Dolly started snuffling the ground and then found a spot to pee while I looked up at the house. Why did it look smaller? I hadn’t been here for months and in that time, it had shrunk. The white paint peeled in places, and the flower boxes on the wraparound porch needed watering. I hoped the garden out back wasn’t in as bad a shape.
The side door opened and out came my mother carrying a chain saw. She didn’t look at me immediately, but then she did and her face broke out into the most brilliant smile that made her look years younger.
“Hey, Mom,” I said.
She put the chain saw down on the porch before opening her arms. “Welcome home, baby girl.”
I forced myself not to cringe at the nickname. I was twenty-two, hardly a baby at this point.
Still, I let myself be folded into her arms, and I drank in the familiar scent of fresh-baked bread and fresh-cut wood. She rubbed my back up and down and then leaned down to pet Dolly, who lost her shit and lapped up the attention.
“A tree came down last week, so I’ve been cutting it up. Come on in and see your father. You can bring your stuff in later. He’s been antsy to see you all day.”
I looked back at my car, which was packed to the roof with all the shit that I had left after I’d sold most of everything in a last-ditch attempt to cover my rent.
Mom put her arm around me and started filling me in on town gossip, but a loud rumbling distracted me. I turned my head in time to watch a sleek black motorcycle pull into the driveway next door.
“Is that—” I started to say, but then the rider got off the bike and pulled off their helmet, shaking out their short dark hair.
“Oh, yes, that’s Jude. Her parents moved down to Florida and left her the house.”
Jude Wicks. I hadn’t seen her since she graduated four years ahead of me in school.
Jude didn’t glance in my direction as she covered the bike, jogged up the steps, and slammed the front door of the house. I jumped at the sound.
Dolly whined and I looked down at her.
“Her parents left her the house?” I asked as Mom and I walked up the steps and into the house. We didn’t have air-conditioning, so fans were doing all the work, just blowing around the semi-moist sea air.
Mom was distracted from answering by Dad yelling at her from his recliner. He’d hurt his back working for the power company for thirty-five years and was retired. They relied on Mom’s income as a real estate agent and substitute teacher.
“Iris is here,” Mom called to him.
“Baby girl!” he yelled when I came around the corner.
“Hi, Dad.”
I went over to give him a huge hug. Dolly immediately put her chin in his lap and whined for attention.
“Hello, Dolly,” Dad said with a chuckle, setting his coffee down next to a stack of library books beside his chair.
“What are you reading now?” I asked.
He held up the book he’d rested on the arm of the chair to keep his place. “Started reading these young adult books. This one’s about these kids who are planning a heist to steal this magic stuff. You can have it when I’m done.”
Mom poked her head in and asked me if I wanted some coffee. “Sure, thanks.”
I sat down on the couch as Dolly curled up at his feet and closed her eyes.
Mom brought me a cup of black coffee and some creamer. I added enough so that the coffee turned from black to khaki. Perfect.
“How was your drive?” Mom asked.
We caught up on my trip, the fact that she’d cleared out my room for me, and what else was happening in town. Mostly it was about who my parents knew that had died, what they had died from, and talking shit about a few while simultaneously hoping they rested in peace.
Less than an hour at home and I already wanted to escape, but I was stuck here, at least for now.
I had to unpack my car, find a place for Dolly’s food and water bowls, and settle into my room. Luckily for me, my brother, who was ten years older, had vacated it a long time ago to go to college.
My bed was small, but Mom had bought me a new mattress recently, so there was that. Still, it was a twin bed, when I’d been sleeping in a queen in my apartment. That had been left on the street. No one wanted someone else’s mattress. The bed frame had been taken by Natalie, one of my former coworkers. I missed her already, and needed to text her that I’d made it home safe. She was so worried about me moving back to Maine that she’d literally bought me bear spray. I told her that the likelihood that I would die from a bear attack was slim to none, but she wouldn’t listen.
The walls started to close on me as I looked at the tiny bed. Sure, I’d had to share my old apartment with someone I didn’t like, but my bedroom had been twice this size, and I’d had two big, beautiful windows that looked out on a courtyard filled with flowers and butterflies and twittering birds. Maine had all those things, but it wasn’t the same.
To add insult to injury, none of my sheets or blankets were going to fit the bed. I added that to the list of things I needed to get with money I didn’t have.
Dolly followed me into the room and climbed up on the bed. She took up most of it.
“I’m going to end up on the floor,” I said to her. She closed her eyes and huffed out a sigh.
I sat on the edge of the bed and looked around. At least the posters I’d had on the walls in
