“What’d I catch you doing?” I hit his shoulder, playing around, and he flinches. He’s scared. But of what?

“Jamal. You okay?”

I touch his neck to get the rest of what’s on him off, then I make a face when I realize it’s blood. There’s a long scratch across his neck.

“What happened?” I flick the water on and wash up. “You okay?”

I watch him hard because nothing about this fits his late-night routine. I can’t tell if he’s coming or going. I move to ask another question, but Jamal’s already heading off to his room. He gives me a look like I better keep my promise and not dare wake Mama, then shuts his door.

I lie restless in bed and listen for movement. The air is thick and hot. There’s heaviness in the atmosphere, like so many nights when the past takes over the present. I try and tell my brain it’s just the wave of an old smell, a phrase someone says that can put me on high alert. I’ve never been able to get over what happened enough to live fully in the now, always rush back to the night Daddy was taken from us. A moment that won’t erase.

My sense of déjà vu is heightened by the sound of a vehicle riding down our quarter-mile gravel driveway. I listen more closely, and my heartbeat picks up, throbbing when I recognize there must be two or three cars driving way too fast for our road. A minute later, a knock at the door jolts me.

I run down the hallway to the stairs.

“Get back to your room.” Mama’s already at the front door. She waves me away.

“Who is it?” I mean to whisper, but I’m yelling.

She looks through the peephole and rests her face on the door. I see the lights flash blue and red before she confirms it.

“Police,” Mama whispers.

She doesn’t need to say more. Something awful has happened.

Corinne meets me at the stairs in her rainbow pajamas. She clutches her thin arms around me.

“What is it, Tracy?”

“Everything is fine. Go back to bed,” I say, although I’m holding her as tight as she is me.

I want to let her go, but I’m frozen. My heart is beating in my throat, pounding, thrumming out through my ears.

Over my shoulder, I glance at Jamal’s room. There’s no way he’s asleep so fast.

Inside I’m tangled up, searching for a reason why they’re here. If I was standing by Jamal, we could look at each other without saying a word. Just know it’s them that’s wrong, not us. But something went down with Jamal, and whatever it was, I sense I should let him be.