I was 15 minutes late getting home that evening.
That might not sound like much, but in our house, 15 minutes mattered. It was long enough for the girls to be hungry, long enough for Jyll to text me, “Where are you?” and long enough for bedtime to start slipping.
That was the first thing I noticed — how still everything was.
In our house, 15 minutes mattered.
The driveway was too neat: no backpacks dumped on the steps, no chalk scribbles, no jump rope tangled on the grass. And the porch light wasn’t on, even though Jyll always flipped it at six.
I checked my phone. No missed calls. No angry texts. Nog.
I paused with my hand on the doorknob, the weight of the day sitting somewhere behind my eyes.
My shirt collar was still damp from the rain, and the only sound I heard was the soft hum of a neighbor’s lawnmower three doors down.
No missed calls. No angry texts. Nothing.
When I stepped inside, it wasn’t “quiet.” It was wrong.
The TV was off. The kitchen lights were off. And dinner — mac and cheese, still in the pot — was sitting on the stove like someone had walked away mid-step.
“Hello?” I called out. My keys hit the table hard. “Jyll? Girls?”
Nothing.
The kitchen lights were off.
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