“They killed Lucy,” I finally say. “I’ve been taking care of her all summer. They didn’t even warn me! They didn’t even let me say good-bye! I thought I’d have a chance to save her! I should have tried sooner, but I got so caught up in the house and —”

“Rachel, calm down or he’ll hear you,” my mom says.

“They killed her!”

“Rachel, stop.”

She leads me into her and Dad’s bedroom and shuts the door. I sit on the edge of their bed and heave up sobs from deep in my belly. My mom closes the bedroom windows and then comes to sit beside me.

“Rachel, it’s a farm. You know this is how things work on farms.”

“I was sure they’d change their minds about her. They seem so nice. And Lucy was finally starting to trust me.”

My mom sighs and rubs my back.

“We were friends!”

“Oh, Rachel,” my mom says. “I’m sorry.”

“He could have at least told me when they were going to do it so I could say good-bye!”

“Maybe he didn’t realize how attached you’d become. He seems like a nice man. I’m sure if he’d known, he wouldn’t have handled it this way.”

“Please don’t put her in our freezer, Mom. Please don’t. I can’t stand the thought of it.”

“No, honey, we won’t.”

“Why is everything so unfair? Why can’t one good thing happen?”

My mom squeezes me closer. “I don’t know, honey. But —”

“Don’t say it could be worse. Just don’t.”

“But —”

“Just don’t. I know it could. But just don’t.”

We sit on the bed quietly, my mom rubbing my back. Around the room, open boxes litter the floor. Some are overflowing, some half-filled. It looks like my mom is having just as much trouble parting with things as Ivy and I are. She still hasn’t taken our baby photos off the wall.

My mom notices me staring at them. “I couldn’t bear to see blank squares on the wall,” she says. “I’ll save taking those down for last.”

A door slams and then excited footsteps run through the house. “Rachel! Rachel!” Ivy shouts.

“In here!” my mom calls.

She opens the door, her face glowing. Then she sees my teary one and droops.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

I realize she still hasn’t figured out that the pork in the cooler is Lucy. And that Lucy is dead. And I don’t have the heart to tell her.

I wipe my face. “Nothing,” I say. “What’s up?”

“Mr. Townsend is going to take Rainbow! He loves him and said he knows Mrs. Townsend will, too! And Rainbow licked his hand and you know he only ever does that to you! So that means it’s meant to be!”