Emma Signed Over Her Kitchen Island to Keep Toby Safe in Massachusetts

his yellow pencil between his thumb and forefinger.

A cardboard box labelled School Books sat open beside his feet, filled with illustrated encyclopedias and his vocabulary journals.

“Toby,” I said, kneeling on the floor beside him. “We need to put the rest of the science books in the blue bin.”

He did not look up from the pencil, his small fingers spinning continue reading …