It was important to make sure everything was okay, she decided. Because if there were wolves or big monsters in the woods, well then that would be dangerous. If she stood here, near the house, and nothing came to get her, then it was simple. She was safe. And besides, it didn’t look very far from the shed to the house, not far at all, she didn’t think. She could probably run to the porch if anything bad happened.

Another step.

She had reached the middle of the front lawn when she thought she saw something move in the woods near the shed. A glimpse of blue. She stopped short, her breath coming faster now and her legs wobbly. Nothing else moved. She was being silly, she thought. There weren’t any monsters around here, because Daddy wouldn’t bring her anywhere that had monsters.

Another step.

The door to the shed was on the left side, and just her size. A large, shiny padlock hung from the handle. It was unlocked. Now she was sure there was something neat in there, something that would be fun to play with like a big rubber ball or even better, a sled. Daddy had explained to her that the people who used to live there had left the furniture because it was too heavy or too old and they didn’t want it. Maybe they decided they didn’t want their toys, either. She hadn’t seen any in the house, so the people must have kept them out here. Some things would be too big for inside.

Another step.

She neared the corner of the shed. Drifts were piled almost as high as her head, and little tracks marked where snow had fallen from the slanted roof. Like little bird tracks, she thought. Or mice. She had seen those tracks around the house in New York lots of times.

But here there were no animals. Not a sound broke the heavy stillness that surrounded her, except the soft hiss of her breath and the crunch of snow under her feet when she moved.

One more step.

Now she stood before the door, the lock winking in the noontime sun. And she saw, with a great deal of disappointment, that the snow had piled up here too, so that the bottom of the door was blocked with it. But it was funny, she thought, how the snow looked. It looked almost like someone had tried to pull the door out already, pulled really hard and had pushed the drift back a little bit. Yes, she could see the mark where it had moved. Daddy had been out here already! He wanted to see what was in here too.

But she didn’t see any footprints.