Maybe Just For a Minute

Maya, a married 23-year-old mother of two girls, ages 3 and 6, had gotten used to running on empty. Life had been a blur of mess and exhaustion recently, the kind of exhaustion sleep wouldn't fix. She loved her kids and her husband more than anything-but even that never quieted the constant feeling that she was falling behind in a life she never fully caught up to.

Every morning felt off. The exhaustion and the cocktails from the night before never wore off in time. But this morning felt wrong from the start. The house was too quiet, the air was too still. And then there was the headset.

Sitting on the table like it'd always been there.

Maya knew it hadn't.

Nobody mentioned it. The kids wouldn't touch something like that. Grant would've said something about it. But the small green light flashed steadily, like it had been waiting.

She told herself she would just look. Just for a minute.

After all, what else was there for her to do?

Maybe this would give her a chance to escape reality. Maybe just for a minute.