Chapter 24: Nobody Is Recording

Nessa's POV

On the morning of my second wedding, the house next door had a SOLD sign on its lawn and nobody in it.

I stood at the kitchen window in my mother's robe and looked at the yellow siding and the white fence.

Bea had finally cut the hedge down to a respectable height.

"You're staring," Bea said behind me.

"I'm looking."

"It's the same thing at your age."

She set a cup of coffee in my hand, too much milk and one sugar, and went back to the stove.

The envelope on the counter had come the day before.

It was a plain postcard with a picture of a lighthouse on it, mailed from a town in Ohio.

On the back, in blue pen, Calvin had written: Teaching intro physics. Students ask me what I think.

I don't write down what they say. Hope today is good. C.

I had read it once and put it on the fridge.

From Lydia there was nothing.

It was the right amount.

At noon, forty folding chairs stood on my mother's back lawn in rows, with the tomato stakes pushed to one side.

I had finished the degree in May.

The diploma hung in the front hall, in a cheap frame, next to my father's photo.

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