Light Boxes Read Free

and smoke coming from Bianca’s bedroom.
    In her room he notices that the window is open and snow is blowing in.
    He throws the covers off the bed.
    He looks around the room.
    He looks under the bed.
    He looks in the closet.
    He looks in the hallway.
    He looks at his feet.
    He looks at the bed. He looks at the bed.
    Bianca’s bed is a mound of snow and teeth.
    Bianca is gone.

Thaddeus
    I’ve been spending more time alone on the hill. I can’t remember it being colder than it is now. The ground is frozen and black, the town windows webbed in snow and ice. When I spark a fire from found branches a snowball falls from the sky and douses the flame. I look up at the sky, the gray waves rolling along. I am growing tired and sad at the disappearance of my daughter and it stirs deep inside me. I snap off a tree branch. I whirl it around in huge circles before letting it fly skyward.
    It flies up, much higher than I imagined, and, climbing higher and higher, it rips through a cloud’s leg, peaks in flight, then descends again, tearing another hole through the shoulder of a cloud.
    In the first hole, there’s a pair of feet dangling from the edge. In the second hole, there’s a man walking around a dark room. I call down to the house for Selah who is shaking out Bianca’s bedsheet, which disintegrates into a little blizzard.
    Am I dreaming right now, I shout. Can you check the bed to see if I’m sleeping.
    No, you’re not dreaming, she yells back after going inside to check our bed. You’re standing outside by yourself with your thoughts. Your daughter has been kidnapped and your thoughts are torturing you. Sometimes you wake in the middle of the night from terrible dreams, but right now you are awake.
    I watch the two holes in the sky until a new breaking of gray rolls across.
    My mind is ice.
    Selah yells, I want our daughter back.
    Deer run against the edge of the woods. Twisted through their antlers is a long quilt, a banner. The quilt says, WAR AGAINST FEBRUARY NOW WAR AGAINST FEBRUARY NOW WAR AGAINST FEBRUARY NOW. The Solution waves from under the pine trees. A man is collecting sap.
    I hesitate but wave back.

Thaddeus to Bianca
    I climb on the roof. Your bedroom is beneath me. I close one eye and reach my hand out and tear open the horizon. I pull the sky up and toward me like old wallpaper. I see you sleeping in a bed of duck feathers. I close both eyes and finish the dream of us in a balloon. The new sky smells like the ocean. It feels like crushed velvet when you push against it to send the balloon toward your mother waiting on the hill.

Questions
    Thaddeus asks the children twisting the heads of owls if they have seen a small girl named Bianca in yellow pajamas. The three children sit against an oak tree with their legs stretched out, snow as a blanket to their waists.
    Do the yellow pajamas have flowers printed at the hem, asks the middle child.
    Yes, Thaddeus says.
    Does the little girl have dark hair that smells of honey and smoke, asks the child to the left.
    Thaddeus shakes his head. No, he thinks, she never smelled of honey and smoke. But the room did. Yes, the room.
    The room smelled of honey and smoke. Bianca has dark hair. Her hair doesn’t smell of honey and smoke, but the room did.
    Does the little girl have a drawing of kites on her hands and arms, asks the child to the right.
    Yes, says Thaddeus. Her mother painted those kites. Where is my daughter. What has happened to my daughter.
    The children go back to concentrating on twisting the heads of the owls.
    No, we haven’t seen her, they say.
    I don’t understand, though, you said, Thaddeus says. Now, if you don’t mind, sir, we are much enjoying ourselves by playing with these owls. I hope you find the little girl. She sounds very cute and very beautiful.
    For the rest of the day Thaddeus asks every person in town if they have seen his daughter. Everyone says no. The Solution walks past Thaddeus.
    We