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“Thank you for letting me stay in your room,” Heidi tells him.
“I’ll be setting the burglar alarm,” Maggie tells her, “so don’t open any windows.”
Heidi nods.
“Sleep well,” Maggie says. “We’ll see you in the morning.”
—
She’s dreaming of squirrels.
“Rats with good PR,”Craig says.
“There’s a real fat one,”Erin says, pointing to the squirrel’s stomach.
“She’s not fat,”Maggie announces.“She’s pregnant.”
“Who’s the father?”Erin asks.
“Tom Cruise,”Maggie says.
Which is when she knows she’s dreaming.
In the distance, a barrage of fireworks explodes, lighting up the dark sky with showers of neon pink and green. The sound of the explosion bangs against the side of Maggie’s head.
She stirs as another round of fireworks shake up the sky, this salvo even louder than the ones that preceded it. Maggie opens her eyes, stares through the darkness at her son, asleep beside her. She lifts herself up on one elbow to see the clock.
Two thirty-eight.
Surely too late for anyone to still be playing with firecrackers.
Which is when she hears another loud bang and realizes someone is at her front door.
Maggie climbs out of bed and goes to the window, staring through the darkness at the street below.
More banging.
“Mommy?” Leo asks, sleepily. “What’s that noise?”
Maggie hurries to the nightstand by her side of the bed. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Close your eyes. Go back to sleep.”
Leo promptly lies back down, burying his nose in his stuffed Mario.
Maggie opens the drawer of the nightstand and removes her gun, carrying it back with her to the window. She stands there, waiting. But aside from the distant drone of traffic, all she hears is the silence of the night.
And then, another sound. Something guttural and all too familiar.
It takes Maggie a few seconds to recognize what it is.
Someone is crying.
Maggie returns the gun to her nightstand, throws a robe over her pajamas, then tiptoes down the stairs. She peeks through the keyhole, then turns off the alarm and opens the front door.
Aiden is sitting on the front step, wearing the same clothes he had on earlier, hugging his knees to his chest. His feet are bare, his shoulders shaking.
“Aiden,” Maggie says gently, sitting down beside him. One arm reaches up to stroke his back. “What are you doing here?”
He lifts his head. “I need to see Heidi. I know she’s here.”
