My Three Houses Vanished Overnight

3: 3

My first thought was that I'd gotten it wrong again.

I pulled open the top drawer. Nothing.

I pulled open the others too, and they were all empty.

I stood in front of the wardrobe, completely blank.

Two hours. That was all.

Just the time it took to eat dinner. How could it be gone?

I made a circuit of the room.

The nightstand, under the pillow, I checked everything.

Nothing.

I braced myself on the edge of the desk and sat down, my heart hammering.

Before dinner, only my daughter had come in.

I'd been bent over looking for the charging cable, and the recorder had been sitting on the edge of the drawer.

Could she have seen it?

But I'd hidden it fast, and when I went for the batteries I'd deliberately pushed the drawer most of the way shut.

She probably hadn't seen it, right?

I wasn't sure.

I'd just finished tidying up and lain down when the door opened.

My husband sat on the edge of the bed and asked, "Not asleep yet?"

"Not yet."

"Our daughter says the day after tomorrow she's taking us out for a picnic, the whole family. She wants you to get ready."

"All right, got it."

I had no interest in any of that. The recorder was all I could think about.

My husband didn't say anything else.

He lay down, turned over, and was asleep in no time.

I lay staring at the ceiling, turning it over and over.

If I hadn't had to take Jayden to his enrichment class first thing, I probably wouldn't have slept all night.

At first light I got up and made breakfast as usual.

Then I went to wake each of them.

Jayden dawdled forever before he finally came out of his room.

Backpack on, eyes still half shut.

I crouched down and asked him, "Do you have everything?"

He rubbed his eyes. "Yeah, everything."

I took his backpack and checked it out of habit.

Books, pencil case, water bottle, all there.

Then I opened the inner compartment, and my fingers brushed against something.

I pulled it out and froze.

It was the recorder that had vanished last night.

I held it in my hand and turned it over again and again.

It looked exactly the same.

I crouched down and looked into my grandson's eyes.

"Jayden, where did this come from?"

Jayden ducked his head and explained in a small voice.

"Grandma, I took it yesterday when you weren't looking."

I pulled him close. "Why did you take it?"

"It looked fun. I thought it was a toy."

I looked down at the recorder in my hand.

The screen was lit, fully charged.

But when I pressed a few buttons, it was empty.

Every recording was gone.

Jayden must have deleted them by accident.

He was only nine, after all.

Pressing buttons at random, deleting things, that was normal.

I sighed. Just then my daughter came out, already dressed.

She spotted the recorder in my hand at once, and her expression stalled for a second.

Then she asked, curious, "Mom, where'd that come from?"

I hesitated, but I knew I couldn't keep it from her.

So I gave her the short version, how I'd fallen yesterday and found the recorder.

What was on it, I didn't mention.

When she heard, her face changed in an instant.

First she asked whether I was hurt, why hadn't I said anything yesterday?

Then, seeing I really was fine, she raised her hand and slapped Jayden.

"Who told you to steal things!"

Jayden burst into tears on the spot.

I quickly pulled him behind me, my voice not my own.

"What are you hitting the child for? Can't you just talk it out?"

My daughter told me, solemn about it.

"Mom, this is stealing. It's not a small thing!"

"You can't let a stealing habit slide!"

I held Jayden in my arms, his little body trembling.

He kept apologizing through his tears. "Grandma, I'm sorry, Grandma, I was wrong."

It broke my heart. I hurried to soothe him.

"It's fine, it's fine. If you like it, Grandma will give it to you."

My daughter started to speak again, but one look from me stopped her.

Mostly I didn't want to fight with her in front of the child, so I hurried her off to work.

I calmed Jayden down.

Wiped his face, and took him to school.

I watched him go through the gate, then started down the street looking for a repair shop.

"Excuse me, could you take a look at this?"

"A child deleted what was on it by accident. Can it be recovered?"

The owner took it and turned it over a few times.

Then he plugged in a cable, connected it to his computer, and fiddled with it a while.

He looked up, half amused and half at a loss.

"Ma'am, are you messing with me?"

He handed the recorder back to me.

"This is an old model, but it should be new stock from the warehouse."

"It's a blank unit. What accidental deletion?"