The Knock Came Before I Could Dial 911

on her legs. A shadow shaped like fingers around one wrist.

“Did you fall?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.

Clara stared at the water.

“That’s what the lady said.”

“What lady?”

For half a second, she stopped breathing.

I didn’t ask again.

Some questions are not doors. They are alarms.

She climbed into the tub and froze, the way a child freezes when continue reading …