The Angel Cabinet

Every summer, Ben visited his grandparents in rural Oklahoma. It was a big change from his usual life in the city of Tulsa, with all its shops and traffic and noise. Ben always had difficulty sleeping the first couple of nights out in the country, where the silence seemed like the loudest noise he’d ever heard.

Although he loved his grandparents, he didn’t love the boredom that surrounded him during his visits. They had no Wi-Fi and no cell service, so his phone was nearly useless. Their TV was just a weird little box with a bulging glass screen and metal antennas poking up from the back, which his grandpa called “rabbit ears.” They only got two TV stations, and one of those turned into static if he didn’t angle the rabbit ears just right.