Roommates?  Really, I’ve been married forever, but these girls came first. I went off to college leaving home for the first time, from a town of roughly 3,000 people to a campus with 8,000 students – that didn’t count the staff and faculty.  Talk about overwhelmed.

But I found Bette on the second day and she kept me afloat. The others joined in later but now 40 years – yeah, that’s what I said – 40 years later we’re still together.

They were here again this weekend and this time with Sandy bearing down on the northeast I got to keep Bette longer. No reason to go north and sit alone in the dark. Hubby is used to them, kinda like in-laws and just goes with the flow. They were in the family before he was, after all.

It was nice to run some ideas past them. I know I’ll get honestly from this bunch and just relax into the family-ness of it all.  We really are each other’s families, more now as we grow older and become the heads of our families in every way.

A couple of them read Homecoming for me to work out the kinks, so I know the feeling of it is real.  Coming out December 3 – check out a snippet

Homecoming –

 

Ashley trailed him up the stairs, obviously torn between eagerness and fear. Matt reached for the doorknob but stopped at the last minute and stepped back. She looked at him questioningly.

“It’s your princess room, or will be, you should open it.”

Okay, now fear definitely grew as the top emotion. He could feel it coming off her in waves, but he stood by as she squared her shoulders and opened the door.

Well, she’d been right about using the place as an attic. Dust and cobwebs were everywhere. But the piles of stuff caught even him off guard.

“Man, you called it.” He stepped into the room and brushed some of the webs aside. He moved cautiously toward the window and moved the curtain. It shredded in his hands. “Damn, I’m sorry.”

“No problem. Not my style anyway.”

He only nodded and levered the window open, then moved to the next one. Once all four of the windows creating the bay were wide open he turned back. “Do you want me to haul this stuff downstairs or go through it here?”

“Here. But I think we’re going to need another box of trash bags.”

“Yeah, you think? I’ll go get them and a broom. Will you be okay?”

She nodded. He headed for the door, but her hand brushed his arm. “Thank you.”

He winked at her and kept moving. Jesus, what had she gone through?

Returning he brought the broom, trash bags, wet wipes, rags and a stool for her to sit. This would take a while, maybe a lifetime.

He tied a rag around the broom and used it to bring down the webs around the ceiling. No need to sweep yet, and no room.

Ashley pulled open the closest box. The cardboard had dried out and the tape no longer stuck, so it wasn’t hard. “Jesus.”

“What?”

“These are my grandparents canceled checks.”

“From when?”

“1947 on this one.”

“19 . . . ” His voice trailed off. She was serious. She held one up for him to see. “Do you need a shredder?”

“This bank went out of business before I was born. Do you think there’s anything that would bite me in this box?”

“I don’t think so, but give me a minute.” He took the broom handle and shoved the stacks of checks around. “It’s all checks. I swear, I never—”

“This can go to the curb, if we can get it downstairs without the box ripping.”

“Let’s put it in a bag anyway. You don’t want checks floating around town.”

“No, you’re right.” She shook her head and helped him shove the box into the bag. He tied it tightly and headed for the stairs.

“Wait for me.” He turned before he started down the stairs.

“I can—”

“Wait anyway.”