#140: Hurt

It was Matilda who worked it out upon seeing her school bag flipped open. Grace had noticed it, but had decided not to challenge her on it, as she was normally so attentive to her belongings. Almost to the point of OCD.

Matilda rifled through the bag. She screamed for Rory just as he came into the kitchen and demanded he return her laptop. He slicked back a strand of hair from his face and said empathetically that he didn’t have it.

The kitchen table was clean, except her handbag was on its side with her lipstick sticking out like a dog’s tongue.

She reached inside for her purse, but the guts of her bag felt empty.

Rory asked why the window beside the front door was broken. Grace looked up, and it all came into sharp focus.

Her first instinct was to blame Peter for not seeing it first thing in the morning, but he’d left for an early meeting. He probably didn’t even come into the kitchen, preferring to grab a coffee at the station.

Matilda realised her mobile phone was missing the moment Grace pulled hers out. They’d made a rule a few weeks ago that the kids’ phones remained in the kitchen overnight. And now her life was over.

She promised that as soon as they could, they’d buy new phones. There were some things they needed to do, like call the police and insurance company and that they’d all take the day off.

They took stock of what they had owned and Grace realised that the only thing she cared about was that no one was hurt.