Harmony by Lilith Saintcrow

Author:Lilith Saintcrow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950447060
Publisher: Lilith Saintcrow

37

Came to Harmony

Father Jim and Dad walked in front, Sarah held my hand, and Owen trailed behind us. I got the feeling he’d rather be elsewhere, but maybe greeting the new people or even just looking after Sarah was a Family Duty.

When we got to the mod, the first surprise was Owen’s mother in the door, beaming at us. She was flushed, stray wavy bits of her dark hair sticking to her forehead and cheeks, like she’d been moving things around. Her thin hands clasped in front of her, she bounced a little on her toes like Ingrid. “Oh, bless us, we’re not ready.” Those were the first words I heard her say, and she had a nice voice. Some of the news articles said she’d been trained at Julliard. “Brother Robbie said you liked blue, right?”

The little mod now had a couple bright Navajo-patterned throw rugs, and there were neatly mended sky-blue towels in the small bathroom. The postage-stamp bedroom was full, because the bedstead had been moved to the wall and a white-painted dresser carted in. A futon couch sat in the bigger room, next to a small rickety endtable and an amber glass lamp from the sixties with dangling glass beads all over its shade. I figured out later everything had come from someone else, because everything Harmony owned belonged to everyone. There was another dresser in the bigger room, this one painted a pale greenish with recycled glass knobs. A small wicker cabinet hung on one wall, and it looked like people actually lived here.

“Oh, wow.” I couldn’t help myself. “It was completely empty when I saw it.”

“This is mighty kind of you,” Dad repeated. “We coulda just gone to a motel—”

“Now why waste money on a motel?” Father Jim laughed, rich and deep, bouncing off the walls. “Especially when you’ve done us such a good turn keeping those vans running.”

“Hey.” Gabrielle stuck her head in the door. It was getting crowded in here. “Paul and Big Tom are bringing your suitcases. Dinner’s almost started.”

It was like swimming and all of a sudden realizing the current has you, but not in the terrifying way. Instead, it’s bringing you in to shore, and you don’t have to struggle quite as hard. The wicker cabinet had sheets for the futon, and a neat stack of mismatched blankets. Paul showed up, carefully carrying the rack of cactuses, and that was when I started to snivel and sniff like a little kid. Because Dad had gone up and gotten them out, and he also pressed Mom’s necklace into my sweating hands. He hugged me tight, and I didn’t care where the hell we were, just that I didn’t have to deal anymore.

They told us to come to dinner soon and closed the door, so it was Dad, and me, and this strange, small place without any kitchen.

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