She went up the stairs slowly, pausing at each step to rub her back. The music became louder as she neared the top, although the lyrics of the song became no clearer. These kids today, she thought, hating herself for it. In recent months she'd found her brain aging faster than her body, becoming that of the sixty-year-old woman she would be now if she'd never met Reverend Crane twenty years ago.
At the top of the stairs, she leaned against a wall to catch her breath before going on. She passed Joseph's old bedroom, still with the Einstein poster on the door. She wanted to go inside there and sink down on the bed they had once shared, where she'd lost her virginity for the second time. First, she needed to turn down that damned music.
Samantha opened the door to the guest bedroom and bit down on her lip to keep from crying out. Two young women were tangled up in the sheets of the bed, kissing each other like lovers. The pale, chubby flesh of one woman seemed familiar, though not the spiky black hair. Samantha didn't recognize the Asian girl she was kissing. This Asian girl spotted Samantha in the doorway and scrambled backwards, covering herself with a sheet. The pale girl turned around, what color there was in her cheeks draining away. She reached over to turn off the music. "Hello Samantha," she said, covering herself with a blanket. "I forgot you were coming today."
"Hello Rebecca," Samantha said. "I, uh, let myself in when no one answered the door."
"Oh. This is Callie," Rebecca said, motioning to her friend. Callie gave a shy wave. "Her parents bought the old Seafarer after Mrs. Milton died. Callie, this is my cousin Samantha. She's the one I told you about."
"Beck has said a lot of nice things about you," Callie said. "It's nice to finally see you."
"It's good to meet you too," Samantha said. She felt a brief pang of sadness for old Mrs. Milton, thinking of the day she'd spent there with Miss Brigham twenty years earlier.
A small hand tugged at the hem of Samantha's loose-fitting blouse. "Mommy, the car is boring."
Samantha scooped the little girl off the floor, ignoring the protests from her back. "I told you to stay in the car," Samantha said. She turned to Rebecca and Callie. "She takes too much after her mother in getting into trouble. Don't you?" She tickled the little girl until she giggled. "Say hello to your cousin Rebecca. Rebecca, this is Jackie."
"Hello Jackie," Rebecca said in a small voice.
"I guess we'd better let you two have a little privacy," Samantha said. Rebecca only nodded as Samantha closed the door and then carried little Jackie downstairs to the living room. She finally sank down onto the couch and turned on the television, flipping channels until she found an old cartoon to entertain her daughter.