“It doesn’t look any better now than when I lived here.” Nora got out of the car and leaned back against the door.

“You used to live here?”

“Yup. Grew up in this house.” She pointed at the left side of the duplex.

“It’s...” Lance paused and Nora laughed.

“Shitville, USA?”

“I didn’t say that,” Lance raised his hand.

“You didn’t have to. Admittedly, it’s not like I grew up in the projects or anything. Just on the wrong the side of the tracks. Anyway, it’s not pretty. It’s worse on the inside.”

“Worse?”

“It’s probably the one bad neighborhood in this entire town. But no one lives here anymore. Not in the house or the neighborhood.”

She looked up and down the street and saw only a car or two parked and no signs of life.

“Why not?”

Nora started to answer but closed her mouth when the sound of an oncoming train started up in the distance. She smiled at Lance and put her hands in her jacket pockets.

“One...” she said, counting the seconds, “two...three...Brace yourself.”

At the end of the three, the train barreled past with ear-splitting loudness. Lance covered his ears but Nora only waited it out.

“What the fuck?” Lance lowered his hands from his ears.

“The railroad tracks are right behind the trees here. I grew up with that sound—every day and every night. I can still sleep through a hail storm because I grew up with that in my backyard.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Nora shook her head.

“Nope. A decade ago a train derailed about fifty yards that way.” She pointed east. “It was carrying some nasty chemicals on it. This entire neighborhood was evacuated. Lots of people moved out then and never moved back.”

“Is it safe to be here?”

“It’s clean now. But no one wants to live near the tracks.”

“I can’t blame them.” Lance kicked a rock in the front lawn.

“Me neither. It was nothing but plastic plates and plastic cups growing up. We literally could not have nice things in our house. They’d fall off the table and break into a thousand pieces. When I bought my house, the one you’ve been in, the first thing I did was buy a whole set of crystal glasses and vases and everything I could get my hands on, the more breakable the better. I like having things I can break, knowing they’ll only break when I want them to.”

“Not because you live right on the train tracks.”

“Exactly.”

“Were you happy here?” Lance stepped onto the sidewalk and Nora followed. So weird to be back in this neighborhood. So many memories came rushing over her that she felt she could drown in their murky depths.

“I did okay here,” she said. “I never learned how to ride a bike. I got one, a pink Schwinn, but it got stolen before I could learn to ride it. We couldn’t afford a new one. I cared more about motorcycles than bicycles by that point, anyway.”