Housekeeping
“This is the second time this weekend I’ve been outsmarted by a door.”
Hannah
That night I dreamed of snow-blanketed trees and a little girl lost in the woods. I saw tiny footprints in the snow, leading down the winding path. Thick and knotted oaks flanked the sides of the path, their leafless branches creating a tangled, arthritic canopy overhead.
The cold was bitter and wet. It crawled into my lungs with every breath and squatted heavy inside my chest like a dying animal. As I followed the footprints, I came to a small clearing. The girl stood in its center, barefoot in a thin nightgown that had to be useless against the cold. But she didn’t seem to mind. She was standing in front of the little red house.
And she wasn’t alone.
Lauren, a figure of swirling snow, knelt n
