Chapter 002 – The Car Pulling Away
Chapter 02 - Chapter 002 – The Car Pulling Away
Peter was the one who shut the car door.
He had been my baby once, the boy who slept with one hand caught in my nightgown because thunder convinced him the world was ending. I remembered his small fingers twisted in cotton as I watched his adult hand close the door between us.
Elaine leaned through the passenger window and handed me an envelope.
“There’s a bus to Springfield at noon,” she said. “Aunt Carol’s church might help you.”
“Aunt Carol died eight years ago.”
Elaine blinked once.
Not sadly.
Annoyed, as if death had made an administrative mistake.
“Then ask someone there.”
Martin said, “Don’t make this harder.”
The car backed away before I could ask what exactly I was making hard: their morning, their conscience, or the house sale they thought I didn’t know about.
I watched the taillights disappear past the diner sign.
Then I reached into my coat pocket and touched the one thing they had forgotten to take.
A small brass key.
My house key.
“I still have the house key,” I whispered.
May you like
It was not a plan yet.
But it was not nothing.
