I lay on my side, facing Arthur’s pillow. I didn’t sleep well. But I slept.
Part Five: The Porch
The next morning, Kate drove to the airport early for her flight back to Denver. I made a pot of coffee and sat at the kitchen table with the newspaper, trying to get used to the quiet again.
At nine-thirty, the doorbell rang.
It was Eli.
He was standing on my porch in the same gray hoodie. Without his daughter. Without his friend. His blue pickup was parked at the curb.
He looked pale. Like he hadn’t slept at all.
“Mr. Navarro,” I said. “Did something break?”
He held out his hand. In it were two twenty-dollar bills. The forty dollars.
“I brought your money back,” he said.
I didn’t understand.
“After what I found,” he said, “I thought you might want the couch back too.”
My heart started beating faster.
“What did you find?” I asked.
He didn’t smile.
“Could I come in?” he said.
I made him a cup of coffee. He sat across from me at the kitchen table, the same table where Arthur used to do his crossword puzzles every morning.
Eli wrapped both hands around the mug. He didn’t drink it.
“Last night,” he said, “Mila dropped a pencil between the cushions. She was coloring. It slipped down the back, all the way to the bottom.”
He looked at the mug.
