“Did you hear it that time?” Sandra elbowed her husband in the ribs, “Bill?” Bill was rigid, the corpse-like rigor gripping his body made her stomach clench with cold.

tap…tap-tap…tap-tap-tap…tap-tap…

Bill stomped his foot once on the floor, shaking the house.

Tap…tap-tap — Bill flew to the door.. Sandra behind him they threw it open and there she stood. After thirteen years their little girl was on the back steps, knocking the secret knock they’d always used to show it was safe on both sides of the heavy door..

“Mommy?? Daddy?” she reached for them, tears streaming, “I had a terrible dream and woke up in the yard,”

---

She passed out quickly once in her bed. Bill and Sandra in the next room, silent again, felt cheated – a moment for joy tinged with fear, “What the hell is going on?” Bill’s hand shook holding the picture of his daughter, taken right before she disappeared. The picture in which she looked exactly the same as the girl who had just shown up. Thirteen years later. How?