Childtime Institutions (continued)

- 6 -

Harlin moved cautiously further into the house. The curtains, not quite drawn closed all of the way, allowed in plenty of light for him to see by. Although the driveway and front yard had denied that any toys belonged to the household, Harlin saw definite signs of their existence here. One of his daughter’s dolls lay discarded in the main living room. A red toy car, slightly smaller than Harlin’s shoe had rolled under the formal dining table.

On seeing these things, as misplaced as they were from where they belonged, Harlin began to relax. His family still lived here, which ruled out any possible delusion on his part. His key had fit into the lock (even if the door had not been locked), and he remembered giving Jonas that car as a present just that past Christmas. Sweeping his gaze across the visible interior of the house, Harlin looked for other signs of recent activity or habitation. He remained otherwise motionless, listening for sounds or voices coming from anywhere else in the house.

It was too late, he decided, for the children to be napping. There were all rapidly getting to an age where it was getting more difficult to get them to settle down, even to rest, in the afternoon. His wife never napped, unless she was ill, using the time instead to catch up on the housework or, very rarely, just relax with a book.

Hearing nothing from the reaches of the house, Harlin took a deep breath and looked around again, deciding to start first with the bedrooms. If the children were home, that was where they probably were.

As Harlin made his way down the hallway, he tried to remember if there had been some kind of outing or event that he had forgotten about. No reminders had popped up on his calendar—and Sarah was very good about making certain that he did not miss any important family events.

To him only a few moments to find that all the bedrooms were empty. All the beds were made, although the children’s beds were a bit rumpled, either from a half-hearted attempt to make them, or from being used at some point during the day.