Part 1: The Night I Was Finally Needed

December 29, 2025 by ucef

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I’m the chapter they quietly closed.

Holidays come and go like wind down an empty street. The reasons change every year, but the result never does.

“Flights are too expensive right now, Mom.”
“The kids have activities.”
“We’re spending the holidays with the in-laws.”
“Next year, okay?”

Next year never comes.

So I keep working. I keep cleaning the world they move through, even if they’ve forgotten the woman who helped build it.

That’s why I was at the interstate rest stop early that Tuesday morning. Halfway through my shift. Alone. The sky outside still pitch black, the tile floor cold beneath my shoes as I pushed my mop back and forth.

That’s when I heard it.

At first, I thought it was nothing. A faint, broken sound. Almost like a stray kitten caught somewhere it shouldn’t be.

I froze.