They’ve all been perfectly clear with him, the social worker, the lawyers. It is his duty, they’ve told him, to protect her, to save her from the strangeness of that life and what it might do to her. It’s up to him to keep her safe from playground bullies. Worse things. From the risk of it all. Heron nods his head, he stays frozen to the bench, and he says yes. “Yes, okay. Do what you need to do.”
