Part 9
Nancy packed the bell with Otis’s bowl and food, exactly as Leah had asked. She put the bag beside the clothes in Paul’s hall and checked them against the moving list.
On Friday morning, Paul carried the bags out first. Nancy followed with the clinic shirts and Ben’s sleepers. She had spent the previous evening washing and folding them at Paul’s house; two sleepers still showed brown shadows where she had worked on the stains.
Otis waited beside the open passenger door. Nancy spread his blanket over the seat, and Paul lifted him while she held the dog’s leash.
They stopped at the motel for the portable crib. Leah was feeding Ben while Paul folded it and carried it to the truck; she would follow with the last bags once her son had finished.
Paul stopped for gas on the way. By the time they reached the duplex, Leah had collected the keys. Mrs. Givens was leaving with a bucket and a roll of paper towels, and Leah stood inside holding Ben against one shoulder. The room behind her was empty except for a mattress, two folding chairs, and the bags she had brought from the motel.
“Come on in,” she said.
Otis entered first, on his leash. He sniffed the threshold, the wall, the place where the landlord’s bucket had stood. Leah closed the door behind Paul, and Nancy unclipped the leash.
Paul carried the crib into the bedroom. Nancy began to follow him, but Leah asked her to leave it folded for now. She wanted to clean a patch of floor beneath the window before deciding exactly where things would go.
“The light might wake him there,” Nancy said.
Leah looked toward the window. “I’m going to try it.”
Nancy put the bag of sleepers on the mattress. Leah kept looking at the window, one hand smoothing Ben’s back. Nancy took the empty bag to the living room and folded it along its old creases.
Ben reached toward Otis from Leah’s arms. She sat on a folding chair and let the dog approach while Nancy stood close enough to help if asked. Otis sniffed the baby’s covered foot, then sneezed at something on the floor.
Ben made a delighted, breathy noise. Leah laughed, bent her head, and pressed her cheek against his hair. Nancy felt the laugh move through her before she knew she was smiling.
The dog lost interest almost immediately and went to investigate his bowl. Ben followed him with a solemn stare, apparently offended that the performance was over. Leah shifted him so he could still see.
“He’s been looking for him,” she said.
Paul asked where the small bookcase should go. Leah pointed beside the kitchen doorway, then changed her mind when she saw how it narrowed the passage. He moved it without comment. Nancy helped keep the door clear, holding it with her hip while he carried the unit back out and turned it.
By noon, the little rooms had acquired the beginning of a household. Work shirts hung in the closet. Ben’s clothes occupied two dresser drawers. A saucepan stood on the stove, and Leah’s keys lay beside it on a square of paper towel because she had not yet found the dish she used for them.
Nancy unpacked groceries while Leah put the bottles on a shelf above the counter. They kept reaching for the same little stretch of space.
It reminded Nancy of afternoons behind the laundry counter, the ease of knowing how another person moved. Here, she did not know yet. She stepped the wrong way twice and bumped Leah’s elbow once while putting away a jar.
“Sorry.”
“You’re fine. I don’t know where anything goes either.”
They ate sandwiches sitting on the folding chairs, with Paul on the doorstep and Ben on Leah’s lap. Otis lay beneath the little bookcase as though the whole move had been undertaken to provide him with that particular patch of floor.
Paul checked his watch. He had promised to meet someone back at the shop about collecting a delayed order. Nancy gathered her coat while Leah shifted Ben to her other arm.
“You don’t have to go just because he does,” Leah said.
Nancy looked at the remaining boxes. She could stay all afternoon, finish the kitchen, make dinner, perhaps persuade Leah to take a nap while she held the baby. The desire was so familiar that she could almost feel the child’s weight settling onto her shoulder.
“Do you want more help today?”
Leah considered the room. “I think I want to sit here for a little while.”
“Okay.”
Nancy took the empty bags to the truck. On her second trip, she found Leah standing in the doorway with Ben watching over her shoulder. Her daughter thanked her for bringing the things and for lunch. Nancy said she was glad the apartment had worked out.
They did not embrace. Leah lifted Ben’s hand, and Nancy kissed the warm, curled fingers.
Paul started the truck. Nancy fastened her seat belt and looked back once at the open doorway. Otis was visible behind Leah, drinking from his bowl, a little water darkening the mat underneath.
They had nearly reached the end of the block when Nancy’s phone rang. Leah’s name appeared on the screen, and she answered quickly, frightened that something had already gone wrong.
“Did I leave a bag?”
“No.” Leah took a breath. “Can you stay on the phone a minute?”
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