23
In the morning, Willow stood looking out the window of Papa’s bedroom, her and Derrick’s bedroom now. Only a few colorless leaves, more beige than copper, still trembled on the trees, and the air shuffled between drizzle and snowflakes, the temperature well below zero.
She moved around the room. With neither a basement nor a garage for storage, she and Papa had carried the dressing table to the curb where he taped a sign to the front: FREE. He stood at the front window then, looking out on the wet weather, hoping someone came soon. She returned to her new room, thinking all the while about the card in the dress bag. “Your baby will die, too.”
Mother Moses lay across the bed, and Willow folded up the talisman and put it on the closet shelf. Derrick knew nothing of Mother Moses, and he
