The house had grown quieter by the time Ethan opened his eyes again.<\/p>\n
He had been resting against me, and I had tried not to move too much.<\/p>\n
For a while, I wasn't sure whether he had fallen asleep.<\/p>\n
Then he lifted his head and looked toward the hallway.<\/p>\n
"Are they still here?"<\/p>\n
"Yes," I said. "They're still working."<\/p>\n
He rubbed his eyes.<\/p>\n
"Do they have to stay all night?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know, sweetheart. If they explain anything about the arrangements, I'll tell you."<\/p>\n
He nodded, but he didn't look satisfied.<\/p>\n
I couldn't blame him.<\/p>\n
The officers had been in our home for hours, and I still couldn't explain why the day had turned out this way.<\/p>\n
I pulled the blanket back over his knees.<\/p>\n
He asked for some water, so I reached for the cup on the table.<\/p>\n
I waited while he drank.<\/p>\n
Then I set it within his reach.<\/p>\n
The small routine made me think about breakfast the next morning.<\/p>\n
I had told him we could make a plan, and I wanted to keep that promise as far as circumstances allowed.<\/p>\n
I didn't know what the officers might ask us to do.<\/p>\n
I didn't know whether we would be able to follow our usual routine.<\/p>\n
But I could make sure Ethan knew that his ordinary needs still mattered.<\/p>\n
"Are you hungry?" I asked.<\/p>\n
"A little."<\/p>\n
I checked whether there was anything simple he wanted.<\/p>\n
He named something familiar, and I went to get it.<\/p>\n
I didn't turn the question into a discussion about the barber.<\/p>\n
I didn't ask whether he remembered anything else.<\/p>\n
I simply brought him what he had requested and sat beside him while he ate.<\/p>\n
He took small bites.<\/p>\n
I noticed how tired he looked, but I didn't assume I knew what the tiredness meant.<\/p>\n
He could be exhausted from the long day.<\/p>\n
He could be worried.<\/p>\n
He could be both.<\/p>\n
I let him eat without making him explain himself.<\/p>\n
When Detective Alvarez came back into the room, I asked whether there was anything new we needed to know.<\/p>\n
She gave me the information she was able to share at that moment.<\/p>\n
There was still no explanation that settled the questions troubling me.<\/p>\n
I listened carefully and asked her to clarify one point.<\/p>\n
Then I thanked her.<\/p>\n
She returned to her work.<\/p>\n
Ethan watched her leave.<\/p>\n
"Did she find out what happened?"<\/p>\n
"Not something she has explained to us yet."<\/p>\n
He looked down at his plate.<\/p>\n
I wanted to soften the answer, but I knew that inventing reassurance would only make another promise I couldn't guarantee.<\/p>\n
"We'll listen when she has something to tell us," I added.<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
I stayed beside him until he finished eating.<\/p>\n
The clock continued ticking above the television.<\/p>\n
For once, I didn't count the seconds.<\/p>\n
The house had grown quieter by the time Ethan opened his eyes again. He had been resting against me, and I had tried not to move too much. For a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36915,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36895\/revisions\/36915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}