It was her book, it was her own book and Lacey shouldn't have been near her books Lacey should have been playing with the sandbox or baby toys because seven was babies even if when Abby was seven she'd told Lacey five was babies and seven was adult. Lacey was never adult because Abby always was and it was her own book and Lacey shouldn't have touched it. Mom said “Don't touch Abby's books, you have toys of your own, don't you want your shovel for the sandbox Lacey?” but then later she put her fingers up at the top of her head and pulled her own hair and her voice was angry and she said “Abby just give your sister a page of the coloring book okay? For Christ's sakes,” but she'd said the book was Abby's it was her own book and she'd said Lacey had to play with shovels and so she'd shoved her hard and Lacey fell down and cried and Abby said “baby baby baby.” That wasn't good though because she didn't like it when Lacey cried because it was annoying and also because it made Abby sad too but it was her own book and she always had to share and it wasn't fair and so she'd run away with her crayons to the other side of the yard and hid behind a bush with them while Lacey went to the gate even though she wasn't supposed to swing on the gate and then, and then...
Abby bursts through the door of the bar and weaves through the legs of mostly oblivious adults. She has a shovel not her shovel and not Lacey's shovel but mom's garden shovel made out of real metal that's sharp so she can't touch it but this is different this is an emergency like how they can't go to the basement but when the tornado siren goes off it's an emergency so they can. She also has a plastic bag because when you try to catch things you need nets and she has to catch it, she has to get Lacey back because she's adult and no one else will listen and it's her fault and Lacey is just a baby and she's scared of animals even of hamsters even of goldfish maybe, she's that stupid about animals.
None of the adults in the bar (she doesn't get why mom won't ever let her near it, it's just drinking drinks like at McDonalds, some people even have cheesburgers so maybe this is adult McDonalds) seem to notice her and she gets to the door to the apartment she knows is upstairs because when Lia watched her when mom and dad were at the movies she kept looking out the window and Abby asked her what was there and she turned red and said “Oh, my friend lives there” and Abby didn't believe her because people lived in houses not in bars and Lia said “There's an apartment,” and explained how some places were houses and also not-houses. Abby had decided she would go to every house and so she has to go to this one too and maybe they will know where she can find the monster and she can get Lacey back and her mom will stop crying and her aunt will go back to Oregon and she'll let Lacey color in her whole book if she wants to even if she messes up and uses all the wrong colors, even if she rips a page.
She pulls up outside the door and hefts her mom's shovel suspiciously. Bad people are in bars, dad says so, but this is Lia's friend and Lia is nice and makes cookies and smells like apples because she uses “body mists” and she lets Abby smell like apples too and she likes the people who live here but sometimes Lia is just silly and dad usually isn't silly so bad people might still live here. But she has to find Lacey and so she whacks her shovel against the door as hard as she can trying to sound like the police knocking and she wipes her eyes in case they still look like crying from when she was crying earlier and she waits.