The Missing Place by Sophie Littlefield

Author:Sophie Littlefield
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Gallery Books

twenty

COLLEEN DIDN’T STOP to think about about how much Shay had had to drink until she destroyed Brenda’s front yard.

When they got back to the motor home, there was a new padlock on the door, and half a dozen white plastic garbage bags were stacked on top of their suitcases in a pile on the driveway. Snow had drifted onto the bags, giving them an eerie, sculptural effect. A piece of paper had been taped to the door above the padlock. The lettering had run a little. It read FOUND YOUR POT I WILL NOT HAVE DRUGGIES IN MY HOME YOU ARE EVICTED.

They’d both gotten out of the car, and when they were done reading the note, neither of them said anything for a moment.

“That cunt!” Shay said, and kicked the door, making a small dent in the metal. She turned to Colleen. “She can’t go through our stuff! I can’t believe she went in there. She had to have been waiting, watching through her little windows, spying on us to see when we left. Goddamn it. She can’t kick us out like this.”

Colleen remembered the smell from the first night, the faint skunky odor. She bit down her impatience; it wouldn’t help anyone. “Let me talk to her.”

“And say what? She doesn’t want us here. It’s clear. She knows she can get more money is the only reason she’s doing this.”

“And I can pay her more! Come on, Shay, think for a minute. We lose this place, we have nothing.” Colleen took a deep breath. Now she had to tell her about the room Andy had found, and it felt like she was giving up the only card she held. Because she couldn’t let Andy come now, not if it meant Shay would be without a place to live. “Look, I should have told you earlier. Andy found us a room starting Wednesday. That means we just have to make this work for three more days and we can move into a hotel.”

Shay stared at her. “You weren’t going to tell me that? What were you planning to do, just move out? Were you even going to leave a note?”

“Shay, listen, I hadn’t decided what to do. Andy said he might want to come, I told him I might still want to room with you, if—if we were getting somewhere with the search—”

If we were still speaking to each other, she didn’t say. If she learned to live with the faint accusation in Shay’s eyes every time she looked at her. If she could convince Shay—because that’s what she had hoped to do, though the understanding didn’t come to her until just that moment—that her son was good, that he was worthy of Taylor’s friendship, of membership in this club that he had chosen for himself, defying her and Andy. That his bid for a life of his own hadn’t been a failure.

She’d needed time to make Shay see that. But how? What difference would a few more days make?

“I don’t need you,” Shay muttered, backing away.

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