The Patient Who Knew Me

ause the stairs in the apartment building creaked and Eli's bedroom was right above th

ame from the kitchen nightlight and the fish tank in the corner. I p

arking lot lights on it, moving a little when the wind shook the trees. I watched him for a moment. His hair was the same color as mine, champag

at at the table with my phone and a pen and a napkin, an

. Find Tam. Ivy, mate of Silas, violet eyes and dark brown hair and a lo

we were at a dinner party, and then he had said, "Ivy works at the hospital too. She is in administration. You two should talk." And Ivy had look

ocket, because you never knew who was going t

morning Eli

r brain stayed on duty all night, listening for a sound that did not belong, and I was out of

wide and wet. He was nine years old and he cried the way nine year old boy

said. "Wha

olf,"

and put my arm around him and he push

a bad

rees behind the parking lot and it was big, bigger than a dog, and it had a

my stomach. "Honey. Dr

ne and they were perfectly clear, the way children's eyes get when they know you do not believ

it. I had said things like that to him before. I had told him the shadows on the ceiling were just lights, and the noises in the pipes were just the build

night, because I knew exactly

on were the tr

ha

arking lot? Where th

my arm, and I could feel his heart going i

ence where the road goes up. It was point

oward Miller's Ridge.

was not really a song, just a tune with no words, and eventually his bre

om

ha

live up on

ide a truck with a wrench in his hand, and he had asked me once why his father could not come back from heaven, and I had

"Dad is gone.

es the wolf

to the kitchen and called the diner on Route 9 and asked for the night manager, w

Does anybody arou

ski has a terrier. The Hem

ng big? Bigger than

or a moment. I heard her put

olf out there last week. County said it was a stray. Said they would

id. "Goodn

the trees behind the dumpster. The parking lot light was on. The fence was there, and t

it was the size of my whole hand spread flat. A paw print. One print, deep and clear, and beside it a line

Eli. I put my coat on and went outside, and I followed the prints to the fence a

n the wet dust, someone had

ord w