Parents nearby Stories

The house was quiet in that heavy, late-summer way—crickets outside, the low hum of the air conditioner, the faint creak of old floorboards settling. Her parents’ bedroom door was closed at the end of the hall, maybe twenty feet from hers. They’d gone to bed early after the long drive back from campus, after hugging her too long in the driveway, after carrying her duffel upstairs like she was still eighteen instead of twe...