The second officer asked, “How well do you know Dorothy?”
Justin frowned.
“I mow her yard.”
“Anything else?”
He hesitated.
“What else, Justin?”
And something about that hesitation terrified me more than the police cars.
“What else, Justin?”
He looked at me.
“Just little stuff.”
The officers exchanged a glance.
I wondered whether Dorothy had mistaken Justin for someone older.
The older officer pulled out his phone.
“We found these in Dorothy’s kitchen.”
One note said, JUSTIN COMES TUESDAY.
Another said, ASK JUSTIN ABOUT THE MAILBOX.
Another said, JUSTIN KNOWS WHERE THE GARDEN KEY IS.
“She forgets stuff sometimes.”
For one second, I wondered whether Dorothy had mistaken Justin for someone older, someone responsible for things he shouldn’t know.
I stared at my son.
“What?”
Justin shifted his weight.
“She forgets stuff sometimes.”
“She was confused and couldn’t tell us where she lived.”
“You knew?”
“I didn’t know knew.”
“What does that mean?”
Before he could answer, the officer lowered his phone.
“Dorothy was found several blocks from home this morning. She was confused and couldn’t tell us where she lived.”
A woman Justin had been quietly helping all summer had wandered away from home.
Justin’s whole face changed.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s safe.”
He immediately relaxed.
I didn’t.
“The first time I mowed her lawn, she wouldn’t answer the door. So I just did the front.”
A woman Justin had been quietly helping all summer had wandered away from home, and somehow my twelve-year-old’s name was taped all over her kitchen.
“What exactly have you been doing for her?”
Justin sighed.
“The first time I mowed her lawn, she wouldn’t answer the door. So I just did the front.”
Except Dorothy started asking him for small favors.
That sounded like him.
The next week, he returned, and this time Dorothy opened the door and asked him to do the backyard.
After that, he kept going back.
Except Dorothy started asking him for small favors.
“Like what?” I asked.
Each favor sounded harmless by itself, but hearing them together made the worry inside me grow.
Justin counted them on his fingers.
“Move a flowerpot. Bring the trash can back. Grab groceries from the porch. Change batteries in this lantern she has.”
Each favor sounded harmless by itself, but hearing them together made the worry inside me grow.
My voice came out sharper than I intended.
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