I gave my statement to Officer Morales. It took forty minutes. I had, by the time I was done, filled out a witness affidavit that I was asked to sign. The officer thanked me. She said, "Sir, for what it's worth, this is why you call. I would rather take fifty calls that turn out to be nothing than miss one that turned out to be this." I nodded. I thanked her. I asked what would happen to the kid. She said he was going to be held with his grandmother, the mother's mother, who had been contacted by phone and

was driving down from Plano. I asked what would happen to the woman. She said that was up to the district attorney, but that based on the welt, based on the witness account — meaning me — and based on what the mother had said in the first five minutes of the encounter, there was a strong possibility of charges. I got in my SUV. I drove home. I unloaded my groceries. I sat at my kitchen counter for two hours staring at a bag of frozen edamame, not unpacking it, and I thought, very calmly, about whether I had just done the right thing.