I’m standing in the kitchen, sipping on a lukewarm coffee, and I notice that Pandora’s plate is still clean from breakfast. She usually leaves it in the sink or puts it in the dishwasher, but this morning it’s just sitting…
I first notice it at work when Karen asks Dave if he has a minute. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t mean anything. People ask other people if they have a minute all the time, and usually the correct response is…
For the past week, Pandora has been getting out of bed at exactly 6:45 every morning, and I realize there are people who will hear that sentence and wonder why I care. Those people have clearly never lived with Pandora.…
I’m making breakfast when I notice the toast is thicker than usual. Not dramatically thicker. Nobody else would walk into the kitchen, look at these two slices of toast, and immediately conclude that something had changed. But I make toast…
I’m sitting in the living room watching Pandora type on her laptop when I smell something strange. At first I ignore it because Pandora has been working on the same project for weeks, Mr Whiskers is asleep on the windowsill,…
I’m sitting in the living room, staring at Pandora as she scrolls through her phone, and I notice something weird. She’s been on that same page for like five minutes now, but every time I glance over, it looks like…
I’m sitting in the living room watching Pandora type away on her laptop. She’s been working on the same project for weeks, and I can tell she’s getting frustrated because every few minutes she stops, stares at the screen, sighs,…
I’m sitting in the living room, staring at the TV remote, when I notice that Mr Whiskers is lying unusually still beside me on the couch. He isn’t even twitching his tail, which he normally does whenever he’s watching birds…
I’m watching Pandora make breakfast, her hands moving efficiently as she cracks eggs into a pan. It’s one of those moments where everything feels normal, but my mind starts to wander. I notice the way Mr Whiskers is sitting on…
I’ve been noticing that Pandora’s been leaving her lunch in the fridge longer than usual. Yesterday I found a piece of week-old pizza wrapped in foil behind the orange juice, and this morning there was a carton of Chinese takeout…
I was standing in the kitchen drinking coffee when I noticed Pandora’s phone sitting on the counter beside the fruit bowl. It had been there since she left that morning, which was unusual enough to get my attention but not…
Pandora was eating cereal too quietly. I noticed this at approximately eight-twenty in the morning while standing at the kitchen counter making toast, and I realize there are people who will argue that cereal does not have an appropriate volume.…
The shopping list was attached to our refrigerator with a magnet shaped like a slice of pizza, which immediately raised a question because it wasn’t our shopping list. I noticed it while getting a glass of water sometime after breakfast.…
I noticed the gnome at eight-fifteen in the morning, although in fairness I had no reason to be looking at it. Mrs Jenkins keeps several garden gnomes among the flowers outside her apartment near the shared courtyard, and over time…
I had been watching Mr Whiskers for eleven minutes when I realized that, from his perspective, I was probably the suspicious one. He was sitting on the far end of the couch grooming the same patch of fur behind his…
After the coffee creamer situation, I had made a decision. I was going to stop investigating things. This was not an admission that there had been nothing to investigate. I want that distinction clearly understood. The coffee creamer had been…
Yesterday morning started with an empty coffee creamer container and Mr Whiskers yelling at me from the kitchen, which, in retrospect, should have been enough warning that the day was going somewhere unpleasant. I was standing in front of the…
I was watching Pandora make breakfast when I noticed that she had left the cap off the coffee creamer. Under ordinary circumstances, this would not qualify as an event. It probably wouldn’t even qualify as an observation worth remembering. Pandora…
I’ve been noticing that Pandora keeps leaving her phone charger on the kitchen counter lately. It’s a small thing, and under normal circumstances I probably wouldn’t even notice it, but Pandora usually puts things away when she’s finished with them.…
I’m lying on the bed watching Pandora do her hair in front of the dresser when I notice Mr Whiskers sitting beside her, staring at the floor. Normally this wouldn’t concern me. Cats stare at things. I’ve accepted that. They…
