my bike,” he said. “And it hurts, too. I hurt everywhere.” I thought he was on the verge of tears, but he just sighed with so much sadness, I prepared myself for a terrible explanation, because this was all wrong.

This was a kid who could ride a bike with no hands. And turn corners. As we all said, he was part monkey. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I knew intuitively I wasn’t getting the whole story.

“Want to tell me what really happened?”

They looked nervously at each other and didn’t answer me.

“Okay, Tyler. Let’s move on to you. What’s going on?”

“Sharon just did something that was so terrible.” He stopped and looked at Hunter. “We have to tell Miss Holly, Hunter.”

“What did she do?” I said.

Hunter still wasn’t talking, but he nodded consent to Tyler.