A driver didn’t see him riding his bike home from school, and he was gone, just like that.

Since that day, life has blurred into something colorless, a never-ending gray. The house feels heavier now, like the walls themselves are grieving.

Sometimes I still find myself standing in his room and staring at the half-finished Lego set on his desk. His books are still open, and the faint smell of his shampoo still clings to his pillow. It feels like stepping into a memory that refuses to fade.

Grief eats at me in waves. Some mornings, I can barely drag myself out of bed. On other days, I force myself to smile, to cook breakfast, and to act like I’m still a whole person.

My husband Ethan tries to stay strong for us, though I see the cracks in his eyes when he thinks I’m not looking. He works longer hours now, and when he comes home, he holds our daughter just a little tighter than before. He doesn’t talk about Lucas, but I hear the silence where his laughter used to be.

And then there’s Ella… my bright, curious little girl. She’s only five, too young to understand death, but old enough to feel the emptiness it leaves behind. She still asks about her brother sometimes.

“Is Lucas with the angels, Mommy?” she’ll whisper before bed.

“They’re taking care of him,” I always tell her. “He’s safe now.”

But even as I say it, I can barely breathe through the ache.

Now, Ethan and Ella are all I have left, and even when it hurts just to exist, I remind myself that I have to hold on for them. But a week ago, things began to change.

It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon. Ella was at the kitchen table, coloring with her crayons while I stood at the sink, pretending to wash dishes I’d already cleaned twice.

“Mom,” she said suddenly, her voice light and casual, “I saw Lucas in the window.”

“What window, sweetheart?” I asked, looking at her with wide eyes.

She pointed toward the house across the street. The pale-yellow one with the peeling shutters and the curtains that never seemed to move.

“He’s there,” she said. “He was looking at me.”

My heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t process what Ella was saying.

“Maybe you imagined him, honey,” I said softly, drying my hands on a towel. “Sometimes, when we miss someone a lot, our hearts play tricks on us. It’s okay to wish he were still here.”

But she shook her head, her pigtails swaying. “No, Mommy. He waved.”

The way she said it so calmly and confidently made my stomach drop.

That night, after I tucked her into bed, I noticed the picture she’d drawn on the table. Two houses, two windows, and a boy smiling from across the street.

My hands trembled as I picked it up.

Was it just her imagination? Or was grief reaching for me again, playing cruel games in the shadows?

Later, when the house was still, I sat by the living room window, staring across the street. The curtains in the yellow house were drawn tight. The porch light flickered, casting long, soft glows against the siding.

I told myself there was nothing there. I told myself that there was only darkness and that Ella must be imagining things.

But still, I couldn’t look away because I could relate to the feeling of seeing Lucas everywhere. I used to see him in the hallway, where his laughter used to echo, and in the backyard, where his bike still leaned against the fence.

Grief does strange things. It distorts time, turns shadows into memories, and silences into the sound of a child’s voice you’ll never hear again.

That night, when Ethan came downstairs and found me still sitting by the window, he rubbed my shoulder and said gently, “You should get some rest.”

“I will,” I whispered, though I didn’t move.

He hesitated. “You’re thinking about Lucas again, aren’t you?”

I gave a weak smile. “When am I not?”

He sighed, pressing his lips to my temple. “We’ll get through this, Grace. We have to.”

But as he turned away, I glanced once more at the house across the street. And for a moment, I thought I saw the curtain shift. Just slightly. Like someone had been standing there, watching.

My heart skipped a beat.

It was probably nothing, I told myself. Probably the wind.

But deep down, something in me stirred. What if Ella was right?

***

It had been a week since Ella first mentioned seeing her brother in that window. Every day, her story stayed the same.

“He’s there, Mom. He’s looking at me,” she’d say while eating her cereal or brushing her doll’s hair.

At first, I tried to correct her. I told her Lucas was in heaven, that he couldn’t be in the window across the street. But she only looked at me with those clear blue eyes and said, “He misses us.”

After a while, I stopped arguing. I just nodded, kissed her forehead, and said, “Maybe he does, sweetheart.”

Each night, after tucking her into bed, I’d find myself standing at the window again. The pale-yellow house sat there in the dark.

Ethan noticed my restlessness. One night, he found me standing there again and asked softly, “You’re not… actually thinking there’s something there, are you?”

“She’s so sure, Ethan,” I murmured. “What if she’s not just imagining it?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Grief makes us see things. Both of us. She’s just a kid, Grace.”

“I know,” I said. “I know that.”

But even as I said it, my stomach tightened.

***

A few mornings later, I was walking our dog. I passed the yellowwith slow, deliberate steps crunching against the gravel.

I told myself I wouldn’t look. I really did. But something made me glance up.

And there he was.

A small figure stood behind the curtain of the second-floor window.