Owned by My Sinful Guardian novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: The Bluebird

I didn't sleep.

I lay on Gretchen's couch with the keys on my chest and watched the blue bird tag go gray, then pink, then gold.

At six Gretchen came out of her room in a T-shirt and a bandanna and stood over me.

"You're still in the dress."

"I know."

"You smell like a fancy restaurant and you've got a key ring on your boobs like a cat with a dead bird." She held out a hand. "Come on, Quarles. I'm driving."

Butler Street was empty at dawn.

The Bluebird sat between a laundromat and a shop that sold expensive candles.

The front window was gray with thirteen years of dust, and the neon sign above the door was dark.

My mother's handwriting was still taped inside the glass.

BACK MONDAY. EAT SOMETHING.

Gretchen read it and didn't say a single foul word, which was a first.

The third key fit.

The bell over the door rang when I pushed it open.

I stood in the doorway and couldn't go in.

The red stools were all there, nine of them, the vinyl cracked on the fourth one just like I remembered.

The pie case was empty and clouded.

The calendar behind the register still said January.

Everything was under a soft gray skin of dust, but nothing was gone.

Nobody had taken a single fork.

"Jesus," Gretchen breathed. "It's a museum."

I went behind the counter.

The flat-top grill was black and seasoned and cold.

I put my palm flat on it.

On the shelf above the pass sat a green metal recipe box.

I opened it.

HASH, said the first card, in my dad's square capitals.

I put it back fast.

The kitchen door frame was where I'd left it.

Pencil lines climbed it, each with a date and a letter D beside it.

The last line was at the height of my ribs now.

I laid my hand over it.

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