That was usually where I found them if I was off doing something. I’d been getting quite a few offers to speak and generally took them, although I was getting a little bored with that and wanted to do something else. Helena had offered me a job at the new after school program she was starting for underprivileged kids, and I was considering. She’d told me to take my time since Charlie was still so young, and I appreciated it.

We were happy. I loved my kids and I adored my wife, and we were doing well financially. Kallie’s diabetes was going well too, and although we were still both very protective of her, she really didn’t give us much reason to worry. She was very smart and we were considering enrolling her in a preschool when she turned 3, which wasn’t too far away.

Life was pretty damn close to perfect until the day we got the call. Alice had answered it, because I was tickling both kids on the living room floor and they were loving it. We were planning to take them to McDonalds for dinner later since Kallie had been so good recently and had asked politely. She loved it so much and it was such a rare treat for her that I didn’t even care much about the health stuff anymore.

Alice had gotten up to answer the phone reluctantly. I’d been tickling her a little bit too, mainly because she’s always been really ticklish and I was usually merciful and didn’t attack her. This time, though, she’d come out of the office and seen me tickling Charlie after I’d changed him, and she laughed and started to make fun of me. I’d shrugged and pulled her down onto my lap, and by the time the phone rang she was laughing so hard that I figured answering the phone was just her excuse to get me to stop tickling her. It worked, and I just tickled Kallie instead while Charlie laughed. He usually did whenever he heard someone else laughing. He still does that today.

When Alice finally came back into the living room, I tried to pull her back down and tickle her again, but she resisted and told me no firmly. I looked up at her for the first time and saw the terrified expression on her face. “Helena wants us to come over as soon as possible,” she told me. “Something happened.”