Madison’s World

Greg felt the familiar sway as Madison made her way down the staircase.  The noise reached him before the living room did. Teenage laughter, overlapping voices, howls of joy, all cascading…

The ground trembled beneath Cindy before she ever saw who was coming.  Footsteps approached Madison’s room from beyond the closed door, heavy enough at her size to travel through the…

The footfalls were what Greg heard first.  Multiple sets of shoes came careening through the front door, stomping in from the cold like a herd of water buffalo. The sound projected…

The footfalls Cindy heard intermittently through the wall of Madison’s habitat were torture.  Not because they were frightening.  Because they were ordinary.  McKenzie’s voice drifted in every now and then…

Cindy walked across the habitat after Brooklyn ended the FaceTime.  For a few moments, she did not look back at the tablet. She could not. Brooklyn’s login information was still…