they drove up the street in silence. Claire slammed her door shut and was inside the house before Martha even got out of the car. She sat for a moment, then pulled herself together and went up to Claire’s room, where she knocked, but then opened the door right away.
“You know, Dr. Baer said that she once knew two adult sisters that moved back home and had so much trouble, that they went to couples counseling.”
“Jesus.”
“It’s just something to consider.”
“We are not going to couples counseling.”
“You shouldn’t judge therapy so much. You know, you might benefit from it.”
“Martha, seriously. If you don’t get out of here, I’m going to push you out. I mean it.” Claire stood up from her bed, like she was going to come after Martha, like they were going to have a physical fight, which they hadn’t done in about twenty years. Even then, it rarely happened, where they actually pulled each other’s hair or pinched one another. But Claire was moving toward the door, and Martha turned and ran, hearing the door slam behind her.
MR. CRANSTON SLEPT MORE AND MORE. At first Martha thought maybe he was just coming down with something, but he never really seemed to bounce back. Everything exhausted him. He never even read the papers anymore. He would start to, and then get tired or frustrated, and they remained folded up on the table until the next morning, when Martha would throw them in the recycling bin and replace them with the new ones.
Jaz seemed to be around more, like she was nervous to leave. Martha didn’t mind, since it gave them a chance to talk. She told Jaz about the Saint Jude statue, which made her laugh, but then she said, “It can’t hurt, can it?”
“No,” Martha agreed. “It can’t.”
Most mornings, Jaz was there to fix breakfast for Mr. Cranston. Martha noticed that she started giving him bacon every once in a while. “He needs a pick-me-up today,” she said, whenever she fried the bacon slices up in the pan.
All of a sudden, it felt like everyone was waiting. There was no more talk of new doctors, and even Ruby and Billy decided to get over their fight and began spending time at the house together.
“I decided to start looking for a place to buy,” Martha told Jaz one day.
“That’s good,” Jaz said. “You should keep moving forward for as long as you can, until you can’t move forward anymore.”
Martha started to write that one down, but found it was too depressing. She ended up tearing the page out of her notebook and throwing it away.
SHE WAS HAPPY TO BE SPENDING her weekends with Sarah again. She’d been a little nervous, but they fell back into a routine pretty quickly. Sarah would come and pick her up, they’d stop at Starbucks and go over the listings for the day, and then they’d head out.
On the second time they were out, they looked at an old converted loft. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open kitchen, and a balcony.
“I know you said you didn’t want a loft space,” Sarah said. “But I think you should look at this one. It’s all brand-new, which I think you’ll like. Brand-new appliances, a washer and dryer, the works. It’s really beautiful.”
Martha was sure she wouldn’t like it, especially when she saw there was still sawdust in the lobby. “They’re still working on most of the units,” Sarah explained.
It wasn’t at all what Martha had pictured as her new home. It had high ceilings and exposed brick and pipes. But there was something about it.
“Do you think it will be loud?” Martha asked.
“There might be some echo,” Sarah said. “That can happen in spaces like these. But I don’t think it will be too bad.”
“Okay,” Martha said. She walked into the smaller bedroom.
“So what do you think?” Sarah asked. “Should we say it’s a maybe?”
“Yeah,” Martha said. “Let’s put it at the top of the list.”
IN MAY, THEY THREW CLEO a baby shower. Weezy kept saying, “It’s the right thing to do. This baby is coming, so let’s get on board.” She pretty much just kept repeating this to herself as the days went on, but Martha figured whatever helped her was okay.
Martha and Claire put together the invitations, rolled-up pieces of paper in actual baby bottles that they mailed out. Martha had seen this on a crafts show once and she’d been dying to try it. Claire had sort of grumbled about the