After a long car ride home with his family from the airport, Ralph McKenna pressed the “up� button on the garage door opener. In the backseat, the two oldest children were leaning on each other and sleeping. His wife, Emma, was in the very backseat holding the baby who had caught a cold while they were visiting the Canary Islands.


Ralph took the suitcases out of the trunk while Emma woke up the oldest child, Devon, and carried the baby, Evie, inside. When Ralph had placed the last leather suitcase inside he lifted Bella from the car and put her in her bed. Once the children were asleep, Emma went into the bathroom to take a shower.


“Ralph, have you seen my magazine with the knitting patterns? There was a pattern I really liked and I was going to use it to make Bella a jumper for Christmas,� Emma said as she came out of the bathroom with her wet hair wrapped in a towel on the top of her head.


“No. You didn’t bring any magazines, did you?� Ralph said as he typed on his cell phone. As a CEO for a small accounting firm, being away from the Internet during the duration of the flight and the drive home left him with lots of emails to answer.


“I’m positive I didn’t,� Emma said, slightly concerned that her magazine had disappeared while they were away.


“Don’t worry about it. I bet one of the kids took it and thought it was a coloring book,� Ralph said casually.


Emma decided that was probably true, but she still took a quick walk around the house to make sure that everything was in the same place that it had been left in. She was almost completely sure that the tissue box in the bathroom off the living room was not empty when they left. And there wasn’t any dust on the wooden bookshelf in the living room; surely there should be dust on it after being untouched for a week and a half. It was probably just the lack of sleep and stress of the trip that was making Emma so paranoid. Nonetheless, while she lied in bed and watched the shadows created by the small ray of light erupting from Ralph’s smart phone, she was very glad that Ralph had upgraded to the most intense home alarm system.


It was a very restless night at the McKenna household. Evie was up most of the night with a congested nose and, unknown to her parents, an ear infection and pink eye. Devon had picked up a non-stop cough and a sore throat that hurt so much he could barely sleep. After negotiating with Devon for an hour to take cold medicine, he finally gave in. There was no point in Ralph and Emma going back to bed though; Bella had to wake up for school in ten minutes and Ralph’s company had a meeting with the school board.


While Bella was eating a fruit cup Emma asked her if she had brought any coloring books or magazines on the trip. Bella said no; the only thing she brought was a few books about her favorite bunny, Harry. Typical children’s tales, the books recounted the adventures of Harry the Bunny as he as attended his first day of school, as he got a new baby brother, and as he ate carrots and broccoli and actually liked them.


“What was your favorite part of the trip?� Emma asked Bella.


“The volcano!� Bella said excitedly with a strawberry seed stuck to her tooth.


“Yes, wasn’t it neat how the island it was on, El Hierro, was shaped like a boomerang?� Emma said. “Do you remember the lopsided tree we saw?�


“Mhmmm! It was curved like a U so the branches were on the ground! Wanna see me write a U?� Bella asked. Emma handed Bella a pencil and a piece of paper. Bella proceeded to write seventeen Us of varying sizes and fonts. She was in the process of putting two dots above a U to make a smiley face when Ralph announced that it was time to leave for school. Ralph picked up Bella’s backpack and led her out to the car.


With two sick children, Emma had to spend the day at home. Errands would have to wait until tomorrow; there were not any groceries in the house so Ralph would bring home takeout for dinner. She decided now was as good a day as any to clean the house. Dusting, vacuuming, and washing consumed the day, along with cooking chicken noodle soup and playing fantasy movies on the television.


As Emma was vacuuming behind the lovely mahogany bookshelf, she noticed a small 4 by 6 inch picture had fallen behind the unit. She used her foot to move the picture out of the way and continued vacuuming. She would pick up the picture after she finished vacuuming the room.


While Emma was vacuuming, Devon came into the room and picked up the picture.


“Mom! Look at this picture,� Devon shouted over the vacuum. “Look, the people are moving!�


“People don’t move in pictures. I think you’re just imagining it,� Emma said.


“No, look! They’re really moving!� Devon ran over and shoved the picture in his mom’s hands.


And sure enough, Emma saw that all of the people in the photo were moving. At the forefront of the picture stood a man with black, untidy hair and glasses and a woman with green eyes. There was a man who looked like a rat, a hairy man with black hair and warm eyes, a very tired looking man who had several scars, and many more people.


“Well, that’s unusual,� said Emma. And she frantically picked up the phone to call Ralph and told him to come home so she could take a nap and stop imagining things.