This was an instruction telling a sick child that needing help was an inconvenience.

Then he found the thermometer.

He pressed the memory button.

103.7.

They had checked.

They had known.

And they had left anyway.

Harlan photographed the note, the thermometer, and the thermostat.

Then Sadie whispered through the phone.

“Grandpa?”

“I’m coming up,” he said.

PART 3

Sadie’s room was hot and dim.

She lay curled beneath her yellow moon blanket, hair damp against her forehead,