If wishes could come true, I would probably be a millionaire. But my wish was for whatever the children had seen to go away. My wish was not granted.
By morning, the children had seen more.
Claude was already in the breakfast room when I came down, sitting on the floor with Fire's head in his lap. He looked up, and his face was pale. His eyes were too old for his age.
"Mommy, the big men at the wall don't have faces."
"Which big men?"
"The grey ones. There were five of them last night. Andy saw them too, from the upstairs window. Andrew said they were talking without moving their mouths." He stroked the pup's ears, very carefully, as if he were afraid it might break. "I stayed up to watch the window. I wasn't scared. I just wanted to make sure they didn't come in."
I knelt beside him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. He was too old to be carried and too young to be left alone with this. He stiffened, then leaned into me the way he had when he was small.
