Clarice helped him look. “Won’t one of these socks do?”
“IT DOESN’T MATCH!”
“I don’t think anyone will care just this once.”
“I CARE!”
“Look… what’s your name?”
“I’m GIL,” he said sullenly.
“Gil. Okay, Gil. I’m Clarice. If you don’t want to wear an unmatched sock, let’s find two that do match and you can wear those.”
Gil evidently decided that was an acceptable compromise. Clarice found two that were convincingly similar and he pulled them over his cold-looking toes and pulled on his boots. She thought it was odd that the leather ball wasn’t at the top of the box anymore, but it had been pretty dense; maybe it had fallen to the bottom. Or it had come out and rolled under a seat. A quick inspection didn’t turn it up.
Clarice took the box around to the front passenger seat and returned to buckle the boy in. The seatbelt hit him all wrong, but she could drive carefully.
“I’M LIKE A BIG BOY!” Gil said merrily, not at all bothered by the shoulder belt nearly choking him.
“Okay,” Clarice said weakly. Her knees felt rubbery, and she was glad to get back in the driver’s seat so they didn’t have to hold her up any longer. Gil was right behind her, so she couldn’t see him in the rear view mirror, and it was a good thing, because she would have been watching him instead of the snowy streets, and she might have run right into the handsome man in the middle of the road.
2
BRUNO
Bruno had, of all things, lost his son.
One moment he was bouncing impatiently at Bruno’s feet as Bruno consulted with Alan about the destruction of a lunch box, the next he was gone.
Gil was not in the Tiny Paws bathroom, or in the backyard. Bruno checked the cubbies. Alan, braids swinging, overturned the bean bag and poked around between the animal cages, then they moved their search to the entryway. Gil’s boots were gone, but there was no sign of him in front of the building. He was a sensible kid, where could he possibly have gone? If he got cold outside, why didn’t he knock to get back in? For a five-year-old, he had impressive lungs, and Bruno didn’t imagine that he wouldn’t have heard if Gil had yelled. He and Alan searched in opposite directions out the front door, hollering his name.
“I didn’tseehim leave,” Alan said, as they met again. “But there were a lot of people coming in and out. And there’s no way to tell if any of these are his footprints.” The snow was beaten down on the sidewalks, and traffic was streaming by regularly on the road. There was asquare dent in the snow where a box of clothing and toy donations had been. “This is the first kid I’ve ever lost!”
Bruno felt seven kinds of panic, and cataloged each of them clinically before shunting them aside. It wouldn’t do his son any good to get hysterical. Shock was unhelpful. Blame was unproductive. Curling up in a ball to hide was useless.
But it would be nice!his armadillo said serenely.It’s fun to be round.For some reason, he wasn’t worried at all.
Bruno was not nearly so calm. He could feel his heart racing and his gut clenching, and his brain wanted to spin over all the horrible things that might have happened. Gil might have frostbite, or been hit by a car.
Even kidnapping wasn’t off the table. Kids from this very day care had been snatched for their shifter secrets. Teacher Addison had been tricked into getting into a fake ambulance while she was in labor.
Nothingwas off the table.
And Gil was so trusting and extroverted! He’d strike up a conversation with anyone, and probably hop willingly into someone’s car for the promise of a sweet, no matter how many times Bruno talked to him about stranger danger.
Bruno was standing in the middle of the street, hollering at the top of his lungs for Gil with no care for who saw him being the worst dad in the history of parenthood when a little red Toyota came around the corner and slid to a stop sideways in front of him, blocking the road.
A dark blonde woman in a puffy coat scrambled out of the driver’s seat, looking wild-eyed and wind-blown. She was wearing stereotypical librarian glasses and a basic wool hat, but Bruno thought she was one of the prettiest and lively-looking women he’d ever seen. Panic could be flattering on some people, and she was one of them.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t have a car seat, and I don’t know how he got into the car at all. I got to the donation center, and he was justthere. He said I’d taken his clothes, and I guess he just snuck in without me noticing, somehow. I mean, that makes sense,right?”
Gil was in her back seat, struggling with the seat belt and Bruno felt like his world stopped in place as relief crashed down on him. “Gil!”
“Mystery solved,” Alan said, looking as relieved as Bruno felt. “This is Veronica Chase’s assistant, Clarice. She was coordinating the clothing drive. Gil’s back safe, and I’mfreezing!” He was in short sleeves, and made a show of rubbing his arms as he punched a code in by the door to get back in.
Bruno could guess exactly what had happened: Gil had shifted and left his clothing behind in a pile. Clarice had gathered them up with the charity box and thought that armadillo-Gil, rolled into a perfect armored ball, was just an odd toy being donated.
Clarice was still babbling and she looked as wild around the eyes as Bruno felt. “We didn’t have to drive very far, I’m really sorry. I still have no idea how he got in my car without me noticing and we cameright back.”