The only noises in the house are the blades of the fan whirring and soapy water washing the dishes in the dishwasher. I stare at my phone and let out a long sigh. I set it next to me on the couch and scan the room for a blanket or a robe, suddenly freezing. I find my khaki robe and quickly put it on over my covered-in-cat-fur pajamas. With that, I glance at my cat, Snuggles, who is sleeping peacefully on the couch. I smile and pick my phone up. There’s an unread text from an unknown number… strange. I click on it, sorta suspicious. It’s a chocolate chip recipe! I figure it must be from one of my friends using a new number - they know how down I’ve been since my son died.

I start to head into the kitchen, wondering if I have chocolate chips, when another text from the same number pops up. It reads: You’ll figure it out. Figure what out? The recipe? I furrow my brow and click on the link. Quickly scrolling through it, I don’t see anything wrong with it. It looks just like the average chocolate chip cookie recipe. I shake my head and try to convince myself that it’s just a coincidence, and I try not to let it go to my head. But I can’t help it - everything does.

I gather all the ingredients, everything along the lines of flour, sugar, chocolate chips, and so on. Dusting my hands off, I grab my phone again and realize the recipe itself is in smaller print, and I don’t have my glasses. I bring it closer and read the steps, top to bottom. But then I realize there’s something off about this recipe. There’s tiny dots and lines behind the words that are hard to make out. Quickly I find a notepad and a pen and I write down the series of dots and lines. I stare at it for awhile, pondering and clicking my pen. What might it mean… and then it comes to me. I don’t know how I could’ve been so naive. It’s morse code. I quickly look up the morse code language and translate it in almost no time. My mouth gapes open at the few words that daunt me on the notepad:

I’M STILL HERE MOM

Those four words… those four tiny words… they could mean anything, it could be a wrong number, it could be a troll, but… I have a feeling it’s him. We used to love to make chocolate chip cookies together, and he was always bright. He could have easily figured out morse code and put it behind the words of the recipe. He knew I would find it. It’s a message - my son is alive.