Chapter 5

Sixty people means two sheet pans, and two sheet pans means the big bowl, and the big bowl was on top of the cupboard where I could not reach it.

Whit knew Ines's hands had shaken for four hours after Junie's last birthday. He had stayed awake beside her, counting each tremor against the sheet while she slept through them.

Now she dragged a kitchen chair across the linoleum. Its wooden legs caught twice in the worn seams, but she kept pulling until the seat stood beneath the cupboard.

"What are you doing?" Whit asked.

She tested the chair with…