I always have a good day at work, not too much to do, just enough to make the time pass

and keep me busy. I gave a work for in a ride home and had a long talk. Turns out we

both the youngest siblings and our families, which gave us a surprising amount of common ground.

I got myself a chicken salad and drove home. I walked up the stairs to my apartment, I

opened the front door and right there on the wall with all the smiling pictures of my friends

and family was a blank picture frame. Empty.

What the hell? While it didn't ruin my night, it made me start asking questions. I wouldn't

just hang up a blank picture and I wouldn't put it up in the middle of the hallway. I have

this large hallway mirror with pictures hung up on the side and it is kind of a centerpiece.

Still, I couldn't recall what would have been in that frame and there was no photo that

had slipped out. I wasn't planning on framing anything either. Or if I did, I wouldn't hang

the frame up before I'd put in the photo. I'd be lying if I said that it really bothered me.

It was an oddity, at most. For a second, I caught myself in the mirror looking anxious.

What was I letting this get to me? The weekend was just around the corner. I just gave

myself a smile and took the frame down. The next day, I came home to another empty frame.

It wasn't empty earlier that day or I would have taken it down along with the other one.

There would be no reason for me to only take down one frame. So, what had happened between

now and then that caused this frame to turn blank? And why couldn't I remember what was in that

frame when I looked at it just the day before? This time, I caught myself looking bothered.

The hallway mirror doesn't lie. It was time to figure this out. We can be damned.

I made two conclusions. The first was that if the frame had been emptied the day before,

I would have taken it down. Hence, it must have turned empty between when I left work and when

...