Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Ma'am?"

Mabel stepped in front of the TV, smiling brightly. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

That only made Jessica more suspicious.

She gently moved Mabel aside and glanced at the screen. The camera lingered on Timothy for a moment before cutting away.

The news shifted back to the anchor, who began introducing other stories.

Timothy didn't appear again.

Jessica checked the schedule: it was the morning news.

So Timothy had made headlines first thing in the morning.

Mabel let out a quiet sigh of relief. Jessica, meanwhile, grabbed her phone and began typing a message into her text-to-speech app.

"Mabel, did you block the TV because you saw Timothy with someone else?"

The app's gentle female voice rang out. Mabel, too flustered to wonder where the voice was coming from, immediately shook her head. "N-no, of course not!"

Jessica shot her a skeptical look.

where did that voice just come from?"

was the ring Jessica had returned

smiled. "Ma'am, I never thought that ring could talk! With it, communication is so much easier for you. I

pressed. "What exactly was on the TV

gentle voice

me to help keep it quiet. But now the ring's back on your finger, which means Henry must have talked

mind was a tangled

paper, covered with

event-Sheila had gone

and Sallie's strong

stacked up, and Jessica simply couldn't convince herself not to be

she really

her anywhere. There was

Mabel for her phone-she needed to call

could use her own to type and let the app

to cut it this

bedroom, settled into the sitting area, and dialed Timothy's

up