I couldn’t stay in that room any longer.
***
That afternoon, Sophie found the phone.
She came into the kitchen holding a black rectangle with a cracked corner.
“Mom?”
I couldn’t stay in that room any longer.
I looked up from the pile of old charging cables.
“Yes?”
“Wasn’t this Dad’s?”
My heart started pounding.
I took it from her.
It was Daniel’s old phone.
The one he’d told me he’d lost nearly a year before the fishing trip.
We’d searched the car.
The garage.
The couch.
Eventually bought him another.
“Where was this?”
“Bottom of the electronics bin,” Sophie said.
I flipped the phone over.
It was completely dead.
Sophie found a matching charger and plugged it in.
She sat beside it like she was waiting for a pulse.
“Mom, what if there are pictures?”
Sophie found a matching charger and plugged it in.
