She rubbed her head, wondering if the kid lived somewhere else in the building while unable to shake the sense that something was really, really wrong. Toby held the elevator for her and pressed the button for all twenty floors. She looked at him hard, unable to recall anything at all about the kid.
They reached the sixth floor, where her apartment was. He darted off the elevator and down the hall, stopping in front of her apartment. She opened the door, and he strode in as if he owned the place. Toby bolted to the first room on the right, the guest bedroom.
Katie looked around her apartment, eyes lingering on a drawing done by a child on the fridge. There were pictures on her mantle of the two of them together when he was younger, toys piled into a box near her couch, a school lunch menu and more pictures -- these apparently from past Halloweens --on the bulletin board on one wall of the kitchen. She took it all in, feeling as if she'd stepped into the Twilight Zone, and followed Toby down the hall.
The guest room was redone in race cars and Disney characters. His energy sapped, the kid was sprawled half asleep across the race car bed. She stared at the walls, wondering who'd had the time to repaint her guest room. It certainly didn't smell like someone had painted it recently, and there were scuff marks, crayon, and dirt on the walls.
As if it'd been a kid's room for a long time. She hesitated, then covered him with a blanket and walked to the guest bathroom. It, too, was done up in a race car theme with toys lining the side of the tub.
Head pulsing, she retreated to the kitchen and painkillers, staring at a picture drawn by a kid, probably Toby, on the table before her.
She didn't have any kids. She'd never had kids. She'd never met Toby before this day!
Her cell rang, and she stared at it briefly through bleary eyes.
"Hey sis," she said after pressing the answer button. "I've had a horrible day!"
"Oh, hon, I'm sorry to hear that," her sis said in a distracted tone that said she really didn't care. "Toby still sick?"
"What?"
"Is Toby still sick?"
Katie drew the phone away from her head and stared at it, willing herself to wake up.
"Hello, Katherine?"
"Yeah."
"Ooooh, are you having one of your…issues?" Hannah whispered the last word.
"What issues?"