Then raised the phone again.

“One more.”

I held Saturn steady.

The notification stayed unanswered.

For the first time in longer than I could remember, there was something more important in the room than making somebody else calm down.

My daughter looked through the camera.

“Ready?”

I smiled.

“Ready.”

And when the ring leaned again, Emily laughed instead of flinching.

It was only cardboard.

The phone was only a phone.

And the spilled glass had been only water.