Once Again
Page 21
9:32 AM
June 20, 2020 | 371 Nysa Vale Road
Erin woke with an arm flopped over her eyes and a leg thrown across Zac’s side of the bed. It took her a second to remember what day it was, the day of his presentation. He must have left hours ago, and he wouldn’t be home until the end of the day. She hoped it would go well for him, but she wouldn’t be surprised if he came home disappointed. He described his project to her as the quantum realm’s metaphor for the way human memory was a longing for timelessness. She wondered if it would be too much poetry for minds made of math.
She mulled, as she started to wake, about all the things she could do today. Anything she wanted. She and Korrie could take a little hike and gather some wildflowers for the house. And then tonight, it would be Zac’s night to cook, and they would have their butterfly pasta, always his first choice.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of guitar strumming. Zac had been teaching Korrie how to play “Blackbird” on his old Martin acoustic. The words were indistinct, and she thought Korrie would probably make up her own anyway. She was her own little composer, her own small symphony, her own harmonica whenever she laughed. It was probably time to take her to the music shop and buy her a guitar for her little hands.
“Squid?” Erin called to the other room.
“Mommy?” Thump, thump, thump. Little bare feet on the hardwood planks. And then the soaring lavender flurry of Korrie taking a flying leap to their bed in her sequined tulle tutu.
“Argh,” Erin groaned as Korrie landed on the comforter and rolled onto her stomach. Erin poked her ribs and stomach. Korrie giggled to the brink of hysteria. “What do you think you’re doing?” Erin said, still poking. “Are you flying? Is that what you’re up to?”
“Ah,” Korrie sighed, calming a bit and brushing the hair from her face.
“What’s our plan for today, m’lady?” Erin said.
Korrie put a finger up to her mouth. “I think … we should … um … build a skyscraper with an ice cream store at the very top.”
“Or,” Erin said, “we could go for a hike and pick some flowers so everything is beautiful when your daddy comes home.”
“Well,” Korrie said in her mock grown-up tone. “If you think we have enough time for such a thing.”
“I think we’re fine.” Erin smiled. “We’ve got time.”
Author Biography
Catherine Wallace Hope was born in Denver. In addition to studying creative writing and philosophy in Denver, she studied dance in New York and psychology in Los Angeles. After returning to Colorado, she became a longtime instructor at the renowned Lighthouse Writers Workshop, offering creativity workshops for writers starting in 2009. Currently, she and her family are living on an island in the Pacific Northwest where they serve at the pleasure of two astonishingly spoiled dogs.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Catherine Wallace Hope
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alcove Press, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Alcove Press and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-64385-481-6
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-64385-482-3
Cover design by Melanie Sun
Printed in the United States.
www.alcovepress.com
Alcove Press
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First Edition: October 2020
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