I Left My House Empty Three Days Before Christmas

for myself this year. The house is closed. You’ll need to make other arrangements.

Then I turned the phone off.

Not silent.

Off.

And I stood there in that little room hearing nothing but the wall unit clicking and the far-off shush of the water.

The First No

For the rest of that day, I waited for my own panic to catch up.

It didn’t.

I walked to the beach in continue reading …