When Death Won't Take You

4: A night in a quiet house

Cinna stood outside the house on Moraga St. that she didn't live in. She used to live there, but she didn't live anywhere now. It was already dark. She had spent the day outside, wandering around quite aimlessly, but she didn't want to be outside all night, so she had turned to the only home she had ever known. 

With a determined look, Cinna crossed the lawn that used to be greener and more alive, and marched up to the front door. 

It was on the doorstep that she hesitated. She had no way of knowing if the couple she had seen here earlier would even let her in. They didn't know who she was, or anything about her. She could tell them the truth, but she didn't think that would help much.

She sighed, and knocked. 

----

It was 9 pm, and Charl had turned in for the night, already snoring plaintively in time to the ticking clock. Laurie, on the other hand, had been set on finishing her blanket, and had told herself she wouldn't go to bed until it was finished.  

The blanket wasn't finished yet, but Laurie could barely keep her eyes open, unusually tired. She finally gave up, letting them droop shut, when she heard a knock on their door.

She yawned, sat up, and shuffled out to the front door. When she opened it, she saw the same woman that had been in their backyard just that morning.

"Yes, what is it?" Laurie asked kindly. "Did you find the place you were looking for?"

"Yeah, but I don't have anywhere to stay tonight. I was just wondering...well..." The woman said, looking away. She looked sad, and Laurie felt an overwhelming need to help her.

"Oh! Come on in! We have an extra room you can stay in if you want." Laurie said, wrapping an arm around the woman and leading her inside the house.

As they walked through the living room, Laurie saw the woman eying the nearly-finished blanket that lay on the couch.

"A blanket." Laurie explained. "I was trying to finish it tonight since I wanted to start on the next thing tomorrow."

"Next thing?" The woman asked.

"Mm-hm, I was going to make a hat next. I'll be having a baby in March."

"Mm," The woman said, nodding her head a little.

Laurie rushed ahead of the woman to a door a little ways off. She threw it opened and ushered the woman inside.

"You can sleep in the bed in here...what's your name?" Laurie asked.

"Cinna," The woman said.

"Okay, Cinna. Just stay here for the night. It's really no trouble. Come join us for breakfast tomorrow, too! Charl will be making his specialty omelets!" Laurie rushed over to her room, which was just down the hall from the room she had shown Cinna, and entered, calling before she disappeared into the room: "If you need anything just wake me up!"

Cinna walked into the small room that used to be hers. Her bed was still there, just how she had left it, even after all these years. The days she had spent in here, avoiding her parents, had been endless and lonely. Ethel and Tadashi had been her only break from the despondent solitude, and probably the only reason she had stayed sane. Now Tadashi was gone. Hopefully Ethel was still alive, though she probably didn't live in the same place she used to, and Cinna had no other way to contact her. She'd try tomorrow, but she was despairing of it after her disappointment earlier.

She opened her old dresser that was somehow still there, and pulled out some of her old pajamas. They would probably be a little small, but she wasn't a lot taller now then she was four years ago, so they should still work.

After changing into the old, faded pajamas, she got into bed and slept, her sleep no calmer than it had been four years ago, the same nightmares that had haunted her came back with full force, waking her up many times, sweating and alone, in the quiet house on Moraga St..