Chapter 19: The Chair by the Window

Gabe's POV

The landlord's notice was taped to the shop door on Thursday morning.

It was a single sheet, printed, with Glen's name crossed out and mine left in.

I took it down and put it in my pocket.

I had until the first of the month to find the money, and I did not have it, and I found I could carry that.

On Saturday night, after the party, I drove the three of us to the shop because there was nowhere else Glen did not know.

Kaitlyn fell asleep on the loft bed in her clothes, with her shoes on.

I took the blanket off the chair and put it over her and stood a moment longer than I needed to.

Mindy sat on the bottom stair with the shoebox in her lap.

She had not touched it since we left my mother's yard.

"Open it down here," I said. "I'll sit with you."

"You don't have to."

"I know."

She almost smiled. She lifted out the second envelope and broke the seal with her thumbnail.

I put the kettle on the hot plate, and I did not watch her face.

When a person is reading something that matters, you give them the room.

She read the second letter, and then the third.

By the fourth, she was reading with her lips moving and no sound.

She read the fifth one twice.

She held the sixth out to me without a word.

I took it.

It was only a page, and it was about the garden.

He had planted tomatoes that year, and the tomatoes were bad.

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