I opened the front door using a new key.
I’d imagined that homecoming countless times.
Yet walking from room to room, I realized I didn’t want to live there by myself.
Too many memories remained attached to those walls.
Instead, I returned to Opal and made an unexpected proposal.
“I want you to live with me.”
She lowered her knitting onto her lap.
“Rebecca, you don’t need to take care of me out of gratitude.”
“It’s not gratitude. It’s that with you, I learned to feel like I had family again.”
Opal looked down.
“And what if someday you get married or start a family of your own?”
“I’m already building one.”
She remained quiet before reaching for my hand.
“Then I’ll accept. But I want my own room, and I’m not giving up my walks.”
I laughed.
“Deal.”
We moved the following month.
