The Uninvited

Spain. The culprits are twin boys, agednine. Child Three and Child Four, as Iimmediately think of them, pushed theirfather off a stone staircase in full view ofthe rest of the family, who were gatheredin the courtyard of their farmhouse for ameal, celebrating a younger child’sbirthday. Afterwards the boys would notspeak. Again, there was no apparentmotive, but on the morning of the attack,they told their parents that they had wokenabruptly in the night, from the samenightmare.The father died.I reach for a pencil and sharpen it withsix turns, inhaling the scent of the long,pristine shaving that emerges. Pine andgraphite. It’s very pleasing. Then I reachfor a pad and start drawing.