My 10-year-old daughter always rushed to the bathroom as soon as she came home from school. When I asked, “Why do you always take a bath right away?” she smiled and said, “I just like to be clean.” However, one day while cleaning the drain, I found something. The moment I saw it, my whole body started trembling, and I immediately…

it.

The house was silent.

Lily was in her room, maybe reading, maybe already asleep, only a few yards away. The ordinary nearness of her made what I was holding feel even more unreal.

I called her name once in my head.

Not aloud. Just inside myself, in that strange desperate way a mother pleads with the universe when she does not yet know what question continue reading …