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They didn’t see her hovering outside the room as they discussed her future, pondering the most prudent way to remove her from her home. They tossed their words around as if they were solving a giant jigsaw puzzle instead of rearranging her life, speaking of ‘available foster care’ and ‘no family members can be located’ and ‘temporary placement’. There was no mention of the backyard swing her father had hung from the branches of the giant maple tree that left her covered in dappled sunlight as she dreamed away the hours. There was no mention of the wooden rolling pin her mother used to make biscuits on the week-ends… the rolling pin that her grandmother and great-grandmother had used with such love. No one mentioned Callie and Caleb, the lumbering Labrador retrievers that were as much a part of her as her own shadow and shared her heart as well as her space. They didn’t know the scent that her mother’s closet would still hold… even now… even when she would never be here again.