CHAPTER TWELVE — THE CALL FROM NEXT DOOR

I returned home expecting silence.
Instead I found Ellis and Theo at the kitchen table, arguing over a map of imaginary islands.
The Morrows had brought Theo for a scheduled afternoon visit after the review, and he had insisted on seeing the moth poster.
Gabriel had made grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone.
The ordinary noise felt almost painful after the meeting.
I kissed Ellis’s hair and thanked the Morrows for coming.
Then my phone rang.
The caller was Carmen.
She said Paula had returned home furious and had called her several times.
Carmen had gone to check on her mother but had not entered the house.
“She’s saying people stole her chance to fix everything,” Carmen told me.
“She says your family owes her.

”
I asked whether Paula had threatened anyone.
Carmen said she had not heard an explicit threat, but she was worried about her mother’s behavior.
I advised her to call the appropriate emergency service if she believed anyone was in immediate danger.
Then I forwarded the information to Officer Brooks.
I did not go next door.
That evening, Paula knocked once on our front door.
Gabriel looked through the peephole and told me to take the children upstairs.
I wanted to stand beside him, but I knew Ellis would hear more if I left her alone.
I took the children to Theo’s room and told them we were waiting for a visitor to leave.
Below us, Gabriel spoke through the closed door.
“Paula, we are not discussing this with you.”
“Lena made me look like a criminal,

” Paula said.
Her voice rose quickly.
“I spent twenty years helping children while people like her collected praise.”
“You need to go home,” Gabriel answered.
“She doesn’t understand what she has taken from me.”
I heard the slap of a palm against the door.
It was not a blow strong enough to damage anything, but it sent Theo toward me.
I wrapped my arms around him.
Ellis stood very still by the window.
Gabriel repeated that Paula needed to leave and said police had been contacted because she was refusing to go.
A few moments later her footsteps moved away.
We waited until Officer Brooks arrived and spoke with Gabriel.
He documented the unwanted contact and explained the options for limiting further approaches.
He did not promise that every conflict could be ended by a single report.
That honesty frightened me less than false certainty would have.
After he left, Theo asked if Paula could make Ellis move.
Ellis looked at me instead of answering him herself.
“No neighbor can decide that,” I said.
“The county makes placement decisions, and your voices matter in that process.”
Theo considered this carefully.
“Then why is she so loud?”
“Because being loud is easier than being right,” Gabriel answered from the doorway.
Ellis gave a short laugh.
Then Theo asked whether he could sleep under his red quilt during the next visit.
I told him that was the plan.
He curled into Gabriel’s side on the couch and began describing a beetle he wanted to keep as a pet.
For the first time since the water failed, the room held a future that belonged to the children rather than to our fear.