Faithful. Inexplicably faithful.
The morning when everything changed
One ordinary morning in her garden, Diane notices scratching at her door. She turns around. It's him. The cemetery dog, standing on his doorstep, something tightly clutched between his jaws. She opens carefully. The animal moves forward, places the object at its feet, then sits and looks at it, gently wagging its tail.
An old stuffed rabbit. Threadbare out, covered with earth, sewn up everywhere.
Diane's fingers brush against the fabric and perceive something rigid inside. She takes it to the kitchen, grabs a pair of scissors. She opens the toy. Inside: a small rusty key and a message scribbled in the handwriting of a six-year-old child. Ethan's handwriting. * "For mom. Aunt M said not to tell anyone. »*
