I looked at the soccer ball lying near my foot.
“Toby, show me the rest.”
His head snapped up.
“Show you what?”
“The other stuff.”
“When did you make this one?”
He went still.
“What other stuff?”
“The stuff you use when Dad travels.”
He glanced toward the stairs.
That was answer enough.
“Toby.”
“Mom, it’s ridiculous.”
“Let me decide that.”
He hesitated, then trudged upstairs.
I followed him into his bedroom.
“The stuff you use when Dad travels.”
***
Toby knelt beside the bed and pulled out a flattened storage bin I had never noticed.
Inside was one of Julian’s old T-shirts.
A baseball cap.
Two hotel key-card sleeves.
A luggage tag.
Three tiny bottles of hotel shampoo.
And a pillowcase.
Inside was one of Julian’s old T-shirts.
I touched the gray T-shirt.
“This has been missing for months.”
Toby said nothing.
“You took it?”
“Borrowed.”
“Without asking.”
He looked offended.
