You are not braced for revelation while you are wrestling a fitted sheet; revelation is not on the morning’s agenda.

The agenda is laundry, and coffee, and reclaiming a room, and so when the extraordinary arrives it catches you completely flat-footed, with no emotional preparation whatsoever, which is exactly why it hits so hard.

If someone had sat me down that morning and said, Brenda, in twenty minutes you are going to make a shocking discovery, I would have approached the mattress with caution and calm.

Instead I approached it thinking about desk placement and shelf heights, and so when the thing beneath it shifted, I had absolutely nothing in reserve, no composure banked, no readiness at all.