Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 40 of 70

By the end of the week Lymber knew the small brick house was full. Violetta had her room. Jett had the bassinet in the corner of hers and Paul's. The kitchen table held the mail, the bottles, the puppy's leash, and Paul's work boots when he came in muddy. Lymber tried to sit at the table one afternoon with a notebook and a pen. She wanted to write a list. Groceries, appointments, the thank-you cards she still owed. Violetta climbed into her lap. The puppy chewed the pen cap. Paul walked through with Jett on his shoulder and asked where the bottle brush was. Lymber closed the notebook. She thought, I have no room in this house that is mine. Not one corner where I can think a full thought. She told Paul that night after the kids were down. She said she needed a place to plan. A desk. A door that shut. Paul sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his jaw. He said, This house has three doors and all of them have a kid behind one. Lymber said she knew. Paul said, Then we move. Lymber laughed at first. Then she saw his face. He said, I got a raise last month. I didn't tell you because I wanted to surprise you with something. Look at listings tomorrow. Same price range. Bigger house. She looked the next morning while Jett napped. Most were too far or too small or too much. Then she found one down the street, still walking distance to her mother's. Five bedrooms. Two offices. A room the listing called a kids' room, painted bright, with low shelves already built in. Dark siding, big windows, a garage. The price matched what they were paying now because the owners wanted a fast sale before winter. Lymber called Paul at work. He drove over on his lunch break and walked through it with her while Polly kept the kids. He stood in the smaller of the two offices, the one at the back with a window facing the yard, and said, This one is yours. Put a lock on it if you want. They signed the papers on Friday. They moved on Sunday with Polly's help and a borrowed truck. Violetta cried once when they carried her bed out, and Lymber knelt and told her the picture on her wall was coming too, and the puppy was coming, and Daddy and Mommy and Jett. Violetta held the picture herself in the truck. In the new house, Paul set up Violetta's room first so she could see her name on the wall by dark. That night Lymber walked into the back office alone. She shut the door. She sat at the empty desk and opened her notebook. She wrote the date at the top of a blank page. Then she wrote her list. Nobody knocked. Nobody climbed her lap. She finished the list and turned the page.