Nobody moved.

The van engine kept idling.

The mother pulled her son tighter against her body.

“What do you mean that’s not our van?” she whispered.

The boy’s lips trembled.

“I thought it was yours.”

The stranger’s face changed.

“How did you get near it?”

The boy swallowed hard.

“A man inside called my name.”

The mother stopped breathing.

The stranger looked at her.

“You know someone in that van?”

She shook her head.

“No.”

The metal handle moved again.

Slowly this time.

The boy buried his face against her side.

“He said you sent him.”

The mother’s knees nearly gave way.

The stranger stepped between them and the van.

Only then did she notice blood on his scraped palm.

From pulling her son out of the road.

From pulling him away from that door.

Her voice broke.

“You were saving him.”

The man didn’t turn around.

“I was trying to.”

A soft knock came from inside the van.

Three taps.

The boy looked up, terrified.

Then he whispered the words that made his mother’s face lose all color.

“Mom… that’s the knock Dad used.”

She stared at him.

His father had been missing for two years.

The van door began to slide open.