How to Build a House (20 page)

Authors: Dana Reinhardt

BOOK: How to Build a House

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Teddy comes over and pulls me onto the dance floor. It’s a slow song. He wraps both his arms around me and we hardly move.

The only thing around us, above us, is sky. Cathedrals in time have no walls. They have no roof.

“Guess who called me today?” he asks.

“The admissions director at UCLA. He called to say they’re holding a spot for you, but the dorms are full, so you’ll have to live at my house.”

“Nice guess.” He pats my back. “No college this year. Next year for sure. But this year is about the clinic. And …” He pulls back and looks at me with a big expectant smile.

“And … what?”

“Phantom called. They have a gig next week at a club in Nashville and he wants me to play. I start rehearsal the day after tomorrow.”

The music has changed from slow and quiet to loud and frenetic, but I hardly hear it. Right at this moment there is nothing here, nobody but Teddy.

“Who’s the man?” he asks.

“You are.” I tighten my arms around him.

We’ve already said our goodbyes, even though we still have tonight. We still have the morning. There’s breakfast. There’s the time it’ll take to pack up the car. I’ve said goodbye to Teddy and it feels good to have that out of the way so that now I can just look at his face and take pleasure in how much he’s looking forward to next week. The good things that will still be here after I’m gone.

We’ve made promises. We’ll talk. We’ll write. He’ll come visit me after the clinic is built. The truck can make the trip, he swears. He likes long drives. He’s always wanted to see the Painted Desert. It’s a bit out of the way, but so what? I can come visit, anytime I want. His family loves me, he says.

I tell him Cole would like him, and Dad too. There’s a Mexican restaurant that will blow him away. The ocean is warm enough for swimming only in the summer; it’s a common misconception that Californians go to the beach all year round. I’ve heard about this club on Fairfax that has great music, and I’ll be eighteen soon enough, so I’ll be able take him there. Pavlov likes to hike in the mountains and sometimes we see rattlesnakes. Teddy should make sure to bring his boots.

I’d like to believe all this. That our plans will happen. That we’ll meet again, in the Painted Desert or high in the mountains of Ecuador. I’d like to believe that we’re just beginning to build something, and that we’ll make it happen. I
do
believe it. At least, I do tonight.

HOME

We’re crossing over the Mississippi River.

We’ve left Tennessee for Arkansas.

I’m looking at the map, big and unruly across my legs. Tess is driving. Rose is stretched out in the backseat. We have only four more states to travel through before we reach California.

“What is this crap?” asks Tess.

She’s referring, of course, to Jesus radio.

“Trust me,” I say. “Just give it a chance.”

I think about my trip here, how I looked out the window and watched the earth changing color. I’ll get to see it now in reverse. It’s still summer; the landscape won’t be much different. Those greens and browns and reds are waiting. Even in this era of climatic crisis, change takes place slowly, not over the course of twelve weeks.

I’m looking forward to the trip. To taking our time. To seeing the things you can’t see from thirty-five thousand feet.

I turn up the radio.

It’s still early enough in the day to have our windows down. I try to fold up the map, but the wind keeps whipping it around. You have to be some kind of structural engineer to figure out how to return it to its rectangular shape, so I bunch it up and throw it into the backseat at Rose, who grumbles about trying to sleep.

We don’t really need the map. Home is pretty much a straight shot from here.

One way or another, we’ll find the road back.

About the Author

Dana Reinhardt lives in San Francisco with her husband and their two daughters. She is the author of two previous novels,
A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life
and
Harmless
.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Wendy Lamb Books and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this work as follows: Reinhardt, Dana.
How to build a house / Dana Reinhardt.
p. cm.
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Harper Evans hopes to escape the effects of her father’s
divorce on her family and friendships by volunteering her summer to build a house in a
small Tennessee town devastated by a tornado.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89388-9
[1. Building—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Divorce—Fiction.
4. Stepfamilies—Fiction. 5. Voluntarism—Fiction. 6. Tennessee—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.R2753 How 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2007033403