Chapter 13 - THE WOMAN WHO FINALLY WENT HOME
Z
Isabella returned to college the following autumn.
She was twenty-nine.
Older than many of her classmates.
More cautious.
And sometimes frightened by things that other students barely noticed.
Crowded hallways.
Sudden noises.
Strangers standing too close.
But she went anyway.
She studied social work.
Her professors knew about her interrupted education.
They didn't know every detail of her past.
She wanted it that way.
For years, other people had defined her by what happened to her.
Now she was learning to introduce herself by what she wanted to become.
Lucia enrolled at a university in New Jersey.
She decided to study chemistry.
The sisters spoke every Sunday.
Sometimes they laughed.
Sometimes they cried.
Sometimes Lucia grew angry about the years she'd lost.
Isabella listened.
She didn't ask her to hurry through grief.
She had spent too much of her own life being told to move on.
One afternoon, Isabella visited the old Costa family property.
The original house had been sold after the fire.
A new family lived there.
She didn't knock.
She simply stood across the street and looked at the windows.
She remembered her mother brushing Lucia's hair.
Her father reading the newspaper.
The smell of fresh bread in the kitchen.
For a moment, grief rose so sharply that she couldn't breathe.
Then someone approached.
Derek.
He stopped beside her.
“You okay?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
He nodded.
“Want company?”
“Yes.”
They stood together.
After a while, Isabella whispered, “I thought coming back would make me feel better.”
Derek looked toward the house.
“Does it?”
“A little.”
She wiped her eyes.
“But it also hurts.”
He nodded.
“I understand.”
For the first time, she believed him.
Not because their losses were the same.
They weren't.
But because he no longer tried to compare them.
That evening, Derek took her to a bookstore.
They wandered through narrow aisles.
Isabella found a collection of essays about homelessness and public policy.
Derek found an old book about New York harbor history.
She looked at him.
“Still reading about shipping?”
He smiled.
“Old habits.”
“Dangerous ones.”
He laughed.
Then grew serious.
“Bella?”
She looked up.
“Yes?”
“Do you ever think about what comes next?”
She considered.
“Every day.”
“And?”
She smiled sadly.
“I want a small apartment. Finish school. Help people who haven't had the support I've had recently.”
He nodded.
“That sounds good.”
She looked at him.
“And you?”
Derek considered.
“I want to keep making choices I can live with.”
She studied him.
“That's a start.”
He smiled.
“High praise.”
She laughed.
Then reached for his hand.
It was the first time she'd done so without being asked.
Derek looked down.
Then back at her.
May you like
He smiled.
And for a moment, the world seemed wonderfully ordinary.
