The memories would often come with a strong mixture of revulsion and nostalgia. The Fancy Moose on Friday nights, and Club Paris for special occasions, lying alone on a ratty brown sofa for days while the snow caked itself around the tin box they called a house. Juno had begged Kregger to take her home, home to civilization and chain fast food. Home to the glamorous hot squalor of New Mexico. They’d stuck it out for the year—due process, as Kregger called it. The last time she had felt truly claustrophobic was in Anchorage, Alaska, from 1977 to 1978.

And then there was now.

The brother being in the house was bad—bad for everyone, but mostly bad for Juno, who had taken to hiding. She didn’t like him; she could agree with Nigel on that. For one thing, he never left the house—lurking in the family room and downstairs in Nigel’s den until late, keeping Juno up with his drunk laughter. He pretended to leave the house in the mornings under the guise of “beating the pavement to look for work” but he really snuck back in shortly after the family left. Since Dakota had arrived, they’d taken to leaving the alarm off during the day, which was less of a hassle for her to come and go, she supposed.

Dakota only cried now when he got off the phone with his wife. And with tears like that, she was fairly certain Manda wasn’t taking him back. She’d seen him passed out on the sofa once, a dozen mini bottles scattered around the remote like confetti. He must have cleaned it all up by the time Nigel got home because she didn’t hear explosive yelling. He was taking advantage of their charity and making no attempt at all to find a job, despite what he told his sister and brother-in-law. And Juno found herself claustrophobic, desperate to get away and breathe fresh air. He was imposing but stupid. A giant, looming dummy. When Winnie conversed with him she crooned, and when Nigel spoke to him he bit down and spoke through his teeth. Sam avoided his uncle altogether. From what Juno pieced together, there’d been a fight a couple years ago, well before she’d moved in. Sam had witnessed the whole thing. Nigel had taken flak from the family, being that Dakota was a guest in his house at the time, though an unwelcome one even then, and Winnie had sided with them, staying with her sister for a week and taking Sam with her.