The girl’s voice became even quieter.
“I’m not.”
He leaned back.
Everything inside him wanted to ask a hundred questions.
How long?
What else?
Why didn’t you tell me?
What did she do?
Did she hurt you?
Instead he remembered what the teacher had said on the phone.
Do not interrogate her.
Do not make her feel responsible for proving anything.
Let her tell you what she can.
He breathed.
“Your teacher said you’ve been tired in class.”
The girl nodded.
“She said you fell asleep twice this week.”
Another nod.
“What time are you going to bed?”
“I don't know.”
“What time last night?”
“Eleven thirty.”
He stared.
Her school day began at eight.
She usually went to bed around eight thirty.
“Why?”
“I had to finish the laundry.”
His stomach tightened.
“What laundry?”
“Everybody’s.”
“All of ours?”
“Yes.”
“You know how to use the washing machine?”
She looked confused.
“Of course.”
He realized immediately why that question had been stupid.
Of course she did.
She had apparently been doing it for months.
“When did you start washing everything?”
The girl rubbed her thumb across the edge of the table.
“After she said I ruined her sweater.”
“How?”
“I put it in the dryer.”
“Did you know it couldn't go in the dryer?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“It got smaller.”
“And then?”
“She said if I wanted to be careless, I needed to learn how much work clothes take.”
The father closed his eyes.
His wife had told him about that sweater.
Not the laundry punishment.
She told him his daughter had “ignored simple instructions again.”
He remembered responding:
“You have to listen when she tells you something.”
The memory made him sick.
He opened his eyes.
“What else do you do?”
His daughter’s shoulders rose.
“Normal stuff.”
“What is normal stuff?”
“Kitchen.”
“Laundry.”
“Bathrooms.”
“What bathrooms?”
“All except yours.”
He stared.
“Why not mine?”
She shrugged.
“She cleans yours before you come home.”
That sentence told him more than she realized.
“What else?”
“Sometimes her closet.”
“What do you do in the closet?”
“Shoes.”
“What about the shoes?”
“Clean them.”
He sat back.
Nine years old.