Laura’s First Night Alone
Chapter 17 - Laura’s First Night Alone
The court ended Laura’s financial supervision two years after the engagement party.
The independent evaluation found her fully capable of managing her life and property.
Miriam asked how she wanted to celebrate.
Laura chose one night alone in her own house.
Ethan worried.
Grace worried more.
Laura smiled.
“You may both call once. Not twelve times.”
That evening, she cooked tomato soup.
She chose an old movie.
She locked the front door.
For several minutes, the click of the lock made her chest tighten. In the facilities, locked doors had always belonged to someone else.
She touched the brass key hanging beside the door.
Then she reminded herself she could open it whenever she wished.
The fear passed.
At nine, Ethan called.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
At nine-oh-two, Grace called.
“Did Ethan already call?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t count as mine.”
Laura laughed.
After the movie, she opened the cedar chest containing her letters.
She read the first one she had written to Ethan.
Then one to Grace.
She did not read them all.
She did not need to prove strength by enduring every painful page.
She selected two letters and placed them on the table.
The rest returned to the chest.
Choice, she had learned, was not always a grand legal declaration.
Sometimes it was deciding what to remember tonight and what could wait until morning.
She slept with the lights off.
When she woke, sunlight filled the room.
No one had entered.
May you like
No one had made a decision for her.
Laura made coffee and opened the door because she wanted to.
