Caution! Cute Baby Alert! novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Row Nine, Again

They opened Row Nine at dawn, under a sky the color of dishwater.

Two cemetery workers dug with a small yellow machine, and a court officer stood by with a clipboard.

Nathaniel's lawyer held an umbrella over her own head and nobody else's.

I stood at the foot of the lamb stone in my work jacket.

Nathaniel stood beside me with his cap in his hand, and I noticed he hadn't worn it.

Dee had come too, in her apron, with her braids tied up in a scarf.

She held my elbow.

Polly was at the bakery with the nurse, who had said she wanted to bake something.

At eight inches from the lid the machine stopped, and the men finished by hand.

The box was white and no longer than my forearm.

It had a brass catch, green with damp.

"Ma'am," the court officer said to me. "You can say no."

"Open it."

"It will be on the record."

"Good."

One of the workers worked the catch with a screwdriver.

The lid lifted.

I looked.

There was a lining of pale satin, gone gray at the corners.

There was nothing else.

No blanket, no bones, no small toy, no dust.

The court officer wrote for a long time.

"Let the record show," he said, "that the container is empty."

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