Mike was breathing hard as he stepped inside the house. He had run most of the way from school, he was so excited and impatient to get home to his mother.

"Mom?" he called out, but he got no answer. "Mom where are you?" he yelled again, dashing frantically from room to room, running upstairs and then back downstairs again.

His goofy, irrepressible grin didn't go away even as his brow furrowed in worry. His mother's car was in the driveway but he wondered if she might have gone out on foot, dreading the idea, wishing only to find her as soon as possible to tell her what he had...