I found my daughter’s school tie in the fruit bowl

Dear Delyara, I was reaching for an apple when I saw it folded between two bananas like it had every right to be there. That is what family life feels like to me now. Nothing stays in its proper category for long. School ends up in the kitchen. Work ends up in the bedroom. Money sits in the car. Tiredness arrives at the dinner table. A school tie sits in a fruit bowl, and somehow I am the one expected to notice it before tomorrow morning turns into a problem. I picked it up, put it by the door, and felt that familiar wave of invisible labour move through me. Not anger exactly. Just that quiet heaviness of being the one who sees what everyone else has already walked past.