Читать книгу Genesis of the Guardians - Kevin Qi - Страница 5

The door was open. Why in the world would it be open? Beatrice and Robert weren’t supposed to be back until seven, and it was only three. Someone was inside our house. My mind went into panic mode and quickly went over my options. I could call the police. I took out my phone and dialed 911. But what if Robert had just worked from home today and left the door by accident? How awkward would that be?

No, it was better to check it out myself, but keep a finger on the call button. With my right hand holding my cellphone, I carefully pushed the door open further with my left. Five years of coming and going through this door, and I had learned exactly where it began to squeak. I stopped pushing right before it could announce my arrival. I could then barely squeeze through the crack.

The house was quiet. There was no way that Robert had been working from home. He constantly has online meetings, and speaks really loudly. I crouched down low and untied my shoes. They would be too noisy. Immediately I began to suspect what was actually happening.

The way the house is formatted, after you come in through the front door, you can take one of three paths. You can turn left to the dining room, or right to the living room, which then branches off into a studio which Beatrice uses to paint in. Going directly forward, past the staircase, will put you into the kitchen. From there, there are extra hallways which again lead to both the dining room and the living room. On a blueprint, the design of the first floor would look a bit like a club from a deck of cards. I figured that if there were intruders in the house, they would be taking stuff from the dining room, where the porcelain is displayed, or the living room, where many of our electronic devices are. It wasn’t likely that they had broken into our house just to steal our sandwiches.

Following this chain of logic, I crept into our kitchen, then ducked low and peeked into the living room. I was right. There were people in the house, and they were doing exactly what I had thought that they were doing.