Brooke Jennett

After his dad had died, he had a hard time connecting with any of them.

And after the second one left in the middle of the night, he knew it wouldn't have been worth it anyway.

I asked him what he meant by left.

I felt the hair on my neck start to stand on end.

In the tornado shelter?

My head was swimming.

Was all that strange shit from a ghost?

It couldn't be.

Right?

They didn't exist.

I mean, I'd had a reasonable explanation for everything that I'd experienced the night before, didn't I?

I couldn't help but laugh with him.

A cross-country bus trip is fun for nobody.

It was clear that Agnes had lived quite the life in this little town.

I asked what happened after that.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was dead wrong about stroke victims not having daily stress.

But he seemed comforted by the fact that his mom wasn't overburdened by her rough life and was being taken care of.

Why ruin the illusion for him?

So I told him we all deal with our hardships in our own way.

He took another sip from his mug and then put it down and said he'd better get to work before the rain came in.