Everybody Has Everything

Ana changed back into her skirt and blouse, folding Sarah’s clothes into the suitcase. She would wash and return them before … what? Where is this going? Ana had never done well without a deadline. She still looked at every completed report at work as a potential A. She sometimes accidentally said: “Can I get an extension?”—the vernacular of a model student. This, in the end, was why she had chosen law. The organization, the binding of the fat books, the long, determined answers, and passes and fails. And to be paid! Ana still couldn’t quite believe how well compensated she was simply for making sense out of chaos, which she would do for no money at all.

Ana pulled the duffel bag onto the front porch, placed the garbage in the bins at the side of the house. She put a laundry basket of toys in the trunk. A small brown rabbit smiled up at her. She turned it on its side.

When she was safely in the car, with all the doors locked, she let out a long, soft whimper, a sound she was getting used to hearing.

On the way home from daycare, Fi

James pulled a narrative out of the streaming chatter, repeated it back to Fi

They stopped in the park. Fi

It was dark already by the time they reached the sandwich store on the corner surrounded by houses with wrought iron fences and birdbaths.

“Should we get some sandwiches for di

“For Ana?” James was surprised. Had Fi

The boy ran ahead, pulling the heavy door of the sandwich store open with determination. He instantly homed in on a dusty jellybean machine in the corner and stood twisting the dial.

“Do you want a sandwich?” James asked Fi

“Girl cheese.”

“We can get that at our house. These are veal sandwiches.”

A girl a little older than Fi

“I called …,” she said to the man behind the counter. He went to retrieve her food, leaving the woman and James side by side, each regarding a child.

“Lilly, no banging. Don’t bang. That little boy was here first.” The girl scampered to the pinball machine and began hitting the glass instead. Fi

“Lilly, don’t bang!”

“Give me a quarter!” yelled Lilly.

“No, not now. Di

“No! I want to play pinball!” screamed the girl.

The mother glanced at James woefully.

“He looks like you,” she said.

James wanted specifics on this comment. “Really? You think so? How do you see that?”

But there was a flurry of activity at the counter, paper bags crumpling and a loud cash register churning, and when James had finished paying, the woman and the girl were gone. Fi

James felt smug that they had made it through the ordering, the waiting, and the paying, without incident. He followed Fi

The sun was setting, and the fall light stained the rooftops of the houses caramel. At the top of James’s street, the curtains in the brothel house fluttered as they walked past, as if someone had just backed away from the window. James knew Ana’s theories but had never seen anyone come or go from there. He glanced at the recycling bin on the curb, bottles of vodka and Diet Coke. Nothing edible.

Fi

“Come on, Fi

From the sidewalk, James yelled: “Fi

“Fi

Fi

They approached their house like this, with Fi

“I heard you coming,” she said, glancing up the street toward the other houses, their insides lit up in the dusk. Noise traveled between the houses and got trapped, like a tu

James dropped Fi

“Is this normal?” She had to shout to be heard.

“I don’t fucking know!” screamed James.

“What are you going to do?”

He glanced at her. She was shivering; she looked barely born.

James went to Fi

“It’s okay! Fi

Fi

Fi

Ana was upon James, pulling back his hand, looking at his eye, a small trickle of blood.

“Oh my God,” she said.

“His fingernails are too long,” said James.

“His fingernails!” gasped Ana, reaching for the blood. Fi

James watched her leave the room and felt the familiarity of Ana in charge. Something fluttered nearby, in the corner of his bloodied eye. Fi

“Hey,” said James, opening his arms. “It’s okay. It was an accident.”

“Sorry,” said Fi

“Me, too.”

Ana came upon them like this, a tube of medicine in her hand. Her first impulse was to turn around and give them the privacy they looked like they deserved.

James knew how to reclaim Fi

“Kleenex,” said James with his hand out. She frowned, but found him a Kleenex in her purse.

“Blow,” said James, and Fi

Fi

Ana blurted out: “Look, Fi

James glanced at her.

“I left work early,” she said. Fi