“Zoe, I’m working on a very important project and I think you might have something I need.”
At this, the little girl perked up. “Sure, Amos, what do you need?”
“A ruler. Doyou have one?”
She nodded, hurried over to a small white-painted desk set against one wall, and opened a drawer. She pulled out a green ruler and brought it over to him.
“Thank you very much, Zoe,” he said, taking it from her.
“You’re welcome.”
Decker had turned to go. But then he faced her once more.
“Did your mom talk to you?”
She nodded.“She asked me if I wanted to stay here or move someplace else.”
“And what did you tell your mom?”
Zoe shrugged. “Daddy’s here. I don’t want to leave him all alone.”
Decker knelt down so he was eye to eye with the little girl.
“I can understand that.”
Zoe stared back at him. “You told me that when I visited Daddy he would know I was there. Thathe would know here.”
She touched the center of her small chest.
“Yes, I did.”
“So, I can’t leave him or else he’d be sad. He would be sad here.” She touched the center of Decker’s chest. “Right?”
Now Decker wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Right.”
She yawned.
“You better go get some sleep, okay?”
“Okay, Amos.” Zoe gave him a hug andhe quietly returned to his room, his gaze downcast.
Life really is a bitch sometimes.
He sat down on his bed and looked at the plans spread out there.
Then he looked down at the ruler. Written on it in Sharpie was the name “Zoe Mitchell.”
He got up and walked over to the window and looked out over a town that was in despair, but that was perhaps slowly comingback.
But at what price?
And how many more people were going to die before itwasback?
He turned his head in the direction of Zoe’s room.
Should they stay or should they go?
It would be very easy to say they should go.
Flee the violence and danger. Go to a safer place.
But where exactly was that anymore?
I guess ifI have any purpose in life, it’s to help make sure there are safe places left to go to.
With that thought in mind, he sat down and used the ruler to go over every dimension of the construction drawings and Toby Babbot’s version of the same.
He used paper and pen to make his calculations, and when he was done he had found only a single discrepancy between the two documents.
But what a discrepancy it was.