The scrape of something heavy against the floor came from Maya\u2019s closet, inches from where I lay hidden beneath her bed.<\/p>\n
I saw the wheels first.<\/p>\n
A small black carry-on rolled into view, overstuffed enough that the zipper strained around the corners, and Maya pulled it toward the younger girl with both hands.<\/p>\n
My first thought was simple.<\/p>\n
They were running away.<\/p>\n
My second thought was worse.<\/p>\n
They had planned this before today.<\/p>\n
The boy nearest the door crouched beside the suitcase and checked the zipper while the younger girl hugged herself so tightly her shoulders nearly touched.<\/p>\n
Maya knelt in front of her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can take my sweatshirt,\u201d she murmured. \u201cAnd there\u2019s food in the side pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n
That did it.<\/p>\n
I slid out from under the bed.<\/p>\n
Maya screamed.<\/p>\n
One boy backed into her desk hard enough to rattle the pencil cup, while the other moved instantly between me and the younger girl.<\/p>\n
My daughter just stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face went white.<\/p>\n
For a second, nobody seemed to know what kind of danger I was.<\/p>\n
That hurt more than I expected.<\/p>\n
I pushed myself to my knees, dust clinging to my blouse, and held both hands where they could see them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not angry right now,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Maya swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were under my bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really weird, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAgreed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The older boy almost laughed, but the sound died before it escaped.<\/p>\n
I pointed toward the suitcase.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya\u2019s eyes filled immediately.<\/p>\n
Not dramatic tears.<\/p>\n
Not the kind she used when she was six and wanted ten more minutes before bedtime.<\/p>\n
These were exhausted tears, the kind that had been waiting behind her face for days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to tell you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I knew she was safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The younger girl flinched at the word safe.<\/p>\n
I noticed it.<\/p>\n
I noticed everything now.<\/p>\n
I noticed the sleeve she kept pulling over one wrist.<\/p>\n
I noticed the boy beside her watching the bedroom door every few seconds.<\/p>\n
I noticed Maya\u2019s pink backpack open beside the dresser, half-empty except for two granola bars and a bottle of water.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, the missing snacks made sense.<\/p>\n
So did the lunches Maya claimed she had stopped liking.<\/p>\n
So did the dirty school uniform.<\/p>\n
So did the late-night laundry.<\/p>\n
So did the way she jumped whenever her phone buzzed.<\/p>\n
I sat on the carpet.<\/p>\n
\u201cStart at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya looked at the kids.<\/p>\n
The older boy nodded.<\/p>\n
The younger girl didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Maya waited anyway.<\/p>\n
That was the first moment I understood that my daughter had not been ordering these children around.<\/p>\n
They trusted her.<\/p>\n
Finally, the girl whispered, \u201cMy name is Evelyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The older boy was Benjamin, her brother.<\/p>\n
The third child was a friend from school who had been helping them keep watch.<\/p>\n
All of them were young enough that I should have been asking what they wanted for lunch, not why they were hiding inside my house during school.<\/p>\n
Benjamin spoke first.<\/p>\n
Things at home had been getting worse for months, he said.<\/p>\n
Their father\u2019s anger had become unpredictable.<\/p>\n
He took phones when he thought the kids were talking about him.<\/p>\n
He blocked doors during arguments.<\/p>\n
He punched walls close enough to make them jump.<\/p>\n
He told them private family problems stayed private.<\/p>\n
And two nights earlier, an argument had ended with Evelyn getting hurt while trying to leave the room.<\/p>\n
Benjamin stopped talking.<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
Evelyn looked down.<\/p>\n
Maya reached for her hand.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t ask Evelyn to show me anything.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t need to.<\/p>\n
The fear in that room was not teenage theater.<\/p>\n
It had weight.<\/p>\n
It had rules.<\/p>\n
It had taught three children how to whisper in a locked bedroom at nine-thirty in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long have you been coming here?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Maya answered quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three weeks.<\/p>\n
The number landed hard.<\/p>\n
They had not come every day.<\/p>\n
Only on mornings when Benjamin sent Maya a certain message before school, or when Evelyn arrived frightened enough that she refused to go home if someone called her father.<\/p>\n
My house was close enough that they could reach it without a car, and Maya knew I would already be at work.<\/p>\n
They would stay until they felt safe enough to leave, sometimes returning to school later and sometimes missing most of the day.<\/p>\n
It was reckless.<\/p>\n
It was dangerous.<\/p>\n
It was also thirteen-year-old logic trying to solve an adult problem with crackers, Band-Aids, clean socks, and an empty house.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was the suitcase for?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Benjamin rubbed both palms over his jeans.<\/p>\n
Evelyn answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to go back tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya looked at me quickly, already preparing to defend her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her she couldn\u2019t just disappear,\u201d she said. \u201cI told her we needed an adult. I was trying to figure out which adult.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mouth trembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know if you\u2019d listen first.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sentence cut deeper than any lie she had told me.<\/p>\n
I started to argue.<\/p>\n
I stopped.<\/p>\n
After the divorce, I had become obsessed with keeping our life orderly.<\/p>\n
Bills got paid on Fridays.<\/p>\n
Laundry got done before Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Homework came before television.<\/p>\n
If Maya had a problem, we talked about it.<\/p>\n
If a child was in trouble, I had always said, adults needed to know.<\/p>\n
But I had never explained that some adults could not safely be the first adults called.<\/p>\n
Maya had filled in that blank herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought you\u2019d call her dad,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
She blinked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot after hearing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evelyn finally looked at me.<\/p>\n
Her eyes were red and suspicious.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you going to make us leave?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you going to call him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benjamin\u2019s shoulders dropped half an inch.<\/p>\n
I pointed toward Maya\u2019s desk chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody sits. Nobody goes anywhere alone. We are going to get help, but I\u2019m going to tell you what I\u2019m doing before I do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Maya covered her face.<\/p>\n
A sob slipped through her fingers.<\/p>\n
I wanted to hug her.<\/p>\n
Not yet.<\/p>\n
First, I needed to become the adult she had been afraid to trust.<\/p>\n
I asked Evelyn whether she needed medical attention.<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
Benjamin said the bandages were for a scrape she had covered badly that morning.<\/p>\n
I asked whether their father had a weapon.<\/p>\n
They said they had never seen one.<\/p>\n
I asked whether he knew about my house.<\/p>\n
All four kids looked at one another.<\/p>\n
That answer frightened me more than a yes would have.<\/p>\n
Then Benjamin\u2019s phone vibrated.<\/p>\n
He stared at the screen.<\/p>\n
His entire body changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d Maya asked.<\/p>\n
Benjamin turned the phone toward her.<\/p>\n
Whatever was written there made Maya stand up so fast she kicked the suitcase.<\/p>\n
It rolled several inches and bumped the bed frame.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
I held out my hand.<\/p>\n
Benjamin hesitated, then gave me the phone.<\/p>\n
The message was short.<\/p>\n
Their father wanted to know where they were, and he made it clear that he expected an answer immediately.<\/p>\n
A second message appeared while I was holding the phone.<\/p>\n
He said he was coming to get them.<\/p>\n
My mouth went dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow would he know where to come?\u201d<\/p>\n
Benjamin looked sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went through my messages before. Maybe he remembers the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never came here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he followed us once,\u201d the third boy said.<\/p>\n
No one knew.<\/p>\n
That uncertainty changed everything.<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
I locked the bedroom window even though it was already shut.<\/p>\n
I checked the back door.<\/p>\n
I checked the front deadbolt.<\/p>\n
I checked the side entrance twice.<\/p>\n
Then I called for help.<\/p>\n
I kept my voice level while I explained that several minors were inside my home, that two said they were afraid to leave with a parent, and that the parent might be on his way.<\/p>\n
I gave my address.<\/p>\n
I answered questions.<\/p>\n
I did not dramatize anything.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t need to.<\/p>\n
While I spoke, Maya sat beside Evelyn on the floor.<\/p>\n
She had been feeding her.<\/p>\n
She had been giving her clean clothes.<\/p>\n
She had been losing sleep.<\/p>\n
She had been carrying a crisis that should never have fit inside a thirteen-year-old girl\u2019s backpack.<\/p>\n
A car door slammed outside.<\/p>\n
Every child in the room froze.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
Three hard knocks hit the front door.<\/p>\n
Not a polite knock.<\/p>\n
Not a neighbor\u2019s tap.<\/p>\n
A demand.<\/p>\n
Benjamin whispered, \u201cThat\u2019s him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evelyn backed against the wall.<\/p>\n
Maya stood in front of her.<\/p>\n
I moved Maya aside.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cYou don\u2019t stand between anybody and danger. That is my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The knocking came again.<\/p>\n
A man called Benjamin\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
Then Evelyn\u2019s.<\/p>\n
His voice was controlled enough that, if I had heard it in a grocery store, I might never have looked twice.<\/p>\n
That scared me.<\/p>\n
I walked to the front hallway but stayed several feet from the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah Jenkins?\u201d he called.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t answer the name question.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe children are safe,\u201d I said through the closed door. \u201cHelp is on the way. Nobody is coming outside until this is handled safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
His response came immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have my children in your house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have children telling me they\u2019re afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind me, Benjamin flinched.<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s voice sharpened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter has been having behavior problems. My son thinks he can do whatever he wants. Your daughter is helping them skip school, and now you\u2019re interfering in my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
A version of events that sounded almost reasonable if you removed every frightened child from the picture.<\/p>\n
I understood why Maya had been scared adults would believe it.<\/p>\n
He had facts on his side.<\/p>\n
The kids had skipped school.<\/p>\n
They had entered my house without my knowledge.<\/p>\n
They had lied.<\/p>\n
Maya had hidden it from me.<\/p>\n
Every bad decision they had made could be stacked neatly in front of the truth until the truth disappeared.<\/p>\n
He tried the doorknob.<\/p>\n
Just once.<\/p>\n
Evelyn made a small sound behind me.<\/p>\n
I felt something inside me settle.<\/p>\n
Not rage.<\/p>\n
Clarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not try my door again,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
He stepped back.<\/p>\n
Across the street, Mrs. Gable had come onto her porch with her phone in her hand.<\/p>\n
For the first time since she had stopped me the day before, I was grateful that woman noticed everything.<\/p>\n
The father saw her watching.<\/p>\n
His tone changed.<\/p>\n
He lowered his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvelyn, honey, get your things. We\u2019re going home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evelyn began shaking.<\/p>\n
He tried again.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on. Don\u2019t make this worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benjamin walked into the hallway.<\/p>\n
I put out an arm to stop him from getting closer to the door.<\/p>\n
He stayed behind me.<\/p>\n
But he raised his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not coming out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The porch went quiet.<\/p>\n
His father answered, \u201cBenjamin, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re embarrassing your family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benjamin\u2019s face twisted.<\/p>\n
He looked thirteen and forty at the same time.<\/p>\n
Then he said the thing that changed the entire morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaya didn\u2019t make us do this. I asked her for help.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man outside said nothing.<\/p>\n
Benjamin continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her Evelyn was scared. I told her we needed somewhere you wouldn\u2019t look first. Stop blaming her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya stared at him.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
The story I had built in my head the previous twenty-four hours finally collapsed completely.<\/p>\n
I had imagined my daughter being influenced by reckless kids.<\/p>\n
I had imagined secret parties.<\/p>\n
I had imagined stolen money, vaping, boys, bad grades, every ordinary parental fear I could fit inside that quiet bedroom.<\/p>\n
The truth was almost the reverse.<\/p>\n
Maya had become the place other children ran toward.<\/p>\n
She had simply been too young to know what to do once they arrived.<\/p>\n
The father started talking again, louder now, accusing me of keeping his children from him.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Gable crossed to the edge of her driveway but did not approach him.<\/p>\n
When he turned toward her, she lifted her phone and said plainly that she had seen him arrive, heard the shouting, and watched him test my front door.<\/p>\n
Nothing more.<\/p>\n
She did not give a speech.<\/p>\n
She did not pretend to know what had happened inside his home.<\/p>\n
She only said what she had witnessed.<\/p>\n
That mattered.<\/p>\n
When responders arrived, the children were not rushed straight into anybody\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n
The adults were separated.<\/p>\n
The kids were spoken to away from the father and away from me.<\/p>\n
I hated letting Maya leave my side for those questions, but I understood why it had to happen.<\/p>\n
The black suitcase remained beside the bedroom wall.<\/p>\n
No one touched it.<\/p>\n
For nearly an hour, my house became a place of quiet voices, written notes, phone calls, and adults trying to untangle what four frightened children had been handling alone.<\/p>\n
I learned only pieces at first.<\/p>\n
There were messages between Maya and Benjamin going back weeks.<\/p>\n
There were repeated requests for somewhere safe to sit before school.<\/p>\n
There were timestamps that matched mornings when Mrs. Gable had seen the kids enter my house.<\/p>\n
There was the scrape Evelyn had tried to cover herself.<\/p>\n
There was Benjamin\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
There was Mrs. Gable\u2019s account of that morning.<\/p>\n
No single detail solved everything.<\/p>\n
Together, they made it impossible to dismiss the situation as simple truancy.<\/p>\n
By early afternoon, the immediate question was no longer whether Evelyn and Benjamin were going home with their father that minute.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A safe temporary arrangement was being made while adults with the proper responsibility looked into what the children had reported.<\/p>\n
I was not given every detail, and I did not demand them.<\/p>\n
They were not my children.<\/p>\n
That boundary mattered too.<\/p>\n
The third boy\u2019s family was contacted, and he left with a parent who arrived looking terrified, angry, and relieved all at once.<\/p>\n
Before leaving, he turned to Maya.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou good?\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou?\u201d<\/p>\n
He shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably grounded forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time all day, somebody smiled.<\/p>\n
Barely.<\/p>\n
Evelyn did not smile.<\/p>\n
Before she left, she went back into Maya\u2019s room and picked up the black suitcase.<\/p>\n
She held it by the top handle now instead of dragging it.<\/p>\n
Maya stood beside her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have my number,\u201d Maya said.<\/p>\n
Evelyn nodded.<\/p>\n
Then she looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you mad at her?\u201d<\/p>\n
I considered lying.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cBut we have a lot to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evelyn looked worried.<\/p>\n
I added, \u201cHelping you wasn\u2019t the part she did wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya\u2019s eyes dropped.<\/p>\n
She understood.<\/p>\n
After everyone finally left, the house felt strangely large.<\/p>\n
There were four drinking glasses on the kitchen counter.<\/p>\n
A torn bandage wrapper sat beside the sink.<\/p>\n
One granola-bar crumb was crushed into the hallway rug.<\/p>\n
Maya and I stood in the kitchen without knowing where to begin.<\/p>\n
She spoke first.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm I grounded?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her eyes widened.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor helping someone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor skipping school, lying to me for weeks, bringing people into the house when nobody knew where you were, and trying to manage a dangerous situation without an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n
She folded her arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat feels like a lot of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is.\u201d<\/p>\n
She stared at the floor.<\/p>\n
Then I walked around the island and hugged her.<\/p>\n
She resisted for maybe half a second.<\/p>\n
Then she collapsed against me.<\/p>\n
My daughter was thirteen again.<\/p>\n
Not a secret keeper.<\/p>\n
Not a rescuer.<\/p>\n
Not the calm voice telling other children where to hide.<\/p>\n
Just thirteen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she said into my shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI really thought you\u2019d call him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what else to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the hardest part.<\/p>\n
She had made terrible choices for reasons I could understand.<\/p>\n
Both things were true.<\/p>\n
Over the next several days, the school dealt with the absences and the kids\u2019 safety situation through the normal adults responsible for those decisions.<\/p>\n
Maya had consequences for leaving school.<\/p>\n
I did not try to erase them.<\/p>\n
I sat beside her while she answered uncomfortable questions about where she had gone, why she had gone, and why she had not asked for adult help sooner.<\/p>\n
She hated every minute.<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
Some lessons are supposed to be uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
But I also made sure nobody reduced her to the word truant without hearing the rest of the story.<\/p>\n
She had broken rules.<\/p>\n
She had also been responding to fear she did not create.<\/p>\n
A week later, Maya and I made one new rule of our own.<\/p>\n
If she ever believed a friend was unsafe, she did not have to give me every private detail before asking for help.<\/p>\n
She could simply say, \u201cMom, I need you to listen before you act.\u201d<\/p>\n
My job would be to listen.<\/p>\n
Her job would be to tell me enough that I could keep everyone safe.<\/p>\n
No secret houses.<\/p>\n
No missing school.<\/p>\n
No children carrying escape plans alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeal?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Gable caught me by the mailbox a few mornings later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope I didn\u2019t cause trouble,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou caused exactly the right amount.\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded as though that confirmed something she had suspected about herself for years.<\/p>\n
Then she went back across the street.<\/p>\n
I never learned every detail of what happened next with Evelyn\u2019s family, and I was careful not to turn her life into a story Maya and I owned.<\/p>\n
What I did know was enough.<\/p>\n
She and Benjamin were not immediately returned to the situation they had been afraid of.<\/p>\n
Safe adults remained involved.<\/p>\n
The kids were heard separately.<\/p>\n
And Maya stopped jumping every time her phone rang.<\/p>\n
One Monday morning, I made pancakes again.<\/p>\n
Maya came downstairs in her clean school uniform with her pastel-pink backpack hanging from one shoulder.<\/p>\n
She ate two pancakes instead of pushing food around the plate.<\/p>\n
At 7:18, she checked her phone.<\/p>\n
No panic.<\/p>\n
At 7:20, she slipped it into her backpack.<\/p>\n
At 7:21, she came back because she had forgotten her bus money on the counter.<\/p>\n
Normal chaos.<\/p>\n
Beautiful chaos.<\/p>\n
She reached the front door, then turned around.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words were the same ones she had said every morning before I knew about the secret messages, the hidden kids, the bandages, and the suitcase under my own roof.<\/p>\n
This time, neither of us rushed them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love you more, sweetheart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maya rolled her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI always mean it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She opened the door.<\/p>\n
Across the street, Mrs. Gable lifted one hand from her porch.<\/p>\n
Maya waved back, adjusted the strap of her pink backpack, and headed toward the bus stop.<\/p>\n
I stood in the doorway until she climbed aboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The scrape of something heavy against the floor came from Maya\u2019s closet, inches from where I lay hidden beneath her bed. I saw the wheels first. A small black carry-on … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-inspiration","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42942,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42941\/revisions\/42942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readingdairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}