Penny opened the front door, the grocery bags in her arms slipping out of her grasp. She sighed and shifted that packages before she dropped them. She closed the door with a quiet grunt and headed down the hallway. Something seemed different to her, but she didn't put her finger on what exactly it was until se got into the kitchen. There was no noise. That seemed almost impossible in a house with a three-year-old and a five-year- old, but it was true. There was not a sound in the whole house.

She set the groceries down on the counter, calling out to her daughter. Maybe she had taken the girls down to the park. "Patty, darling! Are you here? The girls are so quiet, they must be up to something."

Patty walked into the kitchen from the backyard. Her face was blank, almost as if she was in a trance. "The girls are in the playroom."

"What's wrong, Patty?"

She sat at the table and waited for her mother to sit down with her. Once she did, she looked up at her mother with tears in her eyes. "Uh, the girls are quiet because they're scared of me right now. And the thing is? I'm kind of scared of me, too."

"Okay, sweetie, you're rambling," Penny said, placing her hand comfortingly over her daughter's. "Start from the beginning."

Patty sighed and closed her eyes. Everything that had happened was starting to become a little fuzzy. "I called them in for lunch and they were bickering like they always do, but for some reason, it was really getting on my last nerve. Everything they were saying was just driving me up the wall. I snapped. I slammed a pan down on the counter and yelled at them. They've been extremely quiet ever since, almost like they're afraid to even talk."

Penny looked her daughter over. While it sounded a little upsetting, it didn't seem like it was all that bad. So what was upsetting Patty so much? "Well, honey, every mother yells from time to time--"

"But this was different," she interrupted. "I can't really explain how, but it was different. Usually, their fighting doesn't even faze me, but today . . . I can't believe the rage I was feeling."

Penny sighed, completely at a loss. "Maybe you're just tired. Why don't you go upstairs and lie down for a couple of hours? You don't have to be at work until six."

"Yeah, maybe you're right." She stood up with a sigh and stretched slightly. "I'll be upstairs if you need me."

"Okay, darling." She watched her daughter leave the kitchen, then she stood up and started putting away the groceries. All the while, she kept thinking about what Patty had told her. Something had obviously upset her. Maybe she was just feeling tired and overwhelmed, but could it have been something else? She had no idea what that something else could be, but still, she wondered. Once she finished with the groceries, she headed straight for the playroom to ask her granddaughters what had happened.

**********

"She yelled at us, Grams," Piper said around her thumb. She only sucked her thumb when she was very upset, and this qualified as one of those times. "I mean, we shouldn't have been fighting, but she's never yelled at us before."

Penny scooped her granddaughter up and sat down on the sofa in the corner, holding her on her lap. She then motioned for Prue to come sit down next to her. Prue complied, snuggling up next to her grandmother. "Girls, your mom didn't mean to yell at you. You're right, Piper. You two shouldn't have been fighting. But she only yelled because she's tired. You know how you get cranky when you're tired?" Piper nodded without removing her thumb from her mouth. "Well, adults can get cranky, too."

The girls were silent for a moment before Prue spoke up quietly. "Something didn't feel right, though."

Penny looked down at her granddaughter, wondering if there was in fact something more to this story. After all, Patty and the girls seemed awfully upset for something so trivial. "What is it, darling?"

Prue dropped her gaze to her hands. Maybe I should tell her to forget it, she thought. She wasn't exactly sure if anything out of the ordinary had happened and she didn't want to worry her family needlessly. Still, she felt uneasy about the whole thing. Her mother had gotten angry with them before, but never like that. She sighed, then looked back up at her grandmother. "There was a look in her eyes that was . . . I don't know, scary, I guess. I can't explain it. It just didn't seem like it was really her."

Penny leaned down and kissed the top of Prue's head. "It's okay, honey. You're just not used to having someone yell at you."

"No, Grams, I mean it!" Prue exclaimed so loudly that Piper jumped and took her thumb out of her mouth. "Something was wrong with her."

"Okay, darling. I'll go up and talk to her, all right?"

Prue nodded as she watched her grandmother stand up and set Piper down next to Prue. Prue wrapped her arm protectively around her sister's shoulders. Piper stuck her thumb into her mouth and rested her head against Prue's shoulder, closing her eyes. "It's almost naptime," Prue said by way of an explanation.

"You're right, it is," Penny answered with a gentle smile. "Tell you what. How about I tuck you girls in and I'll talk to your mom. Then we can forget about this whole thing."

"Okay!" Piper exclaimed, grinning. She jumped up and slipped one hand into Prue's and the other into her grandmother's. "Come on!"

Prue sighed as Piper half-dragged her to the stairs. Something about what had happened that afternoon was still making her uneasy, but if everyone else was willing to just forget about it, she supposed she should, too. The only thing was she didn't know if she could.