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me. It was why I needed to go back this weekend. I had to do it. This winter wasn’t as cold as it could be and I wanted to sleep under the stars again.
    The couch cushion moved next to me and I opened my eyes.
    “That was such a beautiful day,” Maggie said, pointing at the photograph.
    “It looks like it was,” I said.
    “She’s my cousin and my best friend. I adore her,” she said and I could see by the look in her eyes that she meant her words.
    “I understand that,” I said.
    Maggie met my eyes. “Where are you from Karl?”
    “I’m from here and I’m from everywhere, just like everyone else.”
    She rolled her eyes and laughed.
    “What does that even mean?” she asked.
    “I don’t know. I just like to say it,” I said with a wink.
    She shook her head. “You’re strange.”
    “Thank you.”
    She laughed. “What do you do?”
    “What do I do?”
    “Yes, what do you do—other than repeat questions,” she asked with a crooked smile.
    “I work with Blake and his father’s roofing company. I’ve been there a couple weeks.”
    “Okay, what’d you do before that?” she asked.
    “I was in the military.”
    “Oh,” she said.
    There it is—the look where the person doesn’t know what to say next. Do they thank me for my service? Do they ask if I was overseas? Did I go to war? Do they ask if I killed someone? Did I have P.T.S.D? Each of those questions ran through her head and across her face.
    Instead of keeping the uncomfortable emptiness between us, I followed her lead of questioning. I hated asking what people did as a job.
    “What do you do?” I asked.
    She smiled. “I work at Smithson Advertising.”
    Pride filled her eyes when she spoke. I knew the confusion flashed through mine.
    “Is this something that makes you proud?” I asked.
    “Yes, it does. I worked hard to get my position. I love my job.”
    I hated her job. It represented everything wrong with the world. She worked at a place that pushed for profits based on manipulating the masses. They were the modern propaganda machine—influencing and changing the thoughts of people, just to make money off them.
    I sighed. I ran my hand through my hair and studied the ceiling as I held in my thoughts. I tried to hide my opinion from my face.
    “You don’t feel the same way, do you?” she asked. I failed at hiding my opinion from my face.
    I sighed again and laughed a bitter laugh. “No, I don’t see the value in the job after what I’ve seen in life. You know, trying to sell shitty food and clothes made by slave labor to overfed consumers doesn’t hold much appeal to me now.”
    Her jaw dropped open, and I shrugged before standing from the couch. I needed to leave before I said something I’d regret.

5
Maggie
Fall
    “Maggie Presley?” a woman in scrubs said from a doorway across the waiting room.
    I nodded and grabbed my bag to get my CD out. I rifled through it until I found it.
    “Oh, I forgot they let you bring these now,” Karl said, still sitting on the floor in front of me. He opened his bag and pulled out a disc of his own. “Do me a favor—listen to mine instead. I’m sure you picked out the perfect songs for wallowing as you lie in there, but these will be better.”
    I looked down at the disc and back up at him. I wasn’t sure if I should trust his choice in music for this venture, but as his smile warmed me, I decided to trust him . “Okay, but if this music pisses me off, I won’t let you down easy.”
    “Sounds good,” he said as he stood and took my hand to pull me up. Then he hugged me. His hug surprised me. Not because he did it, but my reaction to it. It felt like the hug of an old friend. It felt warm and welcoming—like an end of a storm. “Listen to the lyrics of the first one on there—listen to all of them, but that first one—that’s a good one for today.”
    I gave him a skeptical smile as he took my now vacant seat between my parents. “You’re staying?” I asked.
    “Yes, I