The rusted metal toy truck sat half-buried in the damp pine needles near the edge of the asphalt, its tiny rear axle bent at a sharp angle. I reached down to pull it from the earth, ignoring the cold mud that clung to my skin. The red paint was mostly chipped away to show the dark, pitted steel underneath.
“You should leave that alone, Margaret,” Evelyn said.
She stood near the passenger door of my Buick, her blue cardigan buttoned to the throat despite the afternoon heat. She pulled her reading glasses from her pocket and began to polish them with her cardigan hem, her movements slow and methodical. The white fabric of her blouse was crisp, showing the neat creases from her morning ironing.
I did not answer her immediately. I rubbed my bare ring finger, where the skin was still slightly pale and indented, before I spoke.
“He had one just like this,” I said.
“A great many children did,” Evelyn said. She adjusted her glasses, her voice carrying the precise, grammatical tone she had used for thirty years at the Oakhaven elementary school. “But Daniel would be twenty-four now, Margaret. We must keep our feet on the ground.”
The paper cup of diner coffee I had bought for two dollars wobbled on the hood of the car, then tipped over, spilling the brown liquid across the rusted metal of the truck I had just set down. The hum of the highway traffic on Route 9 was a constant vibration through the soles of my shoes, a steady, low drone that never truly stopped.
Evelyn reached into her leather handbag and withdrew a folded, yellowed square of newspaper.
“I found this while sorting through my bureau this morning,” she said, holding it out. “I thought you should have it before the town council meets on Tuesday.”
I took the clipping, my fingers leaving a smudge of damp earth on the margin. It was a local police report from October of 2006, detailing the initial search parameters around the rest stop. One sentence had been underlined in faded blue ink: The sheriff’s office has concluded its physical search of the dense brush line.
