Chapter 2 - The Walk HomeI learned later that Ava knocked three times.
The first knock was soft.
The second was louder.
The third came with both fists.
Lily had begun crying again.
She was cold.
Ava tried to distract her.
"Look, your hat is crooked."
Lily touched it.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
Ava almost smiled.
Almost.
Then she looked through the glass panel beside the front door.
She saw movement.
Someone was inside.
Ava lifted her hand.
"Grandma?"
Nothing.
She knocked.
"Grandma, Mommy said we're supposed to wait here."
The curtains moved.
Then stopped.
Ava waited.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Finally, she heard her mother's voice from inside.
"Go home."
Ava blinked.
"We don't know the way."
"You came from home."
"Mommy drove us."
A pause.
Then:
"Your mother will come back."
Ava pressed her palms against the glass.
"Please."
The door never opened.
Lily leaned against her.
Ava's shoulders shook.
Not from crying.
From cold.
The temperature had dropped below freezing.
Snow blew sideways across the porch.
Ava looked toward the street.
She didn't recognize it.
The neighborhood looked different at night.
Every house had lights.
Every house had cars.
Every house looked like another.
She held Lily's hand.
"Come on."
"Where?"
"Home."
"But where is home?"
Ava's eyes filled with tears.
"I don't know."
She took the only path she could remember.
Down the driveway.
Left at the mailbox.
Then another street.
At first, Lily walked.
Then she complained her feet hurt.
Then she stopped.
Ava bent down.
"I'll carry you."
She tried lifting her sister.
She managed three steps.
Lily's boots dragged through the snow.
Ava shifted her grip.
Five steps.
Ten.
Her arms began to burn.
She was eight years old.
She should never have needed to know what cold felt like in her bones.
She should never have needed to calculate distance in streetlights.
She should have been sitting on a warm couch watching Christmas cartoons.
Instead, she carried her little sister through a neighborhood she didn't know.
Meanwhile, I was in the hospital.
Daniel had woken up.
His face was pale.
He couldn't understand why I looked terrified.
"What's wrong?"
"The girls are with my parents."
He frowned.
"Didn't they agree to watch them?"
"Yes."
"Then why do you look like that?"
"I don't know."
I checked my phone.
Nothing.
I called my mother.
No answer.
I called my father.
No answer.
Daniel stared at me.
"Call again."
I did.
Still nothing.
Then his monitor started beeping faster.
A nurse rushed in.
The conversation ended.
For the next hour, my entire world narrowed to hospital sounds.
Footsteps.
Machines.
Voices.
Daniel's breathing.
And the occasional vibration of my phone.
At 10:03 p.m., I received a call from an unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
"Hello?"
"Is this Elena Parker?"
"Yes."
"This is Officer Harris with the county emergency response unit."
My stomach dropped.
"Why?"
There was silence.
Then the officer asked:
"Do you have two daughters?"
Everything inside me went cold.
"Yes."
"How old?"
"Eight and three."
Another pause.
"We found two children outside."
My heart stopped.
"Where?"
"Near Oak Ridge and Benton."
I didn't recognize the intersection.
"Are they okay?"
"We're treating them now."
My voice broke.
"What happened?"
"The older child was carrying the younger one."
I couldn't breathe.
"Are they my daughters?"
"She gave us your number."
I dropped the phone.
Daniel grabbed my wrist.
"What?"
I picked it up.
"Where are they?"
The officer gave me the location.
I was out of the room before he finished speaking.
I ran through the hospital corridor.
Someone called after me.
I didn't stop.
Not until I saw the ambulance lights outside.
Red.
White.
Red.
White.
Snow falling between them.
The doors opened.
And I saw my three-year-old daughter wrapped in emergency blankets.
Her eyes were closed.
My eight-year-old sat beside her.
Her lips were blue.
Her hair was wet.
And when she saw me, she tried to stand.
I reached her first.
"Mommy."
"Baby."
She grabbed my coat.
"I tried."
"You don't have to explain."
"I tried to get Lily home."
I held her so tightly she cried.
Then she whispered the sentence I would remember for the rest of my life.
"Grandma made us leave."
I stared at her.
"What?"
Her eyes closed again.
"She told us to go."
Behind me, Officer Harris looked at my face.
May you like
Then he said quietly:
"You need to hear what happened before you say anything to anyone."
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