As Stefan stepped outside, he realized that it was truly beginning to feel like autumn. The crisp chill in the air, the wispy clouds in the sky and the browning leaves along the ground were quintessential of the changing seasons. Stefan did a quick survey of his lawn and made a mental note that he would have to start raking the leaves the coming weekend. Then he reached down and grabbed ahold of Sam’s hand and said, “Ready?”

Sam nodded and so the two of them walked along the sidewalk for about two blocks before reaching the school bus stop. As Stefan approached, he noticed that some familiar faces were already there. “Good morning, Leonard,” Stefan said as he waved to a lanky man with glasses.

The man, Leonard, looked up from his phone and gave Stefan a smile. “Morning, Stefan,” he said, “Morning, Sam.”

“Good morning, Mr. Beasly,” Sam greeted politely. Then he turned to look at Stefan with an expression of anticipation.

“Go ahead,” Stefan said, gesturing Sam to a group of children that had gathered in a circle nearby. Sam smiled and ran off to join the group, leaving Stefan and Leonard standing alone. There was a moment of silence before Leonard let out a yawn.

“Late night?” Stefan asked.

“Overtime,” Leonard replied.

“What is it this time?” Stefan asked.

“Bug in the server-side code. Basically crashed the whole system. Pain in the you know what to get everything up and running again,” Leonard replied, “So basically the same old same old.”

“You figure out the bug?” Stefan asked. Leonard shook his head, and Stefan gave an empathetic nod.

“Management is out for blood,” Leonard added a moment later.

“It’s that always the case?” Stefan asked.

Leonard laughed, then let out another yawn. “But seriously, why does school start so early in the morning?” he asked.

“My gosh, Leonard. I was just thinking the same thing myself this very morning,” Stefan replied, “Do you think we should bring it up during the next PTA meeting?”

Leonard gave Stefan a bemused look before he leaned in and whispered, “You know they wouldn’t listen to us.” He gestured with his eyes to the group of women huddled nearby.

Stefan sighed. He knew what Leonard meant. Of course he knew. The super moms. The women who basically ran the PTA and had unilateral control over all aspects of Sam’s school. At times, they could also be a bit overbearing, to put it mildly. Like the incident during the fundraiser for Sam’s peewee soccer team, where one of the super moms had blown up on some of the other parents. Stefan tried to recall what her name had been. “Gloria?” he mumbled to himself.

“What’s that?” Leonard asked.

“Ah, nothing,” Stefan replied. He shook his head and then looked up, just in time to catch sight of the big yellow bus pulling around the corner. He looked over to his son and called out, “Sam!”

Sam looked away from the boy he had been chatting with and ran back towards Stefan, a wide smile on his face.

As he had done a thousand times before, every morning since Sam was in kindergarden, Stefan knelt down and held out his arms. It was their ritual, to give Sam a goodbye hug before sending the boy off to school. A simple ritual that started the day right, one that Stefan had performed a thousand times without much variation.

A thousand times. But this time, something changed.