“This was your bedroom?” Julian said. Sunlight, almost mocking, filled the burned-out corner where they picked their way through the remnants of toys and child-sized furniture.
“Yeah,” Brittany said. “I mean, it was upstairs. Now there isn’t an upstairs, so everything landed down here.”
She picked up a porcelain doll, its face shattered and clothes filthy. Set it down again. Gathered a few pieces of a board game before seeming to realize she would never find them all, and let them slip back through her fingers.
“What would you like me to do to help?” Julian asked, feeling useless.
“Help me dig me through these books,” she said, pointing out the splintered remains of a bookshelf. “Maybe some of them are okay.”
One. Between fire, smoke, and water damage, they found exactly one book that
