circular staircase

Ring Ring.

“Hello?”

“Hey, hon, what’s up? I just got an alert on my phone?” Reva said.

“A what?”

“An alert, you know, the Ring camera thingy you set up sent me a notification. Looks like the back door was opened. You didn’t leave it unlocked again, did you?”

“Um, no, I would never do that.”

“Ha, funny, you got jokes. Just make sure that door hasn’t swung open. Last time Jodie’s cat walked inside the kitchen and sat in the fruit bowl. The camera thingy detected movement but I can’t really see anything around that stupid rose of sharon. Maybe you can prune it after you clean the gutters.”

“Sure, I will get right on that.”

Long pause. Reva shifted the baby from her left shoulder to the right and stared at phone waiting. A shiver skittered up her spine.

“Are you okay? Do you have a cold or something? Your voice sounds deeper,” Reva asked as hook of concern caught in her belly.

“No—I mean yes. I’m coming down with something.”

Another long pause. Reva wondered if her husband was bothered by something.

“Well the drive down went fine. Jasper slept most of the way. And the girls only got into three fights so it was practically peaceful,” Reva said with a nervous laugh.

Pause.

“Mom sends her love,” Reva joked.

Reva’s mom couldn’t stand Vinnie. After years of passive aggressive weekend trips, she took the kids to visit her folks solo. Reva waited for her husband’s typical sarcastic response.

“That is nice. Tell her I said love you, too.”

She waited for the snort or the laugh or the playful “not” Vinnie always threw into mother-in-law conversations. Nothing. Reva’s eyes went wide.

“Night, hon. Don’t forget to feed Sylvester. Remember it’s one scoop in the morning and a scoop at night.”

“No worries, I will take care of everything until you come back. Good night, sweetheart,” someone said hanging up.

Ring.

“Camp Hill 911. State the address of the incident and the nature of your emergency, police, fire, ambulance.”

“God, police, police! 93 Mocking Bird Lane in Weston. Someone is in my house with my husband’s phone. I called and this stranger pretended to be my husband but he didn’t know our cat died. Oh God I just saw someone walking past the nanny cam on the second floor. That’s Vinnie’s robe but that’s not my Vinnie. Who is in my house?”