She closed the door, wondering when Jon started sleeping with a nightlight again. It had been so hard the last few years on the whole family. She almost wished she could have some of those years back, with Jon and Zoe.
Inside Jon's room, the blinking stone suddenly lit up to full brightness...and then faded to complete darkness....and everyone in the house suddenly, despite the hour, fell asleep.
"Mommy, I had a bad dream," a high pitched voice said.
Linda stirred, still half asleep. "Come into bed, sweetie," she mumbled.
A tiny form did so, curling up next to her. As she woke up a bit more, that seemed a little odd to her. She peeked at the form next to her. It was Zoe! But not teenage Zoe. It was a Zoe she hadn't seen in years. She looked like Zoe had when she was seven or eight, sweet and innocent.
She slipped away to the bathroom and started to splash cold water on her...she looked younger too. Not quite as much as Zoe...but...
She slipped back into the room and checked. Her cell phone was still on the nightstand...and the date on the screen was the same. How could this be possible?
She headed out into the hall and peeked into Zoe's room. It wasn't black. It was the same light shade of purple she'd painted it years earlier, with the stuffed animals Zoe had thrown out, and...
She felt a presence in the hallway and turned around.
