Chapter 8 - The Spare Room
Years passed.
Lily left for college.
The night before, she sat in Emily's old spare room.
Daniel found her there.
“What's up?”
“I don't want to go.”
He smiled.
“You've spent six months complaining you can't wait to leave.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Allowed.”
“What if I hate it?”
“Come home.”
“What if I fail?”
“Come home.”
“What if I like it and don't want to come home?”
Daniel's heart hurt.
“Then come visit.”
She smiled.
Emily joined them.
Lily looked around.
“This is where you lived?”
“Yes.”
“It looks smaller.”
“It was smaller.”
“No, literally.”
Daniel frowned.
“We put a larger dresser in.”
Lily rolled her eyes.
Then she touched the wall.
“You know I checked if you were weird.”
Emily laughed.
“You were right to.”
“I decided too early.”
They hugged.
The next morning, Daniel and Emily drove Lily to college.
Victor followed in another car despite being explicitly told not to bring security.
He claimed coincidence.
Nobody believed him.
At the dorm, Daniel fixed a desk.
Emily made the bed.
Victor attempted to bribe a student assistant into finding Lily a better parking space.
Emily caught him.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“No.”
Victor sighed.
“Fine.”
At eighty, he was still learning.
They left.
Daniel cried in the car.
Emily drove.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Fair.”
Same answer.
Same tone.
Years earlier, he'd given it to her.
Now she gave it back.
That night the house was quiet.
Too quiet.
Daniel stood outside the spare room.
Emily joined him.
“Rent it again?”
He looked horrified.
“To strangers?”
She laughed.
“You did it once.”
“I've learned.”
Instead, they converted it into a study for Lily when she visited.
Then eventually a room for grandchildren.
Not yet.
But someday.
The aggressively beige wallpaper stayed.
May you like
Lily insisted.
History deserved some ugly things preserved.
