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Show Motherlunge a novel 237 36. A Cameo Appearance Eli came to Montana with me for Christmas that year. We stayed with my dad, sleeping in his bed while he took the couch. One day on the way back from the grocery store with Eli, I decided to drive past the house I'd grown up in. I took a right at Supemal's last stoplight before the mountains, crossed the railroad tracks, and headed up the shallow canyon at the end of which lay what we had always called our development. Dorothy's house had been sold to a home-schooling Christian family with four young boys that their mother had described to Pavia as rambunctious. I imagined the cleaning they must have had to do: before her move to Supernal Manor, Dorothy had quit housework completely, including taking the garbage out-according to Walter, the only thing missing from the final scene was the horde of cats characteristic of that type of Letting Oneself Go... .1 thought too of the additional home decorating that the young family might have undertaken recently: stenciled fruits at the top of the kitchen walls, for example, and quilted cozies on the toaster and blender. Toilet lids with flower decals. All the unnecessary domestic ornament that Pavia and I had lately learned to scom but secretly still wanted or at least felt fond of, like the relative you never had. New carpet-or at least there would be carpet with plenty of padding for rambunctious children to fall on. |