Dad was on business for a few days.

The evening Dad wasn't home, my stepmother gently pushed my door open, and she was wearing a simple home dress, and she had a thin red cheek on her cheeks and her breath was faster than usual, and she stood at the door with her fingers consciously hanging around the horns, and her eyes glittering, as if he had the courage to walk in, and I didn't know where to look, and I looked up and I saw her clearly accelerating heart beats through a tiny tumble of chests, and the whole person looked a little unsettled, and the air was quiet for a few seconds, and she was whispering, and she had a bit of an unnatural tremor, as if she didn't know what to say next.