The Way to Yesterday by Sharon Sala

only six.
    'But she's here now, isn't she?" Lena said. "So off you go, and if
you see that man again, you run and tell me. It's not okay to talk to
him."
    Hope nodded.
    Lena ushered the child into the van and then turned around, searching the
schoolyard for the man she'd seen, but he was no longer in sight. Anxious to
report to her principal, she hustled the other children into their parents'
cars and then headed for the school building. Two little girls had already gone
missing in Savannah and she wasn't taking any chances. While these children
were in her care, they were her babies.
    'Mommy, it's not okay to talk to strangers, is it?" Hope asked.
    The curious inflection in Hope's voice made Mary's skin crawl. She dropped
the potato she was peeling into the sink, wiped her hands on a towel and then
turned to look at her daughter, who was sitting at the kitchen table. Her head
was bent toward her coloring book, the cookie Hope had given her earlier was
gone, and her glass of milk was half empty. It was an innocent scene, but the
question Hope asked was not.
    'No, it's not okay," Mary said. "Why do you ask?"
    Hope shrugged and discarded her red crayon for a blue one.
    Mary sat down in the chair across from Hope and for a moment, simply watched
the intensity on her daughter's face. As she sat, it occurred to her that fear
was not something she would have expected in heaven, and with that came the
thought that her theory could be horribly flawed. If so, then she wasn't dead,
but if she wasn't dead, then where was she? It wasn't the first time today that
she'd experienced something disturbing, but this was the worst. And while she
had no explanation for what was going on in her life, the reality of her
"here and now" was too vivid to explain away as a dream.
    'Did a stranger talk to you today?" Without looking up, Hope nodded.
"Where, honey? At dance class?"
    'No," Hope said, and abandoned the blue crayon for a yellow one.
    Mary sighed. If only she was more confident about this parenting business.
She'd only had three months of practice at it before everything had come to an
end, and even though she felt a natural and enduring love for this child she
was just getting to know, she was uncertain about how to connect.
    'Come sit in my lap," Mary asked, and without urging, Hope immediately
abandoned her coloring and did as Mary asked.
    Mary pulled her close, wrapping her arms around the tiny girl's shoulders
and rocking her where they sat.
    'Where did you see the stranger?"
    'At school." Her features crumpled. "I don't want to go to dance
class with Mrs. Barnes anymore. She's always late. I don't like to be last to
go home."
    "Okay, sweetie, we'll talk about dance class later. Right now I need
you to tell me more about the man. Did he come to your classroom?"
    'No. He was by the gate where we go home." "Where was Mrs.
Kristy?"
    Hope hesitated, knowing that it was her fault for getting out of line.
    'Honey, you can tell me."
    Hope sighed. "I got out of line. Mrs. Barnes wasn't there and I sat on
the bench."
    Mary's heart sank, thinking how swiftly a child could be lost-and in the place
where she should have felt safe.
    'Did Mrs. Kristy see him?"
    'I don't know. I came when she called me, Mommy. Really I did."
    'That's good. Now tell me something else. Were you afraid of him."
    Hope shrugged. "I don't know ... maybe." Mary struggled with a
sudden fear of her own, knowing that someone they didn't know had violated her
daughter's naivety.
    'Did he touch you?" Mary asked, and heard the tremble in her own voice.
    Hope nodded.
    Oh God. Oh God. "Where did he touch you, baby?"
    'On my hair. He said I was pretty." At this point, Hope looked up.
"Am I, Mommy? Am I pretty?"
    Mary made herself smile, but she couldn't talk.
    Not yet. Not while the taste of bile was so rancid in her mouth.
    'He looked like a clown," Hope said. For a moment, Mary started to relax.
A clown.
    There had been a clown at school-probably in an other classroom. It was