Broken Pieces by Kathleen Long

Author:Kathleen Long
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781503937178
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2016-07-18T18:30:00+00:00

After dinner, I drove Sydney and Ella back to Mrs. Leroy’s bed-and-breakfast. We loaded their belongings into their car and stopped for groceries at the Paris Market on our way back.

By the time we pulled back into the drive and burst through the front door, Marguerite had changed the linens in my parents’ old bedroom and the smaller bedroom that had once served as my grandmother’s office.

Sydney sat on the end of the bed that had once been my parents’, and I shivered, shaking off the sensation of watching my mother’s ghost.

Ella bounced through the upstairs, peering into one room after the other, until she stepped inside the old office.

Both rooms still boasted the same paint they’d had in my youth: my parents’ room a pale blue, Grandmother’s office a sensible ecru.

Stiff, brightly patterned curtains hung from the large original windows. The curtains were not much to look at, but effective on cold winter nights.

And beneath them sat large panes of glass, perfect for throwing open once the cool autumn breezes arrived, or peering through on a clear, starry night.

“Look at this,” I said to Ella, as I remembered one of my favorite hiding places from my youth and stepped into the smaller room behind her.

I crossed to the large closet door and cracked it open. The interior sat bare, much like the two rooms. Stripped clean of all signs anyone had ever lived here.

“Great place to hide,” I said, and then I shrugged. “Or put your clothes.”

Then, much to my amazement, Ella moved to stand beside me. She graced me with a wide, bright smile and slipped her hand inside mine.

Suddenly I saw how forgotten these spaces had become.

I’d lived my life around them, ignoring them, much like my memories.

Perhaps now, with the arrival of Ella and Sydney, these old spaces would get their second chance to live.

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