Dear Lord, what a long night.

Mary Jane slowly opened her eyes, with only a slight reproach in her mind for taking the Lord’s name in vane. Although technically, Lord was a title, so did that count?

She rolled over to look at the alarm clock, on which the alarm was rarely set. It was late. The pattern of waking and rising in their family had become more regular over the last few years as the girls got older, they rarely needed an alarm. Judging by how much later Mary Jane was waking up than usual, an alarm probably should have been set.

Mary Jane reached her arm over to wake up Luke. His restlessness and grumpiness had kept everyone up last night, so he would probably have the hardest time getting going today.

Luke wasn’t on his side of the bed, however, a fact she confirmed by rolling over, and for some absurd reason, feeling around his side of the bed, as if he might be tucked in one of the folds of the sheets. Of course, Luke often awoke early to get ready for his classes, but he would usually be sure to wake Mary Jane up if she was sleeping in later than she liked. Her job as a housewife might not have as strict of a schedule as being a high school teacher, but she always felt better getting an early start on the day, otherwise, tasks built up and she got behind and frazzled, as well as having to sacrifice her morning yoga and meditation routine. No wake up call today, however. That, combined with how cold Luke’s side of the bed had felt probably meant that he had some early meeting at the school that he had either not told her about, or that she had forgotten.

Mary Jane listened quietly, after sitting herself upright on the side of the bed. Nothing, except some birds in the yard. Luke could often move through the house silently, but their two girls could not. That meant that Callista, Gaeriel and Akanah were still asleep. As Mary Jane got up and began to move around the room, however, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the house was too cold, too still.

Still, no reason not to try to get ahead on the day’s work. If she could get breakfast ready before the girls got up, maybe she could even get in a shower in peace before the day began in earnest. She smiled, once again struck by the petty concerns that took on such huge import as a stay-at-home parent. When your world almost entirely took place within the same four walls day in and out, your sense of the relative importance of different events began to warp. When was “will I get a shower today or not” become the first thing she thought of in the morning. The first thing after her always mysterious spouse of course. But thinking of the shower sent her down her usual course of envisioning the coming day, the things she had to get done, the things she wanted to get done, and the things she wished would simply take care of themselves, away from her view.

However, this pattern was interrupted when something caught her eye. What had it been. Something about the area near the door to the garage. That was where the “messy counter” was, where the stacked bills and letters that came in, where they charged their cell phones and other devices amidst a tangle of chords to be ready to charge out the door at any moment. They’d invested in a wireless electricity system with a few power stations around the home, but the one near the garage had always been temperamental, and habit had pushed them back to bringing out the old charging chords to take over the counter like a creeping vine. In other words, the area was a mess. Yet something had seemed out of place, or rather missing.

That was it. The keys. The car keys. Luke never drove the car to work. Partly because Mary Jane often needed it for other less predictable errands, but also because Luke loved riding his bike, nostalgia and a sense of environmentalism pushing him out the door on two wheels in all sorts of weather, mostly alone in a community increasingly dependent on an ever-growing number of vehicles on ever widening city streets.

If Luke ever were to take the car, he always discussed it with her beforehand. Was there some conference or retreat that she had forgotten about? Some special materials for an object lesson that needed to be picked up from the local hardware store? No, nothing. No note. No conversation.

Mary Jane tried to stay calm. Luke was nothing if not reliable. Yes, this would inconvenience her today. They would have to wait another day for groceries. It would be forgotten in a week.

No use. There was something off here. A slight smile appeared on her face as “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” crossed her mind. The smile vanished as the phone began to ring, loud and cold and ominous. Luke’s mother, she knew. Gaeriel had programmed the phone with a special ring whenever Grandma called. Mary Jane looked at the clock. Too early. Much too early.

So much for that shower.