Chapter 12: House Rules

Deirdre moved me into room one, next to the office, and told me to stay off my feet.

I disobeyed her twice.

By dusk I was on the porch with a blanket over my knees.

The black car was gone from the end of the lot.

The older driver, the one with the mustache, had told me before he left.

"She sat there six hours," he said. "Her phone rang nine times. On the ninth, she answered it, and she drove off."

He pulled his cap down.

"Take care of yourself, son."

Deirdre came out with two bowls of chili and sat on the step below me.

She had her boots off.

Her socks had a hole at the heel.

The sign over the office buzzed and flickered behind us.

I ate half of the chili and set it on the rail.

"You're past checkout," she said. "By thirty-one hours."

"Rule one."

"Are you charging me?"

"Not a cent."

"That breaks the board's second rule."

"The second rule is no refunds. I'm not refunding anything." She did not smile, but the corner of her mouth shifted. "I'm giving you a room."

"And the third rule?"

"Nobody drives the guests."

"You drove me."

"Then I'm a hypocrite," she said. "I can live with that."

I laughed.

It hurt my side, and I did not care.

It was the first time in a month I had laughed because something was funny.

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