I Saw Her Leave Two Children at the Gate

tugged my sleeve.

“Did Olivia go away?”

Kids ask straight questions. It’s one of the few honest things in the world.

“She can’t come get you,” I said.

That seemed to be enough for now.

She nodded once, then pressed something into my hand. A crayon drawing from the airport. The house, the smoke line, the stick people.

There were four figures now.

One had very continue reading …