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passed her to him with a smile. “I thought you didn’t like children.”
    “I admit I haven’t had much experience with them but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I don’t like them. Let’s just say they’re a mystery to me.”
    “Fair enough. Thanks for offering. She was getting heavy.”
    “And you’re stressed out, besides,” he said. “You didn’t bring your purse. Do you have a house key with you?”
    “Don’t need one. I never lock my doors. Besides, my purse is safer in my desk drawer than it would be if I were hauling it all over town with me.”
    “That makes sense. You’ll feel better once you’ve seen your place and gotten some sensible clothes and shoes.”
    Maya knew he was just chatting to try to distract her from the harsh reality of the tornado’s destruction, but his constant reminders were getting old fast. “I know, I know. As you’ve said before, I need to change before I can be of any use cleaning up.” Meeting his gaze and sensing his thoughts she was instantly penitent. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s been a rough day.”
    “For everybody,” he countered. “And I do understand. Thank goodness we have insurance.” He hesitated, studying her expression. “You did have your house insured, didn’t you?”
    “Well, sort of. I had been meaning to increase thecoverage. You know how it is. That place has stood there for more than seventy-five years, through all kinds of weather. I never thought anything would happen to it.”
    “We don’t know that it has,” he replied.
    “No, not yet. But I’ve had a bad feeling about it ever since we were hiding in the basement.” She pointed. “Look at the elementary school. See that pile of tar paper? Half its roof must be lying in the street.”
    Filled with more foreboding by the second, she skirted a downed limb that bridged the sidewalk, then hurried ahead to the corner.
    All her breath left her in a whoosh of relief. Praise the Lord! Judging by what she could see from there, her house was in pretty good shape. The gabled roofline was intact and the windows on that side seemed solid.
    She turned back to her boss with a smile. “Wow. It looks okay. I can’t believe it.”
    Together, they proceeded down Logan Street. Several other homes were slightly damaged to the same degree the Otis house had been. Other than that, and the partially denuded trees along the frontage areas, there was actually little destruction showing.
    As they neared Maya’s home, however, she began to glimpse loose boards and insulation littering her side yard. Beginning to jog ahead, she soon knew the full, awful truth that had been hidden behind the untouched portions of the old house.
    By the time the others caught up to her she was standing on the soggy carpeting where her living room had been and looking at the gray sky that was visible through the remaining ceiling beams and roof joists.
    All her boss could say was, “I’m so sorry.”
    She bent to retrieve a small pink teddy bear from the rubble, then dropped it when it streamed rainwater. “I knew it. I just knew it.”
    “What about the rest of the place?” he asked. “Do you want to watch Layla while I check it for you?”
    “What?” Maya had heard him speak but her mind was so focused on the incredible damage she’d barely taken in his question, let alone processed it.
    “I said, do you want me to check the rest of the house?”
    “I don’t know, I…” Suddenly she began to giggle.
    Approaching, he gently touched her forearm. “What is it? Are you okay?”
    Maya nodded while she continued laughing. Soon, tears were streaming down her cheeks.
    “I’m fine,” she finally managed to say. Waving her hands in front of her, palms out, she struggled to explain. “My first thought was that I didn’t want you to go into the back rooms because…because I hadn’t finished folding and putting away the laundry.”
    She was grinning inanely, she knew, but the situation was just