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and shook his head. “Shit. Sorry, Emily, you’re on your own. I’ve got to take care of this. ” He held out Trevor to her as he shoved a handful of crackers in his mouth. Emily put Katy down beside her and Katy being unsure, promptly gripped her mother’s black jeans just below the knee.
    “Okay, I’m not really --” Brad paid no attention at all, as he hurried to pass her Trevor, along with the cracker box. He didn’t spare her a passing glance.
    “See you at lunch.” And then he was gone out the back, past the whitewashed, dated paneling that filled the narrow hall, pulling the back door closed behind him. Emily couldn’t believe it. She stood there holding a quiet child who had no interest in her. He should have been big eyed, maybe even scared of the stranger holding him. The only interest he had was the box of crackers.
    “Mama.” Katy tugged on her jeans then shoved her thumb in her mouth and reached her arms up. “Oh Katy bug, I can’t hold you both.” Emily squatted down and sat Trevor on the floor. When she tried to stand with the cracker box, Trevor screeched, “na, na, na.” Holy crap was he loud.
    “Here you go, no need to act like that. Use your words.” Emily handed him the box of crackers. Again, he wouldn’t look at her. For a minute, she worried he’d choke , he was cramming them in his mouth so fast. Katy tapped her leg and pointed to the box. Of course, she wanted some. “Katy, how about a banana instead? She dropped her bag on the sticky cluttered table, and pulled out a banana leaving Katy’s box of organic rice crackers out of sight. She slid out a wooden chair and sat Katy down. “I should have brought your booster seat. I knew I forgot something.” Emily slipped off her coat and rolled up her sleeves, scanning the rectangular, neglected kitchen filled with unfinished food, a sink overflowing with cups, dishes and slimy, dirty dishwater. The large white propane stove was grease covered and littered with dirty pots. She shot a harried glance at the back door, where Brad escaped. So he’s not infallible; that thought put them on even ground.

Chapter Five
    She’d made good time. As she glanced at the clock it only took two hours to scrub every pot, load the dishwasher, running it twice, but that was after she’d soaked and scraped off the dried food. Did he have to dirty every dish in the house?
    Trevor was a different story; she’d never seen a child so happy to play alone. Katy tried twice to share her dolly and even picked up one of his toy cars and played beside him on the carpet. He’d ignored her, until she’d picked up the green car he lined up in straight line across the coffee table. He screamed a high pitched, shrill cry as if he’d been hurt; Katy of course, starting crying and dropped the car. Trevor, without looking at her, grabbed the car and put it back in its specific spot, in line. Except now, he was making a “whop, whop” sound. Emily hugged Katy and took her in the kitchen, then set her up with her Dolly away from Trevor. Emily asked Trevor what was wrong and asked him not to scream but to use his words. He ignored her. She’d need to talk to Brad; this seemed odd for a child to act this way. Maybe he had abandonment issues. And she pondered that while she cleaned and searched the sparse pantry for something edible to feed everyone for lunch.
    * * * *
    Emily was stirring the soup on the stove when someone knocked on the front door. She turned off the propane, and hurried to the door, glancing at Trevor and Katy watching Dora on the big screen TV; actually , Katy sat on the sofa and watched, Trevor was bouncing on both feet two inches from the TV screen.
    Emily opened the door to a short guy wearing a brown hat. “Delivery for Brad Friessen.”
    “He’s out back, do you need a signature?”
    “Yes, ma’am, but you can sign for him if you swear he lives here and you’ll give it to him.” The guy chomped on a piece of gum and grinned. Guess