He Had Me Drowned, Then Wept at My Grave novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: Astoria Rain
It rained on Astoria the night we came home, the soft steady rain of an Oregon October, and I had never been so glad of a wet roof.
Irini fell asleep in the car.
She'd had four days of Anders's sister and a beach house.
She was brown from the sun, with sand still in the seams of her red jacket.
I carried her up the porch steps with her cheek on my shoulder.
Anders came behind with both bags and the sack of Florida shells she'd refused to let anyone else hold.
The house smelled the way it always had, of tea and cedar and the crayons in the kitchen drawer.
I stood in the front hall with my daughter in my arms and the door open on the rain.
The deadbolt I had set on Leo's face was still turned.
I looked at it for a long time.
Then I turned the bolt back, and I felt it slide, and I shut the door again without locking it.
"Are you all right?" Anders asked.
"I'm home," I said.
"Say it again."
"I'm home."
I took her up and tucked her in, rabbit and all, in her yellow bedroom with the crayon drawings on the wall.
She half woke when I drew the quilt up.
"Mama?" she said.
"We're home, baby," I said.
"Did you see the lady?" she asked.
I stopped with my hand on the quilt.
"What lady?"
"The one in Anders's phone.
"You went to see her."
I sat on the edge of the bed.
She was looking at me with her dark eyes half shut, and I saw that she was not asking about the photograph at all.
"Yes," I said.
"I went to see a friend of mine.
"Her name was Callie.
"She helped me when I needed it, a long time ago."
"Is she coming to our house?"
"No, baby.
"She can't."
"Is she dead?"
I had told myself I would not lie to her.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Had Me Drowned, Then Wept at My Grave are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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