Matthew had begun to be really scared of Glory. It had started yesterday when she yelled at him for forgetting his truck and leaving it where that lady saw it. He had run back into the closet and then she locked him in and then after a while she said she was sorry, but he couldn’t stop crying. He wanted Mommy.
He kept trying to think about Mommy’s face but it was like seeing shadows. But he could remember her wrapping him inside her bathrobe, and he could even remember when her long hair would tickle his nose and he would brush it away. If she was with him now, he wouldn’t brush it away. He’d hold it so tight that he’d never let go even if it hurt her.
Later on, after Glory had put that smelly stuff in his hair, she gave him one of the muffins the lady brought. But afterward he felt sick and threw up. It wasn’t the muffin. He knew that. It was because some days when Mommy didn’t go to work, she used to bake muffins with him. It was like the soap that he kept under his pillow. The muffins made him think of Mommy.
After that Glory had tried to be nice. She read a story to him, but even though she told him he was really smart and read grown-up words better than any kid his age, he hadn’t felt any better. Then Glory told him to make up a story. He did make up one—that a little boy had lost his mother and knew he had to go out and find her. Glory didn’t like that. He could tell that she was tired of taking care of him. He was tired, too, and went to sleep early.
After he had been asleep for a long time, he woke up when he heard a phone ring. Even though his door was only opened a little, he could hear some of what Glory was saying. He heard her talking about keeping this kid from his mother. Was he the kid she was talking about? Was it her fault he wasn’t with Mommy? She had told him that Mommy wanted him to hide because bad people were going to steal him.
Was she lying to him?