THE CLEANING SESSION at the motel on Monday morning went as planned, and Carly actually enjoyed it. She and Tina worked on a room together. They’d chosen Room 5, which seemed to be in better shape than most of the others. They vacuumed the ancient rug, dusted, polished the bedside table and rickety desk, and made the bed. Fortunately, there were clean, if very old, sheets and covers hidden away in a closet. Carly went out to pick some wildflowers; she arranged them in a vase she found in Russ’s tiny kitchen and placed it on the desk.

Russ and Shallie selected another room across the hall.

All four of them inspected both rooms and declared themselves satisfied. Then they pitched in on the already improved office. Mitch was going to come over later to repair the old sign with its burned out lights.

Shallie suggested Russ consider getting a part-time cleaner soon, and he said he’d think about it.

Then he went out in his “crapmobile,” as he called it, to pick up pizza for their lunch. Afterward, Tina drove Carly and Shallie home.

That afternoon, Carly decided to draft a song or two—or at least try. She sat, as usual, under her favorite tree, cradling her laptop.

Her first song had to be about her mother, about the two of them and how their lives together had been. Okay, first stanza.

Life can be hard.

Life can be cruel.

She needed something to rhyme with “hard”—card? That made no sense. Lard? Come on! She’d change the first line:

Life can be full of pain.

Life can be cruel.

People treat you with disdain

And call you a fool.

Not bad, she thought.

Next stanza. She’d work out the tune when she was finished, with the assistance of Aaron and the others.

Life was cruel to my mother.

It was cruel to me.

People are cruel to each other

And won’t just let you be.

Pretty good! And true…as she’d often seen and experienced.

Mom, Mommy, I miss you so much!

I miss your love, your voice

And I miss your touch.

I wish I had some reason to rejoice.

But… I do. I know it.

Life has brought me comforts…

She stalled. Memories and thoughts of Reba overwhelmed her with grief, the grief she’d tried so hard and for so long to push aside. To ignore. To move past. But it couldn’t be done. The grief was for both of them, for Reba and for herself. Despite everything that was happy and promising in her life now, despite everything that felt uplifting, depression was dragging her down.