章 78: Chapter 78

He was tidying the desk and I was stuffing the empty bags into the largest plastic bag when Joe came out of the bathroom again.

“Where should I put these?” He held up the clothes he’d worn all day.

“Did you see the small door in the wall in the bathroom?”

“Um…yes?”

“It’s a laundry chute. It goes down to the basement.”

“That’s where the laundry room is,” Quinn told him.

“Yeah. Just chuck your dirty clothes into it.”

“Cool.” But it was easy to see the kid was really dragging. He went back into the bathroom, and we could hear the chute door open and then close, and this time when Joe came out, it was without the clothes.

“Do you want a glass of milk?”

He paused as he walked toward the bed. “No, thank you.”

“Okay. Are you going to have trouble falling asleep?”

“No.” He became tense. “Why would you think…?”

“That nap you had this afternoon?”