As though it were a lost glove, a misplaced handbag, Dolly thought. At the same time, a part of her thrilled that it was indeed vacant. “Well, I’d like to live there,” she said. “Is it for sale?”

“Mercy me,” exclaimed Mrs. Fryt. “New in town and already with designs on the Mickelson house.”

Jeannette’s rabbit nose twitched. “No one from Pine Rapids would want to live there.”

Mrs. Fryt said, “Well, you don’t live across the street from a family for going on sixty years without coming to feel they’re yours for better and worse, Jeannette. At least, I don’t.”

“Mostly worse, with the Mickelsons, I would think,” Corinne said cheerfully.

“Oh, Corinne,” Thelma said.

Mrs. Fryt went on. “I wouldn’t have minded, when I was a young bride and Amos brought me to live in this house. I wouldn’t have minded one bit if the Mickelson house had fallen right to the ground. It seemed so pretentious to me, and every day when I looked out my window there was this reminder that we were not quite. That bay window like a little sister putting her tongue out at me: ‘Look what you can’t have. Look at who you aren’t.’”

“Well, really, Cecilia, who else in Pine Rapids but the Mickelsons would have had marble brought from Italy for their fireplaces?” Corinne said.

“But now I’d as soon put a needle in my own eye as watch it crumbling this way, you know? So slow and painful. Despite Ed Wojtas’s efforts, bless his soul. There’s just no substitute for life in a house. I suppose I’m mellowing in my old age.”

Ha! Dolly thought.

Mrs. Fryt shook her head. “A wrecking ball would be the thing, if it’s got to go.”

Dolly drew in her breath: just the thought of it! But Thelma and Corinne were nodding in agreement.

Mrs. Fryt pushed her glasses up on her nose and tackled her stitching again. “Well, it isn’t any of our business,” she said, undulating her needle through the quilt. “That’s what they told us, isn’t it? If not in so many words.”

Dolly was just ready to ask more when Corinne broke in. “Now, let’s not go airing all Pine Rapids’ dirty laundry when Dolly’s brand-new in town! She won’t want to stay!”