“They were shooting at us,” Ty said, his unfocused eyes turning toward his voice.
“Yes, they were, but they didn’t get us. We’re safe now.” Alice watched him for a moment and then turned away to the sink where she opened the tap. Ty tilted his head forward and rolled the dowel across the table. Back and forth, back and forth. Quinn opened his mouth to say something else but instead a bright collection of shapes caught his eye on the front of the refrigerator. He stood and gathered them from where they hung, suspended by the magnets in their backs, and placed them on the table before Ty. The boy heard the clatter of the plastic pieces and sat forward.
“What’s that?”
“Different shapes with magnets on their backs.”
“Cool.” Delight filled Ty’s face. “I know what a square is.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“It’s got four sides like this.” Ty drew a square on the tabletop with his finger.
“You got it. Can you find the square that’s mixed with all the other shapes?” Quinn asked. Ty tipped his head to one side, his eyes looking off to the corner of the ceiling as his hands began to roam over the shapes. Within seconds he’d found the square magnet, tracing it with his fingers.
“Here it is.”
“You got it! How about a triangle? Do you know what that one is?”
“Yep, it’s a lazy square with three sides instead of four.”
Quinn laughed. “That’s right.” Ty sorted through the shapes, producing the triangle correctly. They went through the rest of the magnets, Quinn quizzing him on the shapes he knew and explaining the ones he didn’t. All the while he could feel Alice’s gaze on him like heat from a fire. After Ty had memorized the shapes that he didn’t know, Quinn showed him how the magnets would attract one another if slid close together. Ty giggled each time the plastic pieces snapped together, glancing in Quinn’s direction, his smile as radiant as his mother’s.
“Okay, buddy, that’s enough for one night,” Alice said after a time.
“Oh mom, we just started.”
“I know, but you need a bath. You’re smelly.”
“Mom, I’m not smelly. I had a bath, I can’t remember, but it was maybe only yesterday.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re not in charge of planning your baths.”
“What’s after bath?”
“After bath is bedtime.”
“But I’m not tired.”
“You always say that, and you’re always asleep in under a minute,” Alice said, picking Ty up from his place at the table.
“Can you tuck me in, Quinn?” Ty asked as Alice began carrying him away. Quinn blinked, shifting his eyes from the boy to Alice who stared at him and then gave a curt nod.
“Sure can, buddy.”
“Yay!” Ty exclaimed, as Alice turned and brought him toward the bathroom.
Quinn sat in the kitchen, his gaze roaming around the room. Dirty dishes rested beside the sink, a magazine was folded open to an article on the counter, three marbles lay beneath a chair. He let out a sigh and stood, grabbing his AR-15 from where it leaned near the doorway before heading outside.