Lara stood and was dizzy. Suddenly, she was good and drunk. She swiveled around and spotted her house high up on the bluff. The moon illuminated the slate roof, the weathered shingles. The long grass that furred the dune rippled in the wind. She started for home, weaving.

The climb up the bluff, normally so natural for Lara, felt endless. Her bare feet clawed the crumbling sand as she took each step, her body leaden. She retched, staggered forward, and lay down. Sensing sleep coming on, she forced herself to get up. She had lost her sandals and her mother’s shawl. The house was unlocked. She climbed upstairs on all fours, reached her room, and collapsed onto the bed, her eyes open. The room revolved in ghostly transparency. Soon it would evaporate. If Olivia sold the house to the Palacios, she’d move back to Paris, send Lara back to boarding school. The children of Alex and Mac would sleep in this room. Lara wondered if Teddy’s spirit could come with her wherever she went, or if he would be stuck here. She would have to live for the two of them now. She wondered why God let such bad things happen in the world. Maybe he couldn’t help it. She felt sorry for God then, imagining how sad he must be about Teddy. It must be terrible to be God and yet powerless to save a little boy. She heard her mother’s car in the drive, Olivia and Hull’s footsteps running up the stairs, their voices calling her name. As her eyes fluttered shut, Lara murmured, “Goodbye, old house,” and then, a smile rising to curl the very edges of her mouth, “Hello…” Sliding into a dream, she read the words “new life,” in green paint, on a gray-shingled wall.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my agent, Sarah Chalfant, and my editor, Jonathan Galassi, for shepherding these stories over many years; my early readers, Barbara Browning and Michael Ray, for the writing advice; and my beloved Daniel, Ronan, Cashel, and Gabriel, for everything.

Also by Rebecca Miller

ALSO BY REBECCA MILLER

NOVELS

Jacob’s Folly

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

STORIES

Personal Velocity

FILMS

Angela

Personal Velocity

The Ballad of Jack and Rose

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Maggie’s Plan

Arthur Miller: Writer

A Note About the Author

Rebecca Miller is the author of the short-story collection Personal Velocity, her feature-film adaptation of which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and the novels The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (FSG, 2008), which she also adapted for the screen, and Jacob’s Folly (FSG, 2013). Her other films include Angela, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and Maggie’s Plan. She lives in New York with her family. You can sign up for email updates here.

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