The leaves have yet to turn, but a good portion had already fallen from the tree and was scattered across the front lawns of the neighborhood. A woman sat hunched over on the couch, twirling her hair between the tips of her fingers, in the living room. In one corner of the room were her children playing with their toys and excitingly calling "mommy!"; And in the other corner, there was a darkened television that the woman watched intensely as if she were watching her favorite program.

As the woman gazed deeply into the television, an older man laid on the couch covered in blankets. He called over to the woman, saying “Julia! Look little Ethan is beginning to crawl!” Immediately, Julia snapped out of her deep gaze and turned her eyes to look, as her son began his journey to independence.

The older man slowly began to remove the blankets that protected him from the harsh chill that filled the room. As the older child began to yell “grandpa, let me help you!” As Julia sprinted to his aide, the old man mumbled under his breathe “It’s not like I’m a piece of paper falling into an open flame.”

As Julia was turning her attention to her father, her two children began to shakenly back behind a table, in the corner of the room. Julia began to grind her teeth and wrinkling her nose balancing between both feet as if she was the flag on the rope for a game of tug of war. Julia helped her father get up and handed him a cane. She then slowly approached her children with each of their favorite stuffed animals and sweetly calling them for their nap. Julia picked up her youngest child and held him close and tightly squeezed her daughter’s hand, as they slowly climbed the stairs.

Time had passed since Julia went to put her kids down for a nap and her father grew concerned waiting to hear the light footsteps of his daughter down the stairs, similarly to when she used to sneak out as a teenager. He began to stare into his cup of coffee, just like he did when he awaited Julia’s return at 3 in the morning. After waiting, what felt like an eternity, he quietly crept up the stairs to find his daughter clasping her children trying to catch her breath.

He laid down next to Julia and his grandchildren, just like he did when Julia was a little girl and woke up terrified in the middle of the night or a few short months ago when she was traumatized from her ex. His eyes filled with love when he narrowed in his vision on Julia, as he asked what was wrong. As Julia put on her armor bracing to fight her emotions, she knew she couldn’t lock the door from the one person she could trust.