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Sandra is wrong Richard Walker does not die at hoh

For a tiain, mine and Sandra’s Its corners are elbows, its stairways our skeleton pieces, splinters of bone and spine

In the quietness, we drift We reclairow into ourselves—clu illness, still moves in fits and shivers

We expand into all five bedrooh the ith the dust; we spin, dizzy in the silence We slide across e room chairs, skate across the well-polished table, rub ourselves against the oriental carpets, curl up in the impressions of old footprints

It is both a relief and a loss to have our body returned to us, intact We have, once again, successfully expelled the Other

We are free We are alone

We place bets on when the young Walkers will return

PART I

THE KITCHEN

ALICE

Minna coh expecting several dozen guests to jump out and yell, “Surprise!”

“Jesus Christ” is the first thing she says

“It isn’t,” Sandra says “It can’t be”

But it obviously is: there is noMinna, even after so many years Sandra claims it has been exactly a decade; I think it has been a little longer than that

Minna is changed, but she is still Minna: the tangle of long hair, now lightened; the haughty curves of her cheekbones; the eyes, vivid, ocean colored She is just as beautiful as ever— about her now, like a blade that has been sharpened to a deadly point

“Jesus Christ,” she says again She is standing in the open doorway, and for a moment the smell of Outside reaches roild all over the yard

For a brief arden: new spring sunshine; cool wind; a glistening earthworm, turned out of the earth, surprised

A girl, probably six, barrels past Minna and into the house

“Is this Grandpa’s house?” she asks, and reaches out toward the kitchen table, where a coffee un to stink of sour milk—has been left

Minna grabs the girl’s ar, Aers back obediently, while Minna takes several tentative steps into the kitchen, keeping one hand in front of her, as though she’s walking in the dark When she is within reach of the kitchen table, sheout a noise soh

“This thing,” she says “It’s even uglier than I re”

“Well, that settles that,” Sandra says gleefully “Minna’s grown into a hopeless bitch I always knew she would”

“Be quiet, Sandra” In the many, many years I have been here, in this house, in the new body, my faith in the Christian conception of the afterlife has been considerably taxed But there is no doubt about one thing: having Sandra with me is hell

“Any girl that pretty”

“I said be quiet” Poor Minna I can’t say she was my favorite But I felt sorry for her all the same

Amy starts to come out of the doorway, but Minna puts up a hand to stop her “Honey, stay there, okay? Just hang on a second” Then she calls out, a little louder, “Trenton! You’ve got to come see this”