Then my husband took them to the lake.

Only Jeremy returned.

Zane told me Janice had slipped on the rocks and been swept away by the current. He said he jumped in after her. He said he kept swimming until his body had nothing left to give.

Her body was never recovered.

The police ruled it a tragic accident.

Jeremy stopped speaking on the day of Janice’s funeral.

It did not happen gradually.

He did not lose one word at a time.

He simply became silent.

He stood beside me in his little black suit, his hand wrapped inside mine, and after that day, he never spoke again.

I tried everything.

Therapy.

Art.

Music.

Every night, I read to him even when he stared at the ceiling and answered only with a blink.

Eight years passed.

Jeremy turned thirteen in March. His teachers described him as brilliant.

He simply never used his voice.