Page 47 of How We End

“What?”These small people were strangers to me.I saw them once, maybe twice a year.And their life felt so removed from mine.Everything in Deadwood did.

“Your shirt?”Remington nodded.

“Is on backwards.”My sister came back into the kitchen.“Boys, get to the car.And don’t forget anything.”She waited until she heard the door slamming, shaking the entire house.“And could you please wear a bra around the boys?”

I looked down.Julian’s number was plastered across my chest.So much for putting space between Julian and me.I dug the keys out of my purse.“Here.”

“Oh no, you need to move it.I don’t have time to play car Tetris.”

“You were just bitching about me not wearing a bra.What do you think will happen when I step out there?The headlights will be on.”

“Then put on a coat.”She pulled one off the hook of many and tossed it at me.“I left a grocery list.Can you go to the Family Mart and pick a few things up?”

“You want me to go to the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving?”I said, putting the coat on.

“It’s either that or you take your headlights down to Halliday’s and work the lunch shift.Car, now.”She put on her own coat.

“Going.”I slipped on whatever shoes were by the door and shuffled out.“Fuck, why is it so cold?”I pulled the coat tighter around my body.

“No swearing around the boys.”My sister rushed to her SUV, the windows already steamed up.

My rental car was stiff from the cold, and the leather seat burned the back of my legs.I moved the car and rushed back into the house.My dad was standing by the coffeemaker.“Why is it so fucking cold?”

After my mother had gotten sick and my brother-in-law lost his job, my sister and her family moved in with my dad.I didn’t think anyone was happy about it.But Dad needed help, and my sister needed a place to live.

My dad checked the thermometer stuck to the oak tree outside the kitchen window.“It’s not even that cold.It’s twenty-two.”

“Silly me.”I slipped off Hunter’s boots and coat.“Why are you up?It’s, like, seven a.m.”

“The dead would wake with as much noise as you and your sister make.Coffee?”He opened the cupboard above the coffeepot and pulled out a cup.

I wanted to crawl back into bed and sleep for another five hours.My days didn’t normally begin until, like, three in the afternoon.But that wasn’t how things worked here.“I guess.”I took the coffee he handed me.

“What time did you get in last night?”

“Two, I think?My flight was delayed two hours,” I said between yawns.I’d booked last minute, hoping that my sister would call off this holiday, or at least my participation in it.

“Yeah, I saw they had an ice problem on the runway.Was it a direct flight?”my dad asked, taking a sip of coffee out of his stained Best Grandpa coffee mug.

This was all we had to talk about now.The weather and how my trip was.A generalhow are things?“No, I had a layover in Denver, which was where I had the delay.”The only noise in the house was the clock ticking away the hours.

“How were the roads from Rapid City?”

“Fine.”I took a sip of the coffee, cringing at the bitterness of it.“Is this Folgers?”

“Yep.”My father, Ferris Halliday, had aged in the last six months.His hair was thinner, and his brown eyes seemed a bit faded.His shoulders were rounded with all his years of working at Halliday’s.That bar had been my father’s dream.It was now my sister’s nightmare.

“How have things been with Morgan living here?”I set the cup down, looking around the kitchen.There were still bits of my childhood tucked in amongst my nephews’ childhood.Faded yellow newspaper articles about Halliday’s were still hanging on the wall near the dining room.The fish my father caught on Lake of the Woods still chasing the same lure it had been most of my childhood.

“Good, good.The boys are a lot.”He took another sip of coffee.“Your sister said you are only staying for a few days.”

“Yep, I have to get back for work.”I grabbed a sweatshirt from my bag.A couple of granola bar wrappers and a water bottle fell out.I realized the sweatshirt was Julian’s.It was the one he had given me on Halloween.I was questioning if I had packed any clothing of my own.I tucked my hands into the pocket and pulled out a plastic mouth guard, holding it up.

“Is that a mouth guard?”

“Yeah.”I couldn’t decide whether to be grossed out or laugh.

“Why do you have that?”