I’m sitting in the living room trying to read when I notice Pandora checking her phone for what has to be the fifth time in ten minutes. Normally I wouldn’t assign significance to that, especially after what happened with the…
I was standing in the kitchen waiting for Pandora to finish getting ready when John Mercer came in, opened the refrigerator, looked inside for approximately four seconds, and closed it again without taking anything. Normally I wouldn’t have paid much…
I was making breakfast when Mrs. Jenkins yelled, “BLUEBERRY!” loud enough for me to hear it through the kitchen window. Under ordinary circumstances, I probably would have assumed she was talking about blueberries, especially since Mrs. Jenkins has demonstrated a…
I noticed the problem at breakfast, although at the time I didn’t know it was a problem. Pandora was standing at the kitchen counter drinking coffee from the blue mug that caused yesterday’s completely unnecessary misunderstanding, John was sitting at…
I’m sitting at the kitchen table when Pandora walks in carrying a coffee mug I have never seen before. I notice it immediately, although I would like to emphasize that I am not monitoring Pandora’s mug usage. There is a…
I’m sitting on the couch trying to read when I notice Pandora’s laptop open on the coffee table. I am not attempting to look at her screen. This distinction is important because the laptop is facing me, the screen is…
I’m standing in the kitchen looking at Pandora’s phone, and something about it doesn’t make sense. The phone is plugged into the outlet near the counter, the charging symbol is visible on the screen, and the battery is at three…
I’m making breakfast when I notice Mr Whiskers lying on the floor at the edge of the kitchen, staring at me. This is unusual for several reasons, the most important being that I am cooking eggs and Mr Whiskers is…
I’m sitting in the living room watching Mr Whiskers attempt to occupy a sunbeam when Pandora’s phone rings for the fourth time in less than an hour. I know it’s the fourth time because the first call interrupted something I…
I’m making coffee when I notice Mr Whiskers’ food bowl is empty. This would normally trigger an immediate response because Mr Whiskers has developed a sophisticated notification system for an empty food bowl consisting primarily of standing beside it and…
I’m standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee that stopped being hot sometime during the previous administration when I notice Pandora’s breakfast plate sitting on the table. There is nothing particularly unusual about a plate sitting on a…
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,…
Mrs Jenkins knocks on the door sometime after dinner carrying a plate of cookies, which is normally the kind of event I support without requiring additional information. She says she tried a new recipe and made too many, so she…
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…
