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หน้าหลัก / A Place to Call Home / Chapter 7

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Chapter 7

ผู้เขียน: Big Belly
My first weekend in Selth City, Fred came to see me alone.

He asked ahead of time. Instead of showing up at my office, he arranged to meet me at a coffee shop near my apartment.

When he saw me, he glanced around first. "Settling in okay?"

"It's great. Ten-minute commute, and there's everything I need right downstairs."

He nodded, then went quiet again.

We'd rarely sat down and talked like this before. At home, he and Lily always had endless things to say to each other, and most of the time,
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  • A Place to Call Home   Chapter 10

    The next Labor Day, I didn't go back to my hometown.The project had just wrapped up, and I'd finally taken three days off.Mom and Dad asked me two weeks ahead of time.Mom and Dad: [Could we come spend the holiday at your place this year? If it's not convenient, never mind.]I looked at the message and replied with one word: [Come.]On Labor Day, they arrived at four in the afternoon. Fred and Lily had taken time off to come along too.I'd prepared four pairs of guest slippers ahead of time.As Mom changed her shoes, she looked down at them for a long time. "How come there are exactly four this time?"Fred clicked his tongue behind her. "Mom, don't go looking for ways to make yourself feel bad. She's the host here. Obviously she already has her own pair."Everyone laughed. Mom laughed too, but her eyes had gone a little red.When she walked into the living room, she stopped at the study. "Is this yours?""Yeah. I use it when I'm working late."The room had a whole wall of

  • A Place to Call Home   Chapter 9

    The week before New Year's, the family group chat went unusually quiet.It wasn't until December 28th that Dad finally posted.Dad: [What's everyone doing this year? Everybody check in, and don't decide for anyone else.]Fred was going back to work an on-call shift. Lily was planning to go skiing with friends. Mom and Dad had decided to stay home.When it was my turn, I wrote: [Spending it in Selth City.]Mom replied with just one message.Mom: [Okay. What do you want to eat? I'll mail it to you.]I was about to say she didn't need to. Halfway through typing, I deleted it.I replied: [Smoked sausage. And your homemade hot sauce.]Ten minutes later, Mom replied excitedly.Mom: [Got it! I'll pack two extra jars!]I couldn't help laughing.So accepting kindness from family didn't have to mean going back to where I used to be. That was true as long as the kindness wasn't a rope meant to tie me down.On New Year's Eve, a few coworkers from the project team who hadn't gone home

  • A Place to Call Home   Chapter 8

    A month later, Mom, Dad, and Lily came to Selth City.Mom messaged me three days ahead of time.Mom: [We'd like to come see you. Are you free? If not, we'll just look around on our own. We won't come ambush you at work.]I stared at that last line for a long time.Finally, I replied: [Sunday afternoon works.]They really did show up only at the time we'd agreed on.Even when they got to the gate of my building, Mom didn't come straight up. She called me instead. "Allie, we're here. Is it okay if you come down to get us?"When I went downstairs, Lily was standing at the very back, hugging a paper bag.When she saw me, she pressed her lips together. "Hey, Allie."She'd never been this stiff around me before.I took them upstairs.The moment Mom walked in, she looked all around, but she didn't critique what I'd bought as wasteful or impractical the way she used to. All she said was, "It gets nice light."Dad sat down on the couch and, for once, didn't try to talk me into comin

  • A Place to Call Home   Chapter 7

    My first weekend in Selth City, Fred came to see me alone.He asked ahead of time. Instead of showing up at my office, he arranged to meet me at a coffee shop near my apartment.When he saw me, he glanced around first. "Settling in okay?""It's great. Ten-minute commute, and there's everything I need right downstairs."He nodded, then went quiet again.We'd rarely sat down and talked like this before. At home, he and Lily always had endless things to say to each other, and most of the time, I was just the one listening.After a good while, he took an old photo album out of his bag. "It fell out of that box of yours. Mom found it yesterday while she was going through things."I opened it to the first page. It was full of childhood photos.There was Fred riding a bike for the first time, with me steadying it from behind. Lily's first performance on stage, with me crouched below it, filming her. Dad in the hospital, with me asleep, slumped over his bedside. And the year Mom took a

  • A Place to Call Home   Chapter 6

    The next morning, I'd just walked into the conference room when Fred called again.I declined it once. He didn't call back, just sent a photo.In it, Lily's new electric keyboard had been moved back into her bedroom. The guest room had been cleared out, and a bed that had just been delivered stood against the wall.Below the photo was a single line.Fred: [Mom went out and bought it last night.]I glanced at it and turned off my phone.The morning meeting ran three hours. As we wrapped up, a coworker, Paige Owen, asked what I wanted for lunch.Out of habit, I said, "Whatever. I'm not picky."She laughed. "Ugh, 'whatever' is the hardest thing to pick. What do you actually want? Name one thing."I froze for two seconds.Finally, I said, "Mexican, I guess. I'm craving something spicy.""See? Was that so hard? Let's go."It was just an ordinary work lunch, but I enjoyed it more than I had that whole Labor Day night.That afternoon, Mom messaged again.She'd taken a photo of t

  • A Place to Call Home   Chapter 5

    The train pulled into Selth City just after noon.I dragged my two suitcases out of the station.The coworker the company had sent to pick me up, Daphne Diaz, waved me over. The first thing she said was, "You must be Allie Grant! I made room in the trunk for you. All your luggage will fit."It was such an ordinary thing to say, but it stopped me for a second.Whenever my family used to go on trips, I was always the one in the very back, clutching a bag on my lap. Fred would say Lily got carsick, so she got the front seat. Mom and Dad were older, so the back seat needed to be roomy.However much space was left over at the end, that was how much I got.So there really were people who made room for me before I'd even arrived.By the time I finished onboarding, it was five in the afternoon.Another new coworker, Max Ackman, showed me where the employee apartments were and handed me two keys. "One's for the building, the other's for your room. If you lose them, let us know. Admin ke

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