It was a Saturday morning. I was in the kitchen eating cereal and my mother was on the phone with her friend Sarah. Daniel was at work. Aunt Dana was not coming over until the afternoon.
I heard the van before I saw it. The same loose belt. The same squeal of tires on gravel.
I set down my spoon.
"Mom," I said.
She held up a finger and kept talking.
"Mom."
She turned and looked at me and saw my face and said, into the phone, "Sarah, I have to call you back."
"What is it?"
"He's here."
"Who?"
Then she heard the van too. She walked to the window and looked out and I saw her go still. A man was stepping out of a white work van with a toolbox. He was wearing a work shirt with a name patch. He was walking toward our front door.
"He's going to ring the bell," I said. "Don't answer it.
