I Canceled Seven Hundred Dollars After Christmas Night Left My Daughter Alone in the Dark

Evan folded the four cardboard flaps over one another and pressed them down flat.

He ran two strips of thick brown packing tape down the center seam of the box with a crisp scraping noise.

He lifted the heavy box with both hands and set it on the high wooden shelf inside the hall closet.

When he pushed the closet door shut, the latch caught with a firm, solid click.

I sat down again in my desk chair and rested my hands on the clean blotter.

There were no court summonses lying on the table, no timestamp logs to double-check, and no family voicemails waiting for a reply.