My ten-year-old daughter always rushed to the bathroom as soon as she came home from school. As I asked, “Why do you always take a bath right away?” she smiled and said, “I just like to be clean.” Yet, one day while cleaning the drain, I found something.

One night, I finally asked her softly, “Why do you always take a bath right away?”

Sophie flashed a smile that was just a little too practiced and said, “I just like to be clean.”

That answer should have eased my mind. Instead, it left a tight knot in my stomach. Sophie was usually messy, blunt, forgetful. “I just like to be clean” sounded like something she’d been coached to say.

About a week later, that knot turned into something much heavier.

The bathtub had started draining slowly, leaving a gray ring at the bottom, so I decided to clean out the drain. I pulled on gloves, unscrewed the cover, and slid a plastic drain snake inside.

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