He Told Me to Stay Away, So I Left and He Followed novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: One Wall

Gran came out of the airport doors at ten past eight with a hammer in her handbag.

Security had found it and discussed it for twenty minutes.

They let her keep it, because she was eighty-one and had said, "I built half of Millbrook."

"That's not true," I said, hugging her.

"It's true in spirit." She held me at arm's length and looked me over. "You've gotten thin. You've gotten loud. I like it."

"I'm not loud."

"Your voice has a floor under it now." She patted my cheek. "Where's the boy?"

"Parking the car."

"I'm not talking about that one." She had already spotted Miles at the curb, with his mother beside him in a rain jacket. "I'm talking about the one who gave up Chicago for a girl who won't answer her phone."

"I answer on Sundays."

"For nine minutes, and then you have a lecture."

By noon, the yard behind my building had eleven people in it.

Pete had brought a miter saw he had borrowed from the firm's carpentry shop.

Maggie had brought a clipboard.

She said every construction project needed someone to tell people to drink water.

The cellist sat on an overturned bucket and played a slow, ridiculous march.

Miles's mother stood at the four stakes and stared at the string rectangle with her arms folded.

"It's small," she said.

"It's nine by twelve," said Miles.

"It's a closet."

"It's a studio, Mom."

"Hazel, dear," said his mother. "Does he know it's a closet?"

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