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He blinked furiously to keep his tears from spilling out.<br />

“No.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> wooden chair creaked as she sat back against it and<br />

glanced at me. I knew what she was thinking: would he have<br />

answered differently if mother wasn’t in the room? <strong>The</strong>re were also<br />

questions that we needed to ask Mother Dearest that weren’t<br />

appropriate in front of her child.<br />

Time to split them up.<br />

“Timmy, does this activity happen in any rooms besides<br />

yours?” I asked.<br />

He nodded. “Yeah. I can be anywhere. He lives in the closet<br />

but he’ll follow me upstairs sometimes. He gets bored down there.”<br />

“But it’s mostly in your room?”<br />

Another nod.<br />

“Do you think you could show me your room?” Susannah<br />

posed the question that one hundred percent of the straight male<br />

population wanted to hear from her.<br />

Without a word, he pushed back his chair and started over to<br />

the stairs. Susannah followed after and touched my shoulder on her<br />

way past me. Good luck.<br />

“Mrs. Johansson, could you give me the tour of the rest of<br />

the house?” I asked as their footsteps thudded lightly against the<br />

carpeted stairs. “And do you mind if I take pictures?” I reached into<br />

my back pocket and pulled out the little digital camera that was<br />

resting there.<br />

“Oh, sure.” She rose and gestured around us. “Obviously,<br />

this is the kitchen and dining area. To our left is the living room.”<br />

As I tailed her down the hallway, I clutched my open folder<br />

and tried hard to emphasize the fact that I was just reading the<br />

questions off of a sheet. <strong>The</strong>se were the ones that made people puff<br />

up and hiss at us. “I have to ask you again if you or your husband<br />

are heavy drinkers or do any kind of illegal drugs. I promise you that<br />

your answers are absolutely confidential.”<br />

She frowned over her shoulder as she paused in a doorway.<br />

“No, I can assure you that our answers on the sheet were accurate.<br />

We barely even keep alcohol in the house, and nobody is on drugs.”<br />

112

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