Six weeks seemed reasonable. I even purchased a more comfortable pillow for her.
Twice weekly, Diane looked after our four-year-old son, Noah, while I worked.
One afternoon, I returned to find them constructing a zoo from couch cushions. Diane was pretending to be a walrus.
“The walrus needs a lawyer,” Noah announced.
“The walrus has one,” she said. “She’s a pelican.”
Noah collapsed against her, giggling.
I quietly lowered my work bag, unwilling to disturb them. I’d worried throughout my drive home that he might have missed me.
Instead, he was having such fun he hadn’t noticed my arrival.
Continue on the next page:
