Footsteps overhead, whispering. I can’t tell who’s speaking, but I hear a female voice. My mom? God, why won’t they hurry up? My heart thuds against the metal pole.

A beam of light trickles down the basement stairs. Someone’s coming. Please God, let it be my family.

A foot appears, then an ankle, followed by a white cotton dress that’s frayed at the hem. Auntie. In the lamplight clutched in her outstretched hand, she looks twenty years older, all wrinkles and sagging skin. She’s wearing a clean cotton housedress and a head rag over her hair. I want to run to her, but my arms feel anchored to the pole. I watch her expression as she searches for me in the darkness. Her eyes adjust and lock onto mine. She shuffles to a stop; her hand flies to her mouth. “Riley?”

My arms aren’t anchored anymore. I throw them around her.

I clutch her bony frame and she strokes my hair, murmuring sweetness like she used to do when I was little. She smells like fresh baking and wood smoke. I don’t want to stop hugging her, but I can’t help but keep one eye on the stairs. My mama. Where is she?

Auntie follows the direction of my eyes and shakes her head. She runs her hand over my hair and tries to get up the courage to tell me. She doesn’t have to. I can see it on her face.

“Where is she?” I ask, my voice trembling.

“They took her this morning.”

Pain slams into my chest. This can’t be happening. She was supposed to be here. Hot angry tears spring to my eyes.

Auntie pulls me to her. Some tears escape down my nose before I wipe them roughly away. Auntie pulls back and traces a tear with her crooked finger.

“If I know your mama, she’ll give ’em a fight. She’ll be right as rain until you can get her.”

I gaze up at Auntie’s face, wanting to believe, but I can see the truth in her face like when I was eight years old. She found me crying that I’d never get married. She held me and said the right man would come along. I shouldn’t worry my pretty head about it. When I looked into her face even then, I could tell she was giving me the words I wanted to hear, not the ones she believes. She’s doing that now.

“What will happen to her?” I ask, afraid for the answer.

She twists her mouth down and shakes her head slightly. Then she takes hold of my shoulders and peers into my face. “You get to her. You do what you have to and get her out. And quick, darlin’. You have about a week before …”

I stiffen. “Before what?”

Auntie shakes her head. “Just get to her. I know you can.”

“How? I don’t even know where she is.” I set my chin on Auntie’s boney shoulder. She snakes her arms around me. She pets her hand over my hair again and again, stroking in time with her words, spurring me on. “That youngin’ up there can sniff out where they tucked her. He’s a good ’un. Useful. Looks like you already got him in your pocket if he’d risk bringing you here.”