My high was meeting Mila.

Thank you, I’d told them. I’m so lucky.

You’re lucky to be here with me, Blake had said.

___

And the dark night, hour after hour, on and on and on.

____________

I woke up alone. Tap-tap of rain on the tin roof. So cold I kept the blanket around my shoulders as I crossed to the stove. I crumpled the newsprint and lit the match. I checked the latch as I always did before leaving the cabin.

In the bathroom, I hung the blanket on the hook, stepped out of my pajamas. I stood before the mirror, expecting to see bruises on my shoulders where my mother had dug her fingers in and shaken.

But my skin was only my skin. No evidence of heartbreak.

I showered and watched the steam rise.

And then, a little later, after I had returned to my cabin, after the rain had stopped and the sun had come out, after I had dressed and combed my hair, I opened my door and saw them.

Liz and Billy. Terry and Julia. Lee. Each of them held a bouquet of flowers. They wore sadness plainly on their faces.

I gripped the doorframe.

What was this thing, swallowing me whole?

“It’s grief,” Terry said.

And I wept.

Liz drew me close. Billy wrapped his arms around me. Lee took my hand in his. I heard a sound, muffled at first, until Billy and Liz let me go and I realized it was Julia, speaking.

“A gift,” she said, and placed a small box in my hand.

Here it was, just as I’d hoped. But I was living in a haunted place. I understood the ghosts now, but what else might I discover? So many ways, still, to be hurt. How was I to know what was right?

The box was soft velvet. It fit perfectly in my hand. But the ache in my body, the traces of blood. The ash and the tricks.

Gold earrings, stabbed into my ears.

Gold bracelets, dangling from their wrists.

“Go ahead,” Liz said. “Open it.”

I broke the seal and lifted the lid.

There it was.

I was in the doorway. Inside was my cabin, small and warm. Outside they were waiting in the new, bright morning.

Soon, I thought, one of them would fasten the bracelet around my wrist. They would claim me, whether I wanted to be claimed or not.

But they stood perfectly still. No one reached for the bracelet. No one took my wrist in their hand. They waited for me, holding flowers. And I searched their faces, one and then the next.

Found I loved them almost more than I could bear.

“Mila,” Julia said. “Wear this if you want to. Only if you want to. This can be your home forever, if you want it to be.”