“did you find what you were looking for?” ( from kate )
it’s night or close to it: through the tendrils of thick, ropy rain in the window esther can make out the soft glitter of starshine. she isn’t tall enough to reach the third crosspiece of john’s retable housing tools by the dozen, but she’s reaching up, up, up, on her tiptoes. while blindly helming her widened hand left and right in search; a finger nudges one out of the innumerable teeth of john’s automatic mini-saw. she finds the rest of it and claims it whole by the hilt, and heaves it out of its recession at the same time that the door moves to introduce kate behind it who tries the knob but ... finds that it’s bolted twice. that slimy bitch is always in the way. instead of replacing it, esther steps off the chair she was standing on and shoves the saw fast under john’s desk for later use, because kate will never notice where it was to begin with, much less where it is now. she unfastens and draws back the door then, and meets kate. answers questions for her. “ the door locked behind me, mommy. i swear. daddy said mrs. webb could be in here, but she isn’t. ”