My son-in-law forgot his mobile phone at my house… then a message arrived from his mother: ‘Come now, Janet’…

My son-in-law forgot his phone on my kitchen table and a single text message brought my dead daughter back to life.

It vibrated just as I was cleaning the soup off the stove. I barely looked. I should have left it alone. That’s what a decent person would do. But the sound came again, sharp and sudden, and my eyes fell on the lit screen before I could stop myself.

Come here right now, Janet. Janet tried to escape again. For a full second, the world went silent. My hand froze around the dish towel. The stove light whirred.

The old wall clock ticked above the sink. Outside I could hear a lawnmower somewhere down the street, but inside everything stopped. Janet.

My daughter’s name was Janet. My Janet, the same Janet they told me had died five years ago. I stared at the screen so hard my eyes started to burn.

I read the words once, then again, and then once more, as if they would become normal if I waited long enough. Come here right now. Janet has tried to escape again.

Again. No, not once. Again. My knees buckled. I grabbed the edge of the kitchen table before I fell. The dishcloth slipped from my hand and fell into the sink.

An icy chill ran down my arms and back. I didn’t whisper, but it didn’t sound like a real word. It sounded weak and frightened, like a child talking in the dark.