“I don’t want a phone,” Poppy said. “I mean I have one…” She pulled out her ancient Nokia flip phone to show Dawn. “But I hardly use it.”

“That’s admirable I suppose, but why? I thought everyone your age loved their phones.”

“I’ve seen too many tourists get lost in their devices. Half the time they don’t even know they’re in a beautiful place.” That sounded good, but it wasn’t the real reason Poppy didn’t have a phone: she liked being disconnected. It made her feel weightless somehow to be anywhere and nowhere.

“Well, we were all very concerned. Could you imagine if something had happened to you, too? That’s what we were all thinking—not that we don’t believe you can manage on your own. You’ve always been a free spirit, that’s what your mom called you. I think she was a little jealous, if you want to know the truth. Connie was a free spirit, too. I think that’s where you got it from. She was one of those people who never cared if her earrings matched.”

Poppy laughed. It was true. She followed Dawn to her Dodge Avenger in the airport parking lot, feeling like a kid again. It was Dawn who’d taken her out for pizza at Zaffiro’s when she was a senior in high school so they could talk about drugs after Poppy had been busted at Mike Lassiter’s house snorting coke in the bathroom. A few years later, it was Dawn who’d called her in Costa Rica and begged her, on behalf of her parents, to come back home and finish college. But Dawn’s efforts to intervene had failed, and Poppy was glad about that. It wasn’t always easy, but she wouldn’t have traded her years as a vagabond. She’d found adventure and community and many moments of deep contentment, although now she realized that part of what made her adventuring possible and exciting was the knowledge that she always had a home to return to. Now that home was just an empty house.

Poppy’s hoodie was thin and her jeans were ripped. The air was bitingly cold and made her jaw ache as though she’d just rebroken it. She was miserable, but she would have felt even worse without Dawn’s constant chatter. It soothed her, and kept her from thinking about what she was in for.

“I can’t imagine coming back here after, well, after everything. Such wonderful people, your parents. I couldn’t have gotten through my whole breast cancer ordeal without your mom.”

“You had breast cancer?”

“Not too bad. Stage two. No big whoop.”

“I didn’t know,” Poppy said. “I’m sorry.”