“Big night in the city?” asked the driver. She could see him looking at her from the rearview mirror, a tired smile on his face. Would he believe her if she told the truth? Would anyone?

The house that her sister and Nathan had been living in since they graduated was near the end of a residential street in a hilly neighborhood just off Vassar’s campus. It had a screened-in front porch and an old door knocker shaped like a fish and chipping blue-painted shutters. Claudia paid the cabbie and shouldered her bag, watching as he drove off. There was a light on two houses away but every other window on the street was dark. Above, clouds drifted by, swiping lazily across the sky.

The key was where she thought it would be, and inside the only sound was the tick tick of a waving Chinese good luck cat on the windowsill. The last time she’d been here she and Edie had gotten in an argument. Edie was just starting to show and Claudia asked if she was having second thoughts.

“About what?” asked her sister, though she knew exactly what Claudia meant.

“About turning your life into a Bruce Springsteen song.”

Claudia had laughed at what she thought was a mostly harmless dig but the words hit Edie in the heart. Of course Edie was having second thoughts. Who wouldn’t? Nobody pretended the pregnancy was planned. It was a make-the-best-of-a-bad-situation situation. Edie told her she was being mean and Claudia protested and then Edie said fine, not mean, just thoughtless. Edie was right. She had been thoughtless. Just like she’d been when she got too drunk with Chad Drake. What did she expect?

There was a glass overturned in the drying rack. Claudia filled it with water and took her bag into the living room. Mismatched picture frames on the mantel above a fireplace that didn’t work; a pile of board games in the corner; a record player on the bar cart. Her sister was happy here. It was the kind of home where a “normal” family might live: a family where Mom and Dad go to work and then come home for dinner and stay. Not many people Claudia and Edie grew up with had families like that. Families where parents at least pretended that home and kids were as interesting as the world outside. Claudia’s childhood home had been a way station for the four of them; a shared space but never a shared spirit. This house had Edie and Nathan braided together inside. It almost seemed like magic: her sister had created a happy family.