Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Yeah, okay,” he said and replied with a huff of laughter.
Over the next fifteen minutes, the rest of our group showed up, and Bas introduced each of them to his brother Arlo.
“You ready?” Bas asked Arlo as we followed them toward the house. He paused with the storm door open and the regular door closed. “Fair warning, she left our room how we left it.”
Arlo swallowed hard and nodded.
We left the brothers to it for a while, giving them some time to make peace with old ghosts. Bas had filled his best friends in on an abbreviated story of why he’d left home, so everyone knew that going back wasn’t going to be easy.
I took my time looking over the photos on the wall that I hadn’t had a chance to check out the first time we were there. There were so many of Bas as a kid. He’d looked so different, but his smile had never changed. It was wide and happy and so beautiful you felt it in your chest. With him in a lot of the photos were Arlo, a younger dark-haired boy that must’ve been Mateo, and an even younger girl that I knew was Josie.
With one look, I understood why Bas had been drawn to Lou. Both of the girls had the same slight build and dark eyes, though Lou’s hair had been short since I’d met her and Josie’s hung long down her back. Josie’s wide eyes and delicate features would’ve made her an absolute stunner if she’d been able to grow into adulthood.
One of the photos was just Bas and Josie. By the hat Josie was wearing, I thought it must’ve been a birthday party. Bas was standing with his arm around his sister’s shoulders, and she had hers around his waist. He was smiling directly at the camera, but she was looking at him, grinning adoringly. I reached out and pressed my finger to the glass where her heart was.
“I got him,” I breathed.
“Baby, I need your help,” Bas said, coming to stand beside me.
“Josie?” I asked, pointing.
“That’s Jo,” he confirmed. “Could you come here a sec?”
“Sure.” I followed him to the closed bedroom door that he hadn’t touched the last time we were there.
“Can you—” He cleared his throat. “Last time I saw it, it was covered in crime scene shit. Me and Arlo…uh, can you check it out before I go in?”
“Of course,” I said, reaching up to cup his cheek. “Why don’t you go tell the others what to do, and I’ll come get you.”
“Thanks,” he replied, his shoulders sagging.
I waited until he walked away and then let myself into the room, my breath catching at the time capsule it had become.
The bed was covered in a pink and white, ruffly comforter with a matching sham on the pillow. Next to it was a small nightstand with a lamp and a tiny tray for jewelry, with a couple of rings sitting in it. On the opposite end of the room was a tiny closet without a door, an antique vanity, and a mismatched dresser with knobs shaped like flowers. Along the edges of the vanity, Josie had taped photos of her and her friends, Bas, Arlo, and Mateo, and a few that had to be her and Bernice. Books were lined up neatly across the top of the dresser. A few classics and some romance novels. There was a poster of Albert Einstein on one wall and Marie Curie on the other.
There was no sign that anything bad had happened in that bedroom.
I left the door open when I left to look for Bas. I found him with everyone else in the kitchen.
“You sure there’s nothin’ you want in here?” he was asking Arlo.
Arlo shook his head. “I’d like some photos,” he said. “Old school shit and the stuff I packed up from our room. Uh, and if you don’t care, the sun catcher in the front window.”
He’d said it like he was afraid to ask.
“Take it,” Bas replied immediately. “You sure that’s all?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” he said quietly. “I think I’m going to take off, if that’s cool.”
Bas nodded slowly.
Arlo said a group goodbye and left the house, grabbing the box he’d packed and the sun catcher on his way out the door.
“It’s a lot,” Bas said apologetically. “I get it.”
“He came,” I said, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Did you tell him we’ll set aside any photos we find?”
Bas nodded.
“Oh, my god,” Myla said, lifting a yellow colander over her head. “My mom has one of these, too. Does every woman of a certain age own one of these?”
“I’ll start searching for one,” Frankie said, grinning. “Your next birthday present.”
Bas walked away as I started helping pack up the kitchen. If we could just get everything into boxes and storage, we’d be able to get the house cleaned from top to bottom.