The Purity of White Walls

When Eitan Potts' face started showing up on milk cartons, someone driving a black van around our neighborhood was rumored to have tried to grab children and stuff them into it. Whenever Mo pulled up at school, our classmates went silent and scattered. When I wet my pants in the middle of recess one day, our mother was out, and it was Mo who was delegated to bring me fresh underwear. We weren't allowed to touch them lest we leave smudges or stains. There were endless rounds of sanding and skim coating the walls,. innumerable applications of the spirit level whose tiny bubble floating in yellow-green liquid so rarely reported a perfect balance.