Her head was resting against the lowest stairs. She was in her pajamas.

In each of her hands was a small bronze horse. These were the prizes at the horse racing pinball game at the fair. Every time you won, you traded up for a bigger horse. My parents must have taken her to the carnival last night, then brought her home, as planned, safe and sound, long before the attack.

"Aunt Ashley!"

My niece sprang to her feet and ran towards me, a toy horse in each hand.

"She's here!" Haley shouted. "Aunt Ashley's here!"

I knelt down and right away, before even hugging me, Haley sat on my knee.

"Look," she said, carefully displaying her pair of bronze horses as if they were small birds perched in her hands. "I got one, and grandpa got one." She whispered, "But he gave his to me."

My dad rushed into the entryway.

I'd never seen him look this way. He had this expression of utter relief when he saw me. I'd had no idea what I'd been putting them all through.

He was in the same kind of striped farmer's shirt and faded jeans he always wore, his boots off in the house, and his eyes were misty as he strode toward me and put his arms around me. I could smell the hay dust on him, just like I always could whenever he used to hug me.

"Oh, thank God," he said. "You're here. You're here."

Now my mom appeared, and right behind her came Danielle and Ian. Even Tyler slouched over for my big return.

Everyone had been waiting for me. I hadn't even considered that anyone besides Shawn would know I'd been gone.

My dad let go of me, and now my mom stepped forward, her arms folded. I could tell she was waging an inner battle between feeling relieved and being totally pissed at me, and it looked like the being-totally-pissed-at-me side was winning.

"I sure hope you have a good explanation for all this," she said. My mom was small, but tough, especially during moments when she had to be emotionally strong. She gave me a quick hug, then she held on to both of my shoulders. "Do you know how worried Shawn's been?" she whispered, glancing upstairs. "I've never seen him so sick with worry."

Just then my husband appeared at the top of the stairs.

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