Arizona to Chicago
The heat in Arizona was a dry and hollow thing that scraped against the throat, but the air rolling off Lake Michigan into Hyde Park was alive. It was heavy with the scent of upcoming rain, fresh water, and the distinct, comforting exhaust of the Metra cutting through the neighborhood.
Ellie pulled her carry-on suitcase onto the sidewalk on 57th street, the wheels clacking rhythmically against the uneven pavement. For the last two years, she had lived in a sun-bleached apartment outside Phoenix staring at a blinking cursor that felt more like a mocking heartbeat than a career. She was a writer that couldn’t write. Every plot she touched felt forced, and characters escaped her mind refusing to return. Her literary agent’s emails went from enthusiastic to encouraging to polite finally going silent. This was a cruel reminder that she was no longer their star client.
She wasn’t here to think about her failed manuscripts, she was here for Dawn.
Dawn and Ellie had been inseparable since the second grade at Ray Elementary. They had shared everything, oversized scholastic book fair hauls, secret notes, and dreams of their futures. Dawn had always moved with effortless popularity while Ellie observed it all from the sidelines. Ellie hadn’t minded the position because it allowed her to catalogue details for stories she would one day write. Now, Dawn was getting married.
Ellie stopped at the iron gate of her childhood home. The gray stone house stood exactly as it always had. Her parents, Pearl and Steven DoRoe, had lived here for forty years. They were a weirdly functioning unit that legally divorced ten years ago. Still, they ate Sunday dinner together, bickered over who forgot to water the plants, and lived in a strange affectionate limbo that Ellie never truly understood.
The door creaked open before she could push the doorbell.
“Ellie bear.” Pearl said stepping onto the porch. Her gray streaked hair was pulled back into a claw clip. She wiped her hands on the floral apron she was wearing giving off the scent of yeast and garlic.
Steven stepped to the door holding a toaster and screwdriver. Warmth spread across his face as a smile opened his mouth.
“Look at you.You are entirely too pale for someone that lives in the desert.” Pearl noted, pulling Ellie back to arm’s length. Her eyes sweeping over her daughter with a mixture of love and concern. “Do they not have food in Arizona? Or did you just forget to eat when writing those chapters?”
“Definitely too pale.” Steven said.
“It’s good to see you too, dad.” Ellie laughed burying her face into his shoulder. The familiar smell of smoke and old newspaper grounding her. Stepping inside was like taking a step back in time. The hardwood floors groaned in the exact same spots and the living room walls were still lined with the miss matched bookshelves crowded with paperbacks from her childhood.
“Dinner is almost ready.” Pearl called out from the hallway already heading back to the kitchen. A rich savory aroma of spaghetti sauce was fighting through the scent of floor polish. “Go wash up, we are having dinner in the dining room and not the kitchen since this is a special occasion.”
Ellie dragged her suitcase to the foot of the stairs leaving it near the worn banister. As she walked to the main bathroom, the house seemed to echo her old typing marathons when her future felt like an open road of possibilities and not dead ends. She turned the faucet on, splashing her face with the cool water hoping to rinse some of the plane ride and depleting bank account off her face.
Dinner was just as slow and savory just as Pearl’s cooking. Ellie hadn’t understood what she was missing until she was asking for seconds. Hearing her parents laugh about random events that occurred since Ellie had been gone drained the last of her energy with each laugh. She did her best to hide yawns as her mother continued to speak about a woman in her book cub she was not fond of. Making eye contact with her father, She saw him nod before he let out a loud yawn. Ellie smiled.
“Now, why did you have to go make that unnecessary noise for a yawn?” Pearl tossed a napkin at Steven.
“Because that story about Deb is boring, and quite frankly putting me to sleep.”Steven pointed his finger to Ellie. “Our poor girl traveled all the way from Arizona to be with us and Dawn, but all you doing is keeping on about Deb.”
Pearl turned her head to Ellie, “Oh, Ellie bear, I’m sorry. Go on up to bed. I can yap this man’s ear off not yours”
“No, you won’t, my program is calling and last I checked you aren’t in that show.”
Ellie could no longer stay awake with her parents. She kissed them each then carried her suitcase up to her old bedroom. She smiled at the pictures that were still on her cork board, and her aged white desk covered with notebooks and an old printer. Feeling the exhaustion run over her again, she decided that her suitcase could wait until tomorrow.
The familiar smell of the detergent her mom loved cocooned her gently as sleep took over.
