Chapter three is here. If you missed the start, you can find all parts on this blog. This is a novel I shelved years ago and decided to resurrect, lightly edit, and publish (warts and all) as a series. I’d love for you to follow along. And if you’d like to contribute, I’ve got a Kofi link right here. Thanks!

Kennedy lay in bed, watching the sun break through the clouds and bathe her room in light. The rays hit the beveled glass along the edge of the window at just the right angle to split into a rainbow over her blankets. She lay there for some time with her arm outstretched holding the color in her hand, running her fingers through it, before the sun rose higher and the light changed.

It was time to get up and she gave herself the usual pep talk. “You’ll feel better if you get dressed. You don’t even have to shower; you can just get sweats on.” When these failed, she brought out the big guns. “If you don’t get up, you don’t get coffee.” Groaning aloud, she pivoted her feet out from the blankets and onto the floor. Progress. A half hour later she was dressed and listening to the coffee maker brew while checking her emails.

There was a long, friendly, but concerned email from Faith. She was probably tired of Kennedy responding to her texts in emoji. Over the past few months, she’d sent back little thumbs up and hearts or shrugs unable to form into words what a mess her life was. About to be evicted for failing to make the rent, student loan payments looming that she had no hopes of making, the job search…hundreds of applications with almost no interviews, it was all ugly. And grief, so much of it that sometimes it was hard to breathe. She loved Faith, but she couldn’t talk to her, couldn’t unpack all of it and heap it on her only real friend.

The coffee finally finished, and she filled a cup and sat in her chair to watch the street below. Today she wanted to try and do something more than laundry or walking down to the corner store for a candy bar like she was ten. She tried to form some kind of plan. Things couldn’t keep on like this.

Outside the world was waking up and going about its business. She watched as people flitted here and there; a few commuters running for the train, an old guy heading into the bakery across the street, a couple getting into their car while having an argument that sounded more like banter than anger. A delivery truck caught her eye as it slowed to a stop outside the convenience store and the driver hopped out, heading around the back to start unloading.

She watched until her eyes became unfocused, and she found herself zoning out, lost in thought. That’s probably how she missed seeing Auntie Beth stride up the street in a plaid poncho, her imperious manner causing the pedestrians to shuffle out of her way as she marched up the sidewalk from the train station.

The knock at the door broke the spell. For a moment she froze, not sure what to do. It had been a while since anyone had knocked on her door. No one she knew ever visited her, especially unannounced. She was tempted to just ignore it and hope they went away, but they knocked again and it sounded like they weren’t going anywhere. Putting down her cup, she went to the door on tiptoe so she could pretend not to be home if it was someone she didn’t want to deal with.

Looking through the peep hole she saw a tall, gray-haired woman with a prim expression in a plaid, 1960s style poncho. It was her great-aunt, Beth. For a second she was tempted to tiptoe away from the door and hide in her room, but either her better nature or good manners won out and she opened the door.

“Goodness that was quite a walk.” Auntie Beth said as she strode into the room. “Why the two of you would choose to live up a hill and three flights of stairs is beyond me.” She undid a few buttons and flung her poncho onto the coat rack by the door. Beth was dressed a gray wool skirt, and white blouse with a sort of cravat-style tie at the top held in place by a simple silver broach. She bent a little to give Kennedy a swift hug.

 “It’s so nice of you to visit.” Kennedy said as she Beth let her go with a gentle rub on her shoulder. Kennedy was a little worried that this visit was more of the same, ‘come home with us or you’ll be killed in your sleep in this horrible city’ rant that she had endured two sessions of already, but Beth was the more rational of her two great-aunts. Kate was the emotional one and it seemed she had stayed home. Maybe this was more a social call. Kennedy showed Beth in and asked her if she wanted a cup of coffee.

“No, I have never liked coffee. It’s not a lady’s drink.”

Kennedy hid her smirk as she headed to the kitchen. She knew that Beth often drank bourbon after dinner and no one would call that a lady’s drink. “How about tea then?”

“Perfect!” Beth looked around the room as if assessing the best place to sit. The sofa won. It was a bit low and sway-backed, but you wouldn’t know it from Beth’s posture – it was perfect as usual, bolt upright. She smoothed her short gray hair, which was cut in a smart, modern bob.

“Thanks for the visit Auntie. It’s a bit out of the blue though.” Kennedy handed her the cup of tea.

Beth raised her eyebrows. “If you’d answered any of my calls for the last two weeks, I wouldn’t have needed to drop in on you.”

Kennedy grimaced.  “Bad habit.”

“It’s appalling manners, to be honest, but I know your generation doesn’t see it that way.” Beth took a sip of her tea before setting it down on the side table. “You can probably guess why I’m here.”

            “To catch up?”

 “Yes, but also to ask you again if you’d consider coming to live with Kate and I.”

Kennedy felt herself squirm in her seat slightly. She didn’t want to offend Beth, but she just couldn’t imagine moving. “Coventry is not my home Auntie.”

“No, but it should have been.”

Kennedy was a bit taken aback. It took her a minute to know what to say. She’d grown up moving from place to place with her mother. Knowing there was an alternative was not an idea she was ready for. Pushing it aside she answered as best she could. “I appreciate the offer, really, but I’m doing okay here.”

Beth raised an eyebrow at this.

“I’m good. No worries.”

Beth closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. “You are not good, nor would I expect you to be.”

Kennedy tried to object, but the woman held up her hand.

“I’m no fool. You are grieving, as you should with a loss like the one you’ve suffered. While your strength is admirable, it isn’t infinite. You don’t have to be alone in this. We want you to come live with us until you have your feet underneath you, to have a place to regroup, to heal and to make a new plan when you’re ready.”

            “I’m all set auntie. I was just saying the same thing myself; it’s time to make a change, plan for a future. Seriously, I’m fine.”

 Beth sighed. “You aren’t fine Kennedy. You are hurting so deeply that you won’t even acknowledge it to yourself.”

Kennedy felt a rush of anger.  “You can’t possibly understand…” before she stopped herself from going off on her great-aunt. She didn’t want to finish that sentence; she didn’t want to be having this conversation at all.

“You presume quite a bit about what I understand.” Beth’s voice was quieter but edged with steel. “I have suffered through the death of my parents in the natural course of life, but also the loss of a beloved sister far too young and too abruptly.”

Kennedy realized she was talking about her grandmother, Beth and Kate’s sister Helen.

“I raised her children. Your mother was as much my daughter as she was my niece and although her death was not for me what it was for you, it still tore a hole in my heart.” Beth’s eyes shone as she said this. “I know what it is to lose someone you love. Please heed the advice of someone who has walked this road before you.”

Once again, she wasn’t sure what to say. “Auntie, you and Kate are the kindest, the offer is so sweet, but… we haven’t spent more than a day together since I was eight.”

“We are your family. For good or ill, your mother chose to live apart from us. I suspect it was probably her love of the next horizon, her drive to see what was over the hill, or around the bend. She was a born adventurer.” Beth reached out and took Kennedy’s chin in her hand then gently cupped her cheek. Her bright blue eyes lingered on Kennedy’s face like she was seeing things unintentionally written there. After a moment she sat back.

“Your mother was a wanderer, but I think maybe her daughter is something else?”

She wasn’t wrong. Her mom loved to travel. Maybe it was a side-effect from her work as an ethnographer. Boston was the city they’d lived in the longest. They’d put down roots long enough for Kennedy to go to college. But her mom had been ready for the next adventure. Kennedy was not. She wanted to put down roots, to find an apartment of her own, fill it with her own stuff. She wanted to get a real job and meet someone, to feel like she was an adult, not like a perpetual nomad. It was always on the tip of her tongue to tell her mom that having spent her childhood flitting from one town to the next wasn’t always such a fun time. It was lonely. But admitting that would have hurt her so she’d become resentful instead.

Guilt and grief flooded her chest, settling in like lead. She lifted her eyes and caught Beth giving her another hard stare.

“Come to Coventry.” Beth said softly. “Spend some time with your family and then you can strike out on your own again if you really wish to.”

Coventry. As a kid she had longed to spend a summer where her mother had grown up. They had a huge old house tucked back from the road with a long sweeping lawn down to a pond. From her one visit years and years ago she remembered how peaceful it was. There had been fireflies in the woods all around and she’d never seen them before. Mom had showed her how to catch one in a jar. It was a magical place.

Maybe it was those memories rising to the surface and the sweetness they held, but she surprised herself by considering the offer. Living with the aunties would end her self-imposed solitary confinement and that had to be a good thing. She could finally escape the inertia. Of course, the escape Beth was offering meant a summer spent with two 70-somethings in an ancient house, in an equally old and tiny town. On the plus side she’d be able to avoid eviction, save up for her student loans, and maybe not be bankrupt at 25.

Beth, seeming to read her mind asked “How much time do you have on the lease here?”

            “I actually don’t have a lease. The landlord has let me go month to month, but I’m behind so he’s probably going to boot me.”

“Well….” Beth said slowly.

            “Coming to stay in Coventry totally makes sense; it’s just a huge change. I have lived in cities my entire life. What on earth would I do up there?”

“Oh, well there is no end of activity in Coventry.” Beth waved a hand dismissively. “Besides we are less than an hour by train to this lovely city so if you got homesick for the bustle of the streets and the sights and um.. smells of the city you could always come down any time you like.”

Kennedy smiled at this. “I’m guessing you got a good whiff of the second floor landing.”

“I don’t know how you do it.” Beth said emphatically.

Kennedy took a moment to think it through. What would she be losing anyway? If it was a huge mistake she’d just take Faith up on her offer of a stay in NYC. “How about I come for a visit, a long, open-ended one. That way there’s no pressure if you decide it’s not working.”

“Whatever makes you feel comfortable.” Beth looked around the room, taking in the lack of furniture, knick-knacks or ornamentation. “At least it won’t take long to pack.”

Stay tuned for chapter four.