My daughter leaned out the car window.
“Don’t forget my sunflowers!”
“I won’t.”
With the kids gone and me spending most days at the office, the house sat empty for hours.
I cooked small dinners for myself.
I enjoyed the silence.
For the first time in a long while, I felt peaceful.
Then my water bill arrived.
I opened the envelope while standing on the porch.
The amount made absolutely no sense.
Two hundred forty dollars.
Twice what I normally paid.
Not slightly higher.
Not gradually increasing.
It had doubled.
“That has to be wrong.”
There was barely anyone in the house all month.
Nobody was taking long showers.
Nobody was constantly flushing toilets.
Nobody was playing with the hose outside.
My first thought was that I had a leak.
That evening, I inspected every faucet.
I checked the toilets.
I walked through the yard examining sprinkler heads.
