Tyler tried to head out before anyone was awake, but when he got downstairs Vicki was sitting at the oval table between the kitchen and the sitting room.

“Oh, you’re up early,” she said.

“Yeah.”

She was wearing matching pink pajama bottoms and top. He could see her swollen ankles pouring out above her slippers.

“Want some water?”

“I’m alright thank you.”

The garden through the sliding glass door behind her looked drab.

“Nice garden,” he said.

“Oh, thank you. We used to have a pond you know. We’d get all kinds of critters. Bull frogs and horny toads. One year when Alice was still here she got it in her head that the pond needed some turtles so I went to the Pet Store in Charlesville and bought two — Archie and Marilyn. She named them. They used to spend all summer in that pond, and Chuck used to say ‘I’m not gonna be the one to clean that cesspool,’ and then he’d clean it a day or two later. Can you believe that they got along with the dogs?”

“Who?”

“Archie and Marilyn. They would walk around the yard, all around the wooden fence, and the dogs would just let them be. They’re a lot faster than you’d think by the way. Oh yeah we’ve had all kinds of animals back there. Squirrels and chipmunks of course, but I’ve seen skunks, raccoons, hedgehogs, porcupines. I saw a beautiful red fox once but that was in the neighbors’ yard, and then I heard that a fox got run over on Main Street, we’ve had spotted owls, sparrows, woodpeckers, grackles — both kinds, cardinals, blue jays, ravens, hawks, even saw a short stork once land in the pond back when it was still there. Didn’t have a baby though ha ha.”

Tyler thought of the two children in the family portrait above the staircase.

“We used to have fish in that pond too. Two big goldies, and we always had to tell the dogs to cut it out and leave them be. Never saw any coyotes though. Plenty of deer, although they can’t get in cause of the fence. Every year we get a couple big turkeys, oh you should see these turkeys.”

Dead leaves drifted this way and that in the grass behind her. She hadn’t looked back at it once, just kept her head up looking at Tyler. He was still standing in the hallway with a backpack over each shoulder.

“I can’t remember why we had to get rid of the pond. Can you believe it, I remember all these animals but I can’t even… well the turtles died, that’s true. Pretty close to each other as well, Chuck laughed at me but I still think Marilyn died of sadness. We had bull frogs and toads…

“By far the worst thing I ever saw in the yard though, was over by the neighbors behind us.”

She didn’t move, but Tyler figured she meant over beyond the fence.

“A couple years ago a family moved in from Africa. They had so many kids, and I told Chuck be nice if they’re here it’s cause they’re good people, I even went over to introduce myself but the man wasn’t home and the woman wouldn’t open the door, so I left the cookies on the doorstep and watched them from the kitchen, and one day I swear I saw him beating their dog, it was so awful, you could hear it yelping all around the block. So I called the cops on them and they moved out. Can you imagine doing that to an animal?”

Later, on the road, Tyler couldn’t stop seeing her swollen ankles poking out under the pajama pants.